Milton Hill House, Abingdon, Oxford played host to a two-day seminar series in International Outsourcing organised by Direct Access International.

Valerie Thorn, CEO & Consultant at AND, was invited along as one of the experts to address the delegation of business executives & industry leaders from a whole host of backgrounds including medical, broadcast, digital media & education.

The seminar series was aimed at organisations that are either looking to begin working with China or indeed those that had started but were looking for more information & guidance.

Valerie presented a session on 'Intellectual Property (IP) Protection in China' outlining the issued faced by Hi-Tech companies in protecting their valuable knowledge-bases & rights, which received considerable interest from both the panel & guests.

In addition to a host of guest speakers who presented an array of interesting topics, the event was also addressed by Mr Yang Zhiping, Chairman of Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee & part of the delegation invited from China, who presented Suzhou, a remarkable industrial development close to China's ancient garden city.

Suzhou while not a modern city with its 2,500 years of history has in the past 10 years undergone major redevelopment. A project started 14 years ago between the city & the Singapore government has seen the birth of SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park) - a world-class competitive Hi-Tech business park, which has already attracted large UK businesses such as Unipart, HSBC, PricewaterhouseCoopers & Delloitte to the area. With a high-speed rail link, world-class infrastructure & favourable tax policies it is easy to see why this area is increasingly making business sense. Interestingly SIP is approved as a "Trial Base for China Service Outsourcing Industry" by the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Information & Industry & Ministry of Science & Technology, entitling service outsourcing enterprises to benefit from favourable policies.

Useful links
Milton Hill House [www.deverevenues.co.uk]
SIP [www.sipac.gov.cn]

Question time

October 02nd saw AND's CEO Valerie Thorn, take part in a lively Question time debate hosted at Davenant Foundation School by the Economics & Politics Society.

As part of the A-level Business & Politics AVQ course, students are required to take part in real-life debates. This year saw a non party-political panel assembled to take questions from the audience & discuss a variety subjects including: "what it means to be British", "the cost of the Olympics", "youth culture" & "Community Support Officers" (CSOs), to name but a few.

Valerie was invited along as the successful businesswomen to event recognised by her long list of achievements which includes CEO & founder of AND Technology Research, Chairman of EMMA (East of England MultiMedia Alliance) & for her current research work into the effect of Intellectual Property on business sustainability - to name but a few. Accompanying her on the panel were: Student, Sarah Early - currently in Year 13 at Davenant, studying A-levels in Economics, Government & Politics, English Literature & History. Canon, Reverend Canon Martin Webster - Born in Essex, Martin has ministered entirely in the region for the past 21 years. He studied Physics at Nottingham University & is currently rector at Waltham Abbey Parish. Superintendent Leroy Logan - A science graduate with several years' postgraduate research experience, Leroy joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1983. In September 2004 Leroy was appointed Superintendent of Hackney borough after gaining a strong background as a uniform officer. He has played significant roles in the cases of Damilola Taylor, Victoria Climbie & the Lawrence Inquiry.

The discussions went long into the night, & proved to be an enlightening experience for all that attended. We will be sure to keep track of all the students who were involved, as no doubt more than one or two of them will be popping up on the real BBC show in the not to distant future.

Useful links
Davenant School [www.davenantschool.co.uk]
EMMA [www.emmauk.com]
BBC Question Time [news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time]

You may recall in the previous issue of Control Columns, we reported on Valerie (CEO) & John Thorns' (Technical Director) trip to the 3rd annual Nanjing CIS exhibition in China. Well, the photos have come back & we thought you might like to take a 'peak' at a few:

Much like the European & US software industry shows, Nanjing CIS not only provided an ideal platform to present new products, ideas & services to the industry, but also offered a solid foundation for networking between international companies & Chinese-based organisations.

Useful links
Nanjing CIS Exhibition [www.cis-expo.com]