Reformulating means looking at changes to your manufacturing process in order to respond to changing market conditions.  This could be with the aim of keeping your costs down or reduce the process, or it could be about repositioning in a new, more profitable market segment.

Earlier in February Allene Bruce from New Nutrition Business, the world’s number one provider of strategic and market insights into the business of food nutrition and health led a webinar, which explored ways to remain competitively priced during the cost of living crisis.

This follow-up webinar on 23 February, will focus on the support available from HIE and partners Interface, SAC Consulting and the Food and Drink Federation Scotland (FDFS). Hear from Carol-Ann Adams from Interface, Alastair Trail from SAC Consulting and Joanne Burns from FDFS about the help on hand.

Local communities are leading the change to help shape an economy that works for people, places and planet, and Moray is no exception.

With focus and urgency, communities are showing that it is possible to take practical action, to continue to shift to new ways of doing things, and ensuring, that along that way, it is truly, a just transition.

As Moray’s Local Action Group develops a new vision for community led local development, the time is also right, for communities to come together to shape this vision and how it is rolled out in Moray.

Join tsiMoray, with a panel of changemakers at Join the Dots this year, to:

Deepen our learning and take inspiration from others so that we can continue to take practical action where we live and drive forward this place-based change.

Explore how community led local development can accelerate the move to a Wellbeing Economy through a just transition.

Inform and inspire a Community Led Vision for Moray.

This event will bring together a number of different funding bodies to discuss how they can support innovators, and is aimed at sole traders, micro-organisations, small and medium-sized businesses, academia and wider industry. The event is hosted by the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) at their SAMS campus in Dunbeg, Oban.

The funding bodies’ presentations will include:

• The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is a cross-Government organisation that finds and funds exploitable defence and security innovations to make the UK safer. It welcomes ideas from innovators small and large, while providing support to those who have not previously worked with Government. DASA. Representatives from DASA will be at the event to discuss the funding opportunities and business support functions available.
• CENSIS is Scotland’s Innovation Centre for sensing, imaging and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. We work with private and public organisations of all sizes to de-risk and accelerate innovation and overcome technology barriers to achieve business transformation.
• ESA Space Solutions is the go-to place for great business ideas involving space in all areas of society and the economy. Its mission is to support entrepreneurs in Europe in the development of businesses using satellite applications and space technology.
• Interface offers a free and impartial service to connect your organisation with the best academic minds in Scotland to create and improve products, streamline services and develop processes to drive business growth, increase profits and helped to reach new markets. Interface has close connections with a range of support organisations across Scotland and can also advise on funding options.
• The Data Lab is Scotland’s innovation centre for data and AI. Through hubs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness, we foster innovation through collaboration, build skills and grow talent, and champion Scotland’s data science community. Our purpose is to change lives and make Scotland a more productive economy and a sustainable society by transforming the way we use data.

Agenda:

• 10:30 -11:00 – Arrival tea and coffees
• 11:00-11:15 – Welcome by Professor Nick Owens, Director of SAMS and Professor Neil Simco, Deputy Principal, Academic and Research at UHI
• 11:15-12:00 – Presentations from DASA, UHI, CENSIS, ESA Space Solutions, Interface and The DATALAB
• 12:00-12:30 – Panel Q&A Session
• 12:30-14:00 – Networking Lunch and Exhibition
• 14:00 – Event Close

This webinar will give you an overview of how to assess your investment needs, some of the funding routes available beyond grants and loans, and how to manage the process to achieve a successful outcome. Whether you are considering starting a new business, preparing to invest in new equipment or scaling up to meet increasing demand, this session will give you practical insights on how to secure investment to help your growth ambitions.

At the event you will hear from Alex McDonald and Struan Mackie from North Point Distillery who have gone through the journey of securing investment to grow their business. The session will include an overview of

• Crowdfunding,

• Seed Enterprise investment Scheme (SEIS)

• International Investment

• The tools you can use to help get investment

• Different terms that should be understood

The Food and Drink TechHUB is a Northern Innovation Hub programme funded through the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal – a joint initiative supported by £315m investment from the UK and Scottish governments, The Highland Council, HIE and University of the Highlands and Islands.

This interactive workshop will give businesses an overview of the advice, support and funding available around innovation that is relevant to their food and drink sector. If you are looking to innovate within your business, develop a new innovative piece of equipment or technology or collaborate with an academic institution/partner then this is the workshop for you.

The workshop will include presentation from the following organisation who can provide support to help you on your innovation journey.

• Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE)

• Interface

• Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)

• Innovate UK/Knowledge Transfer Network

• CENSIS

• National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS)

The workshop will also include an interactive session led by CENSIS which will provide a global perspective on current challenges and technology trends in the food and drink industry, discuss the current challenges and unmet needs F&D businesses face in the highlands and develop a roadmap outlining what businesses would like to see in the physical Food and Drink TechHUB Innovation centre.

Agenda includes:

09.30 Registration and coffee

10.00 Welcome and Introduction to TechHUB – Alistair Trail, SAC Consulting

10.10 Overview of innovation support from a variety of support agencies

• John Mackenzie, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE)

• Carol-Ann Adams, Interface

• Laura Dee, Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)

• Debbie Tully, Innovate UK/KTN

• Ally Longmuir, CENSIS

• Alan Whiteside, National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS)

11.10 – Break

11.15 Interactive session led by CENSIS on current challenges and needs F&D businesses face with regards to technology and innovation leading to the development of a roadmap of potential solutions that can be supported by the TechHUB

12.15 Summary + Close

12.20 Lunch

The Food and Drink TechHUB is a Northern Innovation Hub programme funded through the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal – a joint initiative supported by £315m investment from the UK and Scottish governments, The Highland Council, HIE and University of the Highlands and Islands.

This month Productivity Club will focus on innovation.

Innovation is the secret ingredient of every organisation, without it there is no development or growth.

By innovation we mean the practical implementation of an idea that can result in a new process, strategy or product/service that can contribute to the success of the organisation.

We will hear from businesses that have: developed innovative technologies such as Blue Gentoo, collaborated with academia to increase business efficiency such as Albion Environmental, implemented new solutions to reduce their carbon footprint such as Dustacco, or those who have worked in collaboration with University students to explore business market opportunities for Bright Solid.

Experts will attend too to provide further information on the topic.

The sessions are interactive with group discussion, Q&A and networking opportunities.

SCDI recently published the report Now is the time for purpose which has had a huge impact across Scotland.

This seminar follows on from that report by answering the question ‘How does purpose drive growth?’. It will feature key insights from successful organisations, adding detail to the academic research which underpins it. Starting with an overview of purpose-led strategy, it will finish with precise nuggets on how every business can precisely define its purpose and gain both market advantage and internal alignment and acceleration from it.

Lunch will be served after the speaker’s presentation.

Our speaker, Alan Clayton, is the founder and CEO of Revolutionise. He has a twenty-five-year career in purpose driven growth behind him and is still speeding up. Clients range from global giants such as UN agencies right through to small, local start-ups, and from business leaders to freelancers and even amateur racing drivers.

This is a free event for SCDI members and members of Productivity Club Scotland.

This event from Productivity Clubs Scotland will focus on business processes and strategy.

Business processes and strategy are the backbone of productive SMEs.

These can help to increase performance in all areas of your business.

To start the year productively case study speakers will be invited from across the country to share their insights in what they are doing to ensure business longevity.

If you are interested in learning what other organisations are doing, join the Club.

The session is interactive with group discussion and Q&A.

Connect – Collaborate – Communicate

This conference spread over two days will be a hybrid face to face / VC conference, hosted from UHI Moray in the Alexander Graham Bell Centre for Digital Health and is an opportunity for research staff and students to showcase a selection of the varied research happening across the university.

Expect a fully interactive conference with live and pre-recorded elements.

Please take a look at the conference programme. It will be updated on the conference page as sessions and speakers are confirmed.