If you work long hours in a job that doesn’t fulfill you, if you have ideas for starting your own business and aren’t afraid to relocate to make it happen –  then this could be the an opportunity you can’t afford to miss.

They’re looking for aspirational families who have the assets and the attitude to grasp new opportunities – to radically change their career, their home and with that, their standard of living.

Their team of experts will value your life – everything from your house to your car to your Jimmy Choos. They’ll reveal how much it’s actually worth and how you can spend that money to start a whole new happier lifestyle for you and your family. Not only will you be presented with these plans, you will also get the opportunity to really experience what making these life changes would be like.

If this sounds like you and you’d like more information on how to get involved then please contact Helen Soothill on hsoothill@truenorth.tv or0113 394 5497.

There are nine slots for attendees to present along whatever theme they like (as long as it involves WordPress) and take questions from the floor.

This is the second in a series of planned one-day events, following on from Blacknight WordUp Edinburgh 2011, which will take place across Scotland in the next 12 months.

http://wordup.wpscotland.org/glasgow2012/

• There are over 150 companies hiring at SiliconMilkRoundabout this weekend with over 500 technical jobs up for grabs at London start ups (with salaries from £20k to £100k

• There are 3,134 Graduate technical jobs available in the UK and over 1,000 in London currently listed on Adzuna.co.uk, the UK’s most comprehensive job search engine.

• The average Banking IT salary is £57k which is 19% higher than the average tech start up salary. Tech startups offer greater job satisfaction and the upside of options, but this salary gap is what the start hiring community is up against.

• 23% of start ups currently hiring in London are offering stock to graduate tech employees; 0% of banks hiring graduates are offering stock.

• Despite their age, workhorse languages such as C and C++ continue to remain at the top end of the software development landscape in terms of use and job potential. That being said, Ruby, Hadoop and HTML5 are the fastest growing “in demand” tech skills with employer demand up 70%+ year on year for all of these search terms

• Graduate Mobile developers can demand a premium, with the average graduate salary for iPhone developers at £34k and Android developers at £35k, 20% higher than the average graduate tech job.

• Despite what appears to be an abundance of tech jobs in the UK, 13.1% of computer science graduates remain unemployed (source: HESA). 7,000+ computer scientists graduated this summer from University in the UK.

The folks over at Informatics Ventures have kicked off a new series of talks to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. It’s called … iVenture Tuesdays!

First up is Sir Tom Farmer – founder of Kwik-Fit, one of the World’s largest automotive parts repair and replacement specialists. He has spent all of his working life in the Tyre and Automotive industry.

You can sign up here: http://iventuretuesday.eventbrite.com

Their next meetup is going to be next Wed (I know, it’s on the same night as Glasgow Techmeetup and an E-Club event as well). It’s going to be at Three Sisters down on Cowgate.

The presenter is Chris Wright, CEO of the new Edinburgh startup Game Analytics.

You can get tickets here: http://igdascotlandedinburgh.eventbrite.com/

You can see the full programme of events here:

http://www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/about/school-events

This year, I’m particularly pleased to see E-Club teaming up with MBM Commercial to produce a series of talks by local entrepreneurs about their success story. The series kicks off with Chris Tiso from Tiso Clothing, followed by Dr Aydin Kurt-Elli, CEO of Lumison.

E-Club events are free to attend but you are recommended to register beforehand. Events are held at the Business School just off Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh.

The event is on 16th September, starting at 3pm at InSpace. Here are the details below:

[Copied from http://momoedisep11.eventbrite.com/]

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As you may already be aware the Vodafone Foundation have set up the Smart Accessibility Awards:

http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/

These awards are to celebrate apps that help people in four key areas: Social participation, independent living, mobility and well-being. They are free to enter and there is a prize fund of €200,000. The awards are now open for entries until 15 October 2011.

As part of this initiative, alongside our friends at Mobile Monday London, we’ve teamed up with the ICT KTN and Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards to bring you a half-day workshop looking specifically at this area.

The goal of the workshops is to inspire and enable app developers and entrepreneurs to create useful tools for people who have visual, aural, cognitive or other impairments by helping you understand and empathize what life is like for people in this situation. This empathy and understanding is created by bringing together app developers, entrepreneurs and accessibility advocates and people with impairments to exchange information, and allowing developers to experience simulations of being impaired.

App developers who have had the opportunity to experience as directly as possible, first or second-hand, what it means to live with specific impairments, and have been put in touch with the larger community around accessibility, create more effective apps to better the quality of life for everyone. The result not only helps people with major disabilities, but also people with minor or temporary impairments, for example due to ageing or illness.

The format of the workshops will be discussion based and there will be technical people on hand to answer specific questions related to Android, but there will be different speakers and contributors to reflect the local scene. Plenty of time will be allowed for discussion and networking and refreshments will be provided. For more detail please see our google group:

https://groups.google.com/group/momoedinburgh

We will be announcing our speakers over the next few days. Jonathan Anderson from Vodafone will be joining the session. Doors will open at 3pm for a 3.30pm start and we’ll be finishing around 8pm. The venue is Inspace on the corner of Crichton Street and Potterrow.

This workshop is kindly hosted by Informatics Ventures and Inspace, and is in association with Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards, ICTKTN and Interactive Scotland.
PS. As is normal the attendee list will be shared with the supporting organisations:

• Vodafone Smart Accessibility Awards. These are a new global awards to celebrate apps that help people in four key areas: Social participation, independent living, mobility and well-being. They are free to enter and there is a prize fund of €200,000. The awards are now open for entries until 15 October 2011.
• ICT KTN: http://www.ictktn.org.uk. The ICT Knowledge Transfer Network has been established by an industry-led group of leading players, with funding from the Technology Strategy Board. We seek to bring competitive advantage to the UK by promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing between the users and providers of Information and Communications Technologies, and helping to drive innovation in the sector. It’s free to join our network.
• Interactive Scotland: http://www.interactivescotland.com. Interactive Scotland provides expert help and support for SME’s across the digital media sector in Scotland.  Interactive Scotland has been developed by Scottish Enterprise to drive growth in this important sector and support ‘Digital Inspiration’ – the strategy for Scotland’s digital media industry.  The service is delivered for Scottish Enterprise by Innovation Centres Scotland and NewMedia Partners.
  
• Informatics Ventures: http://www.informatics-ventures.com. Informatics Ventures was established to nurture Scottish entrepreneurial talent and fuel innovation in the high tech sector. Our mission is to inspire and develop globally ambitious software start-ups across Scotland. Informatics Ventures connects high tech entrepreneurs and investors with the next generation of innovators, bringing together the people in business, academia and Government who are passionate about creating software and web companies. Our networking and showcase events are the perfect way to build links and share ideas between the people who are passionate about creating software and web companies.
  
• Inspace: http://www.inspace.ed.ac.uk. The University of Edinburgh’s Inspace is a laboratory that explores the cultural significance of informatics and new media practice. Inspace is home to a joint research partnership between the School of Informatics and New Media Scotland.

Places are limited, though  the hosts, UCL Advances and LAUNCH.ed  are working on expanding the space to make room for more attendees.

Register for free at:

http://turing-mini-leancamp.eventbrite.com/

In a sentence, Lean Startup Machine is a 48 hour, intense course on learning the latest startup methodologies to help you validate the assumptions behind your business idea. This will help you create a scalable product-driven business: perfect if you’re a contractor and want to get the skills to create new products.

http://lsmedi.eventbrite.com/

Backed by some great people – including Albert Wenger (investor in Twitter, Etsy, Tumblr and Foursquare) who will be there in person to give teams advice.

In addition, if you have a team that you’re working with on an idea, there’s a hefty team discount available (£230 for a whole team of up to 3 people, rather than £175 for individuals).

For more info or to enter as a team, drop Trevor a line at trevor@theleanstartupmachine.com

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with how the companies I’ve worked for over the past few years have
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