A pie in the face for leadership?

Getting a pie in the face, is an old comedic tradition, that predates Wikipedia’s entry, claiming it in 1909 with the comedy film Mr Flip. Known as pieing, getting one in the moosh can be hilarious and is a well-known form of protest. Alan Joyce the CEO of Qantas was recently pied, by Tony Overheu […]

4 years ago Uncategorized More
 

Should edtech and other startups spend money on IP?

Trademarks and the protection of intellectual property should be vital to any business, particularly those in tech? Wrong! Over the years I have seen too many businesses blow too much of their scare management and financial resources trying to register various types of IP. A few have managed to get trademarks, but I can’t think […]

4 years ago Education More
 

Science Museum Hackathon

I was part of a team that took part in the recent Science Museum Hackathon. The short story: We thought and acted differently Our idea was disruptive and uncomfortable for the organisers We lost It was fun   What was great (hacked on): That the Science Museum even put on a hackathon The overall winners […]

4 years ago Education More
 

RM should sue the pants off the Victorian government!

A decade of IT failures by Victorian government departments has cost taxpayers in excess of A$2bn. Add to that the costs of cancelling major infrastructure projects, e.g. $1bn damages bill for terminating the A$8bn East West road project, and you have a major Australian state which is a laughing stock in the international business and […]

4 years ago Education More
 

Australia Trumps Brexit

Educational exports are the third largest sector in the Australian economy as the following figures show:   Value $21.8bn [1] in 2016/17 700,000 international students, 300,000 in the higher education sector Strong sector growth at 14% (2014), 15% (2015) and 17% (2016).   Australia’s educational success hasn’t happened overnight and there have been plenty of […]

4 years ago Education More
 

The Edtech Podcast with Sophie Bailey

It’s not easy getting an Explicit Rating on an iTunes podcast for edtech, but I managed to help Sophie Bailey of The Edtech Podcast achieve one when she interviewed me at BETT 2017. For anyone under 18 or adults who dislike profanity, irreverence and highly-personal comments, stop right here. I generally don’t give interviews and […]

4 years ago Education More
 

Robert Hunt of Studyladder

Few people in the UK edtech community will ever have heard of Robert Hunt, who died unexpectedly last November. I was lucky enough to meet Rob and his wife Audrey several years ago in Sydney when they had taken over StudyLadder from its founders (two teachers). Rob, was born in New Zealand and started his […]

4 years ago 1 Education More
 

BETT(er)!

BETT can be a love hate dynamic. I love going and seeing new ideas and people but I hate the schlep to Excel, the usurious food and drink prices and the petty bureaucracy ,etc. This year I decided to take it easy and to do what I tell everyone else not to – freelance the […]

4 years ago Education More
 

Draft text from my keynote at 2nd Education Innovation Africa Conference Nairobi June 2016

This is the outline text from the speech I gave in Nairobi in June. The actual speech was much shorter (just 5 key points) but I’ve been asked to post the full version several times and thought it would be a good use of time while stuck in my sick bed yet again over the […]

4 years ago Education More
 

Edtech Exits

Exits in edtech are complicated. and vary widely from intra-investor share sales (often before Series A), share swaps (generally a bad idea), trade sales, listing (high unlikely) and occasionally there might even be some cash (normally tied to impossible earnout targets). Characteristics It’s generally a very illiquid market Changing priorities for investors (portfolios, time horizons […]

4 years ago Education More