Mix it up: Nothing beats a hotel for glamour and good conversation June 23, 2015 London’s best hotel bars can be intimidating places. A wasted youth of chatting about real ale (before it was fashionable) at town hall festivals didn’t prepare me for the pomp of a decent hotel bar. Years ago, I just about got through the door of the American Bar at The Savoy dressed in my best [...]
London is about to get its second cat café Ginger and Tom’s in West Hampstead – and this time it’s jungle-themed June 22, 2015 Cat lovers will be purring at the prospect of London's second cat-themed café opening its doors later this year – and this time it's jungle-themed. Ginger and Tom's café is due to open at a site in West Hampstead in October. Read more: London now has its own £1 café It's being set up by Anna Kogan Nasser who [...]
Inside the world of mine clearance: TDI’s Hugh Morris talks booby traps, Islamic State and why trust really matters June 21, 2015 There are 110m unexploded mines in the world today. And that’s the number under the ground – it doesn’t include those being stored, transported or created. “The saddest thing about Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya is that this is destruction on repeat,” says Hugh Morris, founder and managing director of landmine clearance company The Development Initiative [...]
Savour 2015: The foodie revolution arrives in the Maldives at Coco Bodu Hithi June 21, 2015 The Coco Residences set out in a circle formation at Coco Bodu Hithi A friend once told me, in total bafflement, about a couple who left their honeymoon in The Maldives early. They were bored, she said, in the midst of the Indian Ocean, so changed their plans and spent the rest of their [...]
Britain’s hottest startups grew six times the rate of UK businesses June 19, 2015 Britain’s hottest startups are fuelling economic growth and job creation, growing at six times the rate of the rest of the UK’s businesses. The Future Fifty, a group of the country’s brightest and most promising high-growth tech businesses identified by Tech City UK, increased their workforce by 30 per cent in the last year, compared [...]
Cheap and cheerful: Your quick guide to low cost passive investments June 18, 2015 More and more people are shunning active fund managers and choosing to buy cheap “passive” market-tracking investments instead. The amount of money invested in these low cost alternatives has nearly doubled over the last ten years. Now 12 per cent of all money put into funds is invested in passives, according to the Investment [...]
Go West and get tech: This is why firms should ditch London for Bristol and Bath June 17, 2015 You do not need to move to London to get your dream tech job. In fact, not doing so is going to make your life a lot easier. Too many people feel they have to move somewhere like the capital and put up with expensive, cramped living conditions to get their foot on the [...]
Finsbury Food buys Just Desserts June 16, 2015 FINSBURY Food Group, which supplies baked goods to leading national coffee shop chains, has completed its acquisition of Just Desserts, saving the group from administration. Tom MacLennan and Geoff Rowley, partners at restructuring firm FRP Advisory, sold Johnstone’s Just Desserts, known for its caramel shortcake, to Finsbury, after the East Kilbride-based company went into administration [...]
London Technology Week: Tech City is an awesome success story combining the best of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, New York and DC June 16, 2015 I emigrated from Silicon Valley a little more than ten years ago to work at a very young startup at the time, Skype. It was so new then that I spent months correcting friends’ pronunciation of the company name from Skype-ee to Skype. At that time I was exasperated at the dearth of candidates for [...]
London Technology Week: The hunt for London’s unicorn tech startups June 15, 2015 There's no doubting the impressive numbers rolling out of London Tech Week. There’s also no lack of people willing to shout about these impressive feats, whether it be entrepreneurs, investors, economists, or the mayor himself. More than a dozen of London’s tech types today gathered near the summit of the Shard to kick off London [...]