Category Archives: CamAWiSE events

Three effective tools to get your start-up noticed (or ‘what we can all learn from Gok Wan’)

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Tamsin Henderson

If you’re reading this there’s a good chance you have at one time considered the possibility of running your own business. And as we all know, going it alone takes guts and more than a sprinkling of self-belief. That’s why I joined other existing and potential start-up owners to soak up some inspiration and insider knowledge, at the recent AWiSE event, ‘Do you have a business in you?’

“With the right support, you can set up and grow a successful enterprise to the level that fits your needs,” Liz Lyon of Rise Business Circle enthused. “Everyone has something useful to offer.”

Defining your ideas and mapping them to your skills and resources is the first step in turning the hypothetical into the viable. “Whether or not you want to develop your potential is a decision only you can make,” she added.

Mastering the psychological challenges budding business owners face is often the biggest barrier to getting started.  Continue reading →

Restoring profanity: applying mathematics to digital image restoration

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In the late 14th century Michel Menschein, a wealthy Viennese cloth merchant, commissioned local artists to paint a series of frescoes on the walls of his banqueting hall. The paintings depicted a cycle of songs by Neidhart von Reuental, a 13th century minnesinger, who was particularly fond of satirising the erotic relationships between knights and peasant maidens.

While the steamy subject matter doubtless enlivened many of Menschein’s dinner parties, it didn’t go down so well with subsequent occupiers. When the banqueting hall came into the possession of a Catholic priest in the late 16th century, the frescoes were painted over, and remained hidden for 300 years, until their chance re-discovery in 1979.

The frescoes now represent the oldest instance of non-religious wall painting in Vienna, and provide a unique glimpse into medieval humour and society. But the centuries under layers of paint and plaster, as well as the laborious process of exposure, took their toll. All the frescoes were damaged and some were almost completely destroyed. Continue reading →

Join us for an exciting workshop & discover your hidden talents: Do you have a business in you? 24th April – book soon

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RISE 35At Rise Business Development Circle, Luanne and I believe that, just as everyone has a book in them, so we all have ideas/skills that are potentially viable businesses.

Whether or not you want to develop that potential is a decision only you can make: all we ask is that you don’t make it until we’ve helped you to examine your resources (far more than you probably give yourself credit for), your options (the same!) and shown you how, with the right support, you can set up and grow a successful enterprise to the level that fits your needs and brings you the fulfilment we all deserve from our working lives.

Our workshop on April 24th is your opportunity to start exploring whether or not you want to take your idea forward or even to examine what that idea might be.

We’ll be making a start on the process of choosing the right objectives, mapping out the route to get there and mastering the psychological challenges.

Continue reading →

Easter Networking and AGM

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eastereggsDo come and join us on Tuesday 26th March for some fun Easter networking. For just £5, you can enjoy good company, great conversation and excellent refreshments! CAMAWiSE members may also bring a friend for free.  Register here

We’ll also be holding our AGM during the evening, at which the following posts are up for election:

  • Chair
  • Deputy Chair
  • Treasurer
  • Secretary

If you are interested in standing for election, nomination forms are available to download here. Completed forms should be returned to info@camawise.org.uk by Sunday 24th March, or you can bring your form along to the AGM.  You can also contact us by email if you would like further information before submitting your nomination.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Knowing me, knowing you

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Last night was the last of the WiSE UP series. It was a two hour workshop on Myers Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI). MBTI is a framework to understand your (and other people’s) preferences in operating (whether work or play). The evening was led by Geraint Wyn Story (even though it was his birthday…). It was really enjoyable and I hope people got a lot out of it. I confess to previous knowledge (and fondness) of MBTI. In fact, a couple of years ago I wrote four blog posts on its use and introducing the four dichotomies that make up the 16 personality types, hope you enjoy them:

To list or not to list?

Where do you get your energy from?

Big picture or eye for detail?

How do you make decisions?

by Tennie Videler

Nessa Carey,author of The Epigenetics Revolution, speaks at AWiSE event, 28th Feb

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“There’s more to the complexity of life than DNA, because there are multiple examples of situations where the same DNA sequence can generate many different outcomes.”

So says Nessa Carey, who will be presenting her thoughts at a joint Cambridge AWiSE / Lucy Cavendish College event on 28th February (6-7pm). Nessa is a former academic who has worked for over a decade in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.  She is the author of the popular science book “The Epigenetics Revolution”, published in 2011.

The new science of epigenetics explains phenomena as diverse as the different cell types in the human body, the colours of tortoiseshell cats, the lifespans of queen bees, the interactions between nature and nurture and exciting new therapies for cancer.  More controversially, it may also underlie adult consequences of childhood trauma, and even lead to Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics.

This promises to be a fascinating talk, so do come and join us. Registration details are here…

“Nessa Carey … writes brightly and humanely and is full of optimism for this exciting new dawn – both for the deep understanding of life and the potential for medical applications.” (The Guardian, 19th August 2011)

Is There A Book In You? – Cambridge Event Explores What It Takes To Be A Published Author

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Budding female authors are invited to learn what it takes to write a novel at an event to be held in Cambridge next week.

‘Is There A Book In You?’, a joint event between Cambridge Businesswomen’s Network (CBN) and the Association of Women in Science and Engineering (AWISE), is being hosted by St Mary’s School, in Bateman Street on Thursday 22nd November, starting at 6.30pm.

The evening will feature two speakers – Kate Kirk and Louisa Reid – both published authors, who will talk about what inspired them to write, the challenges of the process and the joys!

Continue reading →

WiSE UP Workshop 2: CVs and online presence

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There was a full house yet again for the second WiSE UP careers workshop, another fantastic session which gave us all plenty to think about.  I thought it might be fun if I tried to summarise what we covered in the session in the form of a CV but that was harder than I thought it would be!

Name:  Vivien Hodges Address:  WiSETI Project Officer, Equality and Diversity Section, 25 Trumpington   Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QA Email:  Vivien.hodges@admin.cam.ac.uk Twitter:  @vivien_hodges

I have written my profile based on the first exercise on my ideal job, what I would enjoy about the job, the qualities I bring and skills I would like to use and learn (highlighting power words!).  It’s too long and not directed at a specific job application but I thought it might help to stimulate a few ideas for your own profiles.  To steal Mel Findlater’s words I’m a wannabe superhero currently lucky enough to work with superheroes.

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Event Report on Prof Margaret Stanley, “The development of vaccines and immunotherapies against human papillomaviruses, the cause of cervix cancer”

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On Thursday evening a good crowd of 40-50 people joined Prof Margaret Stanley at Lucy Cavendish College.

Prof Stanley was an eloquent speaker and who gave a talk that was interesting to both biologists (of which there are quite a few at Cambridge AWiSE), those with a background in other STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths), and the parents in the audience with daughters taking part in the immunisation program.

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To tweet or not to tweet

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By Tennie Videler

I missed the last WiSE Up workshop but know online presence was part of it.

Here is my take on using twitter, which I use in a pretty low level way for my job. I’ve not used twitter to find out what celebrities have for breakfast but rather for finding out what is happening in my work sphere, build a presence and ask questions. I really think you need to start using it to find it useful….. Key is finding the right people to ‘follow’, by searching, for example using hashtags (#word). Once you’ve found a group of people to follow, look at who they follow too. Some people make recommendations, especially on Fridays (follow Friday or FF in twitter speak). These days twitter recommends people for you to follow too based on your searches and ‘tweets’.

Continue reading →