Paul Grenyer

I think this is the only Die Hard film I’ve seen at the cinema. I’m not a huge Die Hard fan, but I do like a good action flick as long as it has some story. On this occasion I was quite pleased to find that is was only 90 minutes. I quite enjoyed it. There were some great action scenes, as you would expect, but most of them just to far fetched to be believable. I know Mercedes build their cars well, but I just can’t believe one of their 4x4s would actually trouble an armoured car too much just by knocking into it.  The Russian bad guys were great! It’s a shame there wasn’t more of them and the brief appearance of the one that looked like Billy Idol was comical. If you've nothing better to do for a couple of hours one evening, see it. Otherwise wait for the blu-ray.

Conference: 3rd July 2013 Submission Deadline: 1st April 2013 Where: Hethel Engineering Centre , Norfolk If you would like to be kept up-to-date about MobDevConf, please join our email list here and follow Naked Element Ltd. on twitter here . Call for Papers & Speakers Naked Element Ltd. presents MobDevCon (website coming soon) the first Mobile Development Conference in Norfolk. The conference will be held on Wednesday 3rd of July at The Hethel Engineering Centre near Wymondham in Norfolk, UK. Naked Element would like to invite proposals for sessions. The keynote has already been confirmed: Neil Garner of local company Proxama , speaking on NFC (Near Field Communication) Submissions should be made by the 1st April 2013 to paul@nakedelement.co.uk and include the following information: Speaker name Speaker email address Speaker profile (max 500 words) Session type: case study, tutorial, workshop, etc. Session length 45 or 90 minutes (workshops ...

It’s amazing what time off with your family makes you think about. When my middle son Nathaniel was born I took the usual two weeks paternity leave. They say having children changes you and the way you feel about things and it’s true. I realised then that the job I was doing at the time wasn’t doing me or my family any good, so I decided to go and do something else. I had a similar think over Christmas. When I looked back on 2012 I saw all the amazing things we achieved with Agile East Anglia and SyncNorwich and felt an immense amount of pride. I also looked forward to the things I want to achieve with Naked Element and SyncConf in 2013. A couple of things occurred to me. I’d already decided that I wouldn’t be doing any speaking in 2013 in order to give me time to work on Naked Element (although it now looks like I’ll be doing a gig in September) and when I considered everything, giving as much time to SyncNorwich, Naked Element, SyncConf and of course my family as they deserve w...

This post is taken directly from the Startup Norfolk website and can be found here . SyncNorwich are holding their inaugural SyncConf ’one day agile and tech’ event on the 15th of February and if that wasn’t enough to put Norwich on the UK map for startups they are donating the profits from the event at a live pitch event to the most promising Norwich startup. Startups interested in getting their hands on this seed funding (likely between £5k and £10k) need to create their own 3 minute video response to the Youtube video (embedded below) which describes the criteria and application process. In short we’re looking for teams of 2+ peeps (no one-person outfits) who have a software based startup with at least one user / customer – that there is a built product that someone is using / paying for. We don’t want to just invest in an idea as everyone has those and they have no value unless you execute on them. More details for cut off date and when / where this Dragon’s Den style event will...

SyncConf is less that two weeks away and already I am wondering what I am going to do to fill the void it will leave. There is only so much planning for next year that can be done straight away. It was suggested on Facebook that I should plan another conference and Stephen Pengilley inspired me to think about a mobile development conference in Norwich. A quick tweet at the weekend on the subject resulted in at least 10 people interested in less than 12 hours. That’s a pretty good response rate for my tweets and certainly enough to consider taking the idea further. So what I am thinking is this: Norwich in July Cross platform keynote Separate iPhone & Android tracks Introductory and intermediate sessions as well as a workshop in each track. Cross track introduction to cross platform development (e.g. Titanium) iPhone vs Android panel discussion to close These are just my initial ideas. I’ll need to firm something up quite quickly to meet the July deadline. I’m very keen to ...

SyncNorwich has already proved that there is a thriving tech community in Norwich and SyncConf , the one day Agile and tech conference, is the natural progression. The SyncConf organisers are expecting in excess of 150 people, which is phenomenal for a small conference in its first year. Naked Element Ltd. is an up and coming bespoke software development and consultancy firm that sponsors SyncNorwich. Chris Wright of Naked Element says "We are delighted to be able to sponsor SyncConf and will have a stand at the conference. Please come and say hello to myself and Marie and learn more about how we can help you and your business build the software, systems and processes that you need to be successful."

I enjoy the Hot Source talkies more and more everytime I go.  The more I take part and follow the discussions on linkedin, the more I understand what it and the people involved are all about. At this latest event I also realised another of the aspects that separate Hot Source from SyncNorwich. Hot Source showcases a lot of local talent, whereas SyncNorwich generally brings in people from outside of the county with skills that are not necessarily found locally. For the January Talkie, Hot Source were also trying out a fantastic new venue at St Andrews House, part of City College in the centre of Norwich. This was a modern facility and a far cry from the old lecture theatres I remember at Leeds university in the late nineties. Blair Keen from Adobe shared some of his personal experience and perspectives on conversion rate optimisation. Adobe is a huge global player in marketing and data. I felt the first Hot Source event I attended in the autumn last year lacked a little charisma....