Robert Lloyd - a Sir Gar Blog of random news . . . and some Clecs!

A 2015 General Election Hustings event will host the six Ceredigion candidates on Thursday 16th April at Aberystwyth University. Organised by the Institute of Welsh Politics and the Institute of Welsh Affairs, the event will be held in the Main Hall in the Department of International Politics on the Penglais Campus at 6.30pm. The evening will be chaired by Sara Gibson, BBC Cymru Wales, and will provide an opportunity to hear the candidates debate policies and answer questions from the audience. The 6 Ceredigion candidates who will be taking part in the hustings event are: Henrietta Hensher (Conservatives), Gethin James (UKIP), Mike Parker (Plaid Cymru), Huw Thomas (Labour), Daniel Thompson (Green Party), and Mark Williams (Liberal Democrats). Dr Anwen Elias, Director of the Institute of Welsh Politics said: “The Institute of Welsh Politics looks forward to working with the Ceredigion branch of the Institute of Welsh Affairs to host this event which will provide students, staff and me...

The Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) is organising a conference called Improving Welsh Procurement. It will be run in association with Constructing Excellence in Wales. Details: Monday 5 November 2012 Parc Thistle Hotel, Park Place, Cardiff 9.00am – 3.30pm Conference Chair: Gerald Holtham, Trustee, IWA Public procurement is an important driver for economic development and employment. At some £4.3 billion the Welsh public sector’s annual procurement budget is one of the main economic policy levers in Welsh hands. But how effectively are we using it? Are we achieving the right balance between risk management and creativity in public procurement, especially with contracts below the EU thresholds? Are we encouraging Welsh SMEs to learn from the tenders they make by providing adequate feedback? How are we addressing the skills gap that exists amongst Welsh procurement professionals? How can we push the profile of procurement management higher up the policy ladder? This conferenc...

'Alternative finance for Welsh micro businesses' is the title for a conference being organised by the Institute of Welsh Affairs in association with the Federation of Small Businesses. Details are - Tuesday 23 October 2012 Novotel, Cardiff 9.00am - 4.15pm Conference Chair: Geraint Talfan Davies, Chairman, IWA Micro-businesses employing fewer than nine people account for the vast majority of businesses in Wales – 193,010 in 2011, or 94.5 per cent. Yet these businesses – the main growth engine of the Welsh economy – are experiencing severe problems in obtaining finance from conventional banks. Even where they are successful they often have to pay over the odds for investment funds. This conference asks whether the model we have for channelling resources to micro businesses is appropriate. Are there alternatives sources of finance and better methods of distribution available to us? Are their lessons to be learnt from other countries, especially Germany and the USA? The confere...

The Institute of Welsh Affairs and Western Mail have joined forces again this year to promote the primary national business awards scheme for Wales - the Welsh National Business Awards. These awards will recognise and honour the breadth of business achievement in Wales, in all its variety, with nine special categories. The following categories close on the 21st September 2012 Company of the Year <£10m – sponsored by ACCA Cymru Wales New Startup Company of the Year – sponsored by Gocompare.com Go Green Environmental Awards – sponsored by The Waterloo Foundation Creative Marketing Award – sponsored by Orchard Media & Events Group Best use of foreign languages in Business – sponsored by CILT Cymru, the National Centre for languages in Wales Training & Development Staff Award – sponsored by University of Glamorgan Commercial Services Young Achiever – sponsored by RWE npower renewables Company of the Year >£10m – sponsored by Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropol...

Details of the Institute of Welsh Affairs Western Mail Business Awards 2012 have been released. Emma Brennan, events manager at the IWA, said: "We must celebrate those Welsh achievements in order to highlight further opportunity and point the way to a brighter future. "With this in mind the Institute of Welsh Affairs and Western Mail have joined forces again this year to promote the primary national business awards scheme for Wales - the Welsh National Business Awards. "These awards will recognise and honour the breadth of business achievement in Wales, in all its variety, with nine special categories. "The following categories close on the 21st September 2012 - Company of the Year <£10m – sponsored by ACCA Cymru Wales New Startup Company of the Year – sponsored by Gocompare.com Go Green Environmental Awards – sponsored by The Waterloo Foundation Creative Marketing Award – sponsored by Orchard Media & Events Group Best use of foreign languages in Busines...

The search is on for supporters and sponsors of the IWA / Western Mail Business Awards 2012. The awards are being held in association with PwC. In 2011 Institute of Welsh Affairs and Western Mail joined forces to launch a new national awards scheme - Business Awards for Wales. The awards scheme is designed to recognise and honour the achievements of Welsh businesses in all their variety. Categories cover all aspects of business activity and entries are sought from all business sectors right across Wales. The award scheme will launch in May and the awards ceremony will be in November 2012. The cut off date for sponsorship is Monday 30th April 2012. Sponsorship opportunities start at £1,000 + VAT. For information and details, contact - Emma Brennan, Events Manager, Institute of Welsh Affairs, 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 9LJ T: 029 2066 0822 | F: 029 2023 3741 | E: emmabrennan@iwa.org.uk | www.iwa.org.uk

The Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) is to stage a national education conference under the banner, 'Enhancing vocational education for 14 to 16 year olds'. It is being held in association with the Welsh Government and WJEC. Details: Tuesday 21 February 2012 9.15am - 4.00pm WJEC, Llandaff, Cardiff Conference Chair: Sir Adrian Webb, Chair of the Wales Employment and Skills Board The widening education attainment gap between Wales and England for 14 to 16 year olds and Welsh pupils’ relatively low PISA scores have been the cause of much soul searching. Yet the picture is a more complex one than these simple comparisons might suggest. The most recent data show Welsh pupils’ performance in GCSEs to be equivalent to that across the border. It is in vocational qualifications that England is outperforming Wales. This conference will address questions critical to the development of Welsh vocational provision. Is there/should there be a distinctive vocational educational syste...

'Getting Wales Moving' is the title of the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) third Welsh National Economy Conference. It takes place on  Friday 9th March 2012  at the Parc Hotel, Park Place, Cardiff 9.00am - 4.15pm. Conference Chair: Rob Lewis, Chairman, Wales and West, PwC. The IWA’s conference will explore innovative plans to tap private funds to improve our infrastructure as well as the work of the new industrial sector panels set up by the Welsh Government. Biotechnology superstar Sir Christopher Evans, will top the bill with a keynote address on enterprise and innovation and the prospects for building Wales’s life science businesses. Welsh-born Sir Christopher is credited by many as the founder of the UK’s bio-technology industry and is now Chair of the Welsh Government’s life sciences sector panel. Welsh Government Finance Minister, Jane Hutt, will outline the prospects for raising capital to create a national infrastructure investment fund, and D...

The Institute of Welsh Affairs is organising a special conference on 'Wales’s Obesity Epidemic'. The event is being held in association Academy Health Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University and the National Heart Forum on Wednesday 22nd February 2012, 9.15am - 4.00pm, at the Management Centre, Llandaff Campus Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff. More than 50 per cent of adults in Wales are obese or overweight, a statistic that is predicted to increase to 85 per cent by 2020 unless remedial action is taken. Wales is the most overweight country within the United Kingdom where obesity has more than doubled in the last 25 years. It is predicted that on current trends, some 60 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women in Britain could be obese by 2050. This is estimated to represent a seven-fold increase in direct healthcare costs associated with excess weight, with wider costs to society reaching £45 billion a year. Obesity increases risks for chronic disease, i...

The Institute of Welsh Affairs and Western Mail have joined forces to launch a new national awards scheme – Business Awards for Wales. The awards scheme is designed to recognise and honour the achievements of Welsh Businesses in all their variety. Categories cover all aspects of Business Activity and entries are sought from all business sectors right across Wales. Our nine categories are: • Company of the Year • New Startup Company of the Year – sponsored by Gocompare.com • Go Green Environmental Awards – sponsorship available • Creative Marketing Award – sponsored by Orchard • The Excellence in eCommerce Award – sponsorship available • Training & Development Staff Award – sponsored by University of Glamorgan Commercial Services • Young Achiever – sponsored by Hopkins Law • Company of the Year >£10m – sponsored by Cardiff Business School • Entrepreneur of the Year – sponsored by Cardiff Business School The exclusiv...