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Contextual IntelligenceProduct Resources
Mastering Omnichannel through Change Management with Bayer Canada's Marc Mollé
This is a podcast episode titled, Mastering Omnichannel through Change Management with Bayer Canada's Marc Mollé. The summary for this episode is:
As a specialist in change management at Bayer Canada, Marc Mollé has been guiding the organization through the adoption and implementation of an omnichannel approach. In this episode, Marc takes us inside the process—from the early decision making that put Bayer ahead of the curve to the ongoing success of the initiative—and shares how it has enabled them to be agile during the market changes of 2020." Also, don't miss "Marc Mollé in Context," in which he describes a book that enlightened him, the job he'd never take, and why Jimi Hendrix is his ultimate inspiration.

The definition of change management in commercial life sciences
The importance of personalization and empathy in change management and beyond
The acceleration of omnichannel, benefits of early adoption, and how change management ensures success across the full commercial team
The impact of HCP consent in strategy execution
They key differences between supporting field medical versus field sales
How AI is improving, not replacing, personal interactions
Marc Mollé:
Change management is an ongoing process. During that ambiguity time, we didn't stop our interaction. We were able to still continue to follow up with our healthcare professional and still have impact when the reps went back into the field right after. And that's all because we were able to launch that and use these new tools even before the COVID situation hit us.
Clay Hausmann:
I'm Clay Hausmann, CMO of Aktana and host of Contextual Intelligence. If there were a list of buzz terms that were used most frequently in the life sciences industry, we would see some of the very usual suspects right now, like omni-channel or AI and machine learning, but near the top of that list, you'd also see the term change management that gets used quite often. And we have the opportunity to dig into that topic quite a bit here today, because we are joined by a guest who focuses exclusively on that topic at Bayer Canada. Marc Mollé thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you very much for inviting me.
So Mark, you have taken a very interesting path. You were initially a field rep you're now responsible for implementing these change management practices at Bayer. Could you start, just take us through that path and what led to the different steps in your career and where you've landed now at Bayer.
Super, well. So just to give you a little bit more background about myself, I have a Bachelor Degree in Biochemistry and a Master in Marketing. I actually started my career, believe it or not as an lab analyst for a pharma company, and I did that for almost two years and realized quickly that I was missing the social contact with people. And this is when I decided to join Bayer as a sales representative. And I did that for three years. Of course representing my product was my top priority, but I was also really active in helping my team with the new technology rollout from the head office. And I really think that this had an impact on my choice to move from Montreal to the head office in Toronto, where I started to lead my change management stream for the commercial operations.
And fortunately I had the great opportunity to be part of the Bayer global initiative called Powerhouse, where I learned so much on change management, and I had the chance to launch a multitude of initiatives to drive engagement with this new technology. So I think my old journey really started at the bottom of the ladder if you want, and yeah, this is where I landed so far.
And did the change management role already exist in your moving into that spot because it was a fit for you, or was this something that you kind of created together with your managers?
That was created when I joined initially at the head office yeah. It's like it didn't exist before.
And what drove that? So what created the impetus to say we need this now of all times?
Well, I think the environment is changing so quickly, there's a lot of new technologies that are available and the pharma industry is really an industry that is lagging behind other industries. So when there's a lot of change coming to a company or to an industry, we need someone or a team to start thinking about how we're going to implement that change to support our sales force or to support the employees from that company? So I think that's the reason why it was created yeah.
So change management as I mentioned at the outset, it's a term that's used frequently. It could mean a lot of different things, it could mean just about everything in terms of how do you manage change, because we all encounter change every day in the work that we do. How do you define it at Bayer? What are the primary areas of focus for you?
It's a really, really good question because the term change management is so broad that you can almost use it for anything, right?
So at first we really define change management as a form of training, like a trainer that could connect in some ways with the trainees. So in my case as a previous sales rep, they would understand their reality when training them. But we rapidly understood that it's not only about special type of trainings, but it's also about communicating right these new technologies, and also really connect with the end users to give them something that will really answer their needs. Something that you don't know about me is that I really love leveraging multiple different channels to reach out to my audience. And what is funny about that is that, this is actually what we were doing to sell to our customers, and I actually worked in the same way with our internal partners. What worked really well for us since March it's to keep the community we have built alive by using these different channels. It's still a very broad term for Bayer Canada, I would say, but I think we're learning into that journey and yeah, so it's a whole lot of challenge.
Mark, are you saying that you use omni-channel marketing in order to help your commercial teams execute omni-channel marketing? Is that pretty much what you said?
We are, that's exactly it. Yeah.
That's great. So what have you learned in that process? Is it very similar to the way that you support HCPs externally that you think the same way about preferred channels for your internal teams and how they consume information, or is it different?
So here's the way I see it. Previously, I was selling a product to some customers, now, the only difference is that my customer changed. Instead of being the external customer which in that case would be healthcare professionals, my customer is actually my internal team. So I'm selling these new technologies, so I just need to adopt and also use different channels to reach out to them and also drive that engagement and drive that change within our internal teams. Yeah.
Is there anything that you found that might surprise us about channel effectiveness that we would think, "Oh, they would all communicate via email," but actually that's not the case, it's much more of a personal touch, or is there anything that you've learned along the way that's been surprising to you?
So far we've done a lot of emails that's one channel for sure. I would say that within this specific channel, what is really important and that's also true for other industries is personalization. So it's very cool to send an email, but what's actually even better than that is to personalize that email to the recipient, so the person who's going to receive it. So I think that's what we're trying to achieve with all our channels. I didn't see one performing more than another one, I think is the full integration of all of these channels and the orchestration of all these channels that actually works best.
Got it. Makes sense. So change management as the topic has become extremely relevant unfortunately in the last six or eight months as we've gone through a situation that we've all had to adapt to and change. So how has that influenced the work that you do? What has that done to change management as we undergo a time period that none of us have ever experienced before in terms of communication and work habits and personal health and everything?
So for our pharma sales reps in 2020, I think their life changed drastically. I couldn't agree more with that. What we've done to help them work through this crisis was really to launch new remote channels. So I'm talking about off-course emails, but also remote meetings through our CRM system. And every time we implement a new technology or a new tool at Bayer Canada, we offer what we call an Iber care period. And that Iber care phase is only to support them and be very close to their reality when they're using these new tools or new technologies.
We usually channel everything into a support channel, which is in our case, a ticketing system through an email inbox. And when we launch a new tool or new technology, I always offer them as well to reach out to me directly, to build confidence with them and also make sure that they feel highly supportive in that initiative. It's a real extra effort from our side, but I think that what it allows me to do is to stay connected with the field even though I'm not calling on healthcare professionals anymore. The Iber care phase is really a critical piece of our success and also huge learning components to any projects we are launching. I always look forward to the questions or issues I'll get in these calls because we can only get better ultimately.
So Marc, you just touched on another trend that has really obviously taken off and that's the need for all members of the commercial team to learn different ways of working in different channels to become familiar with. You have a unique perspective that way, because you spent several years as a pharma sales rep out in the field, being the one who's responsible for maintaining those relationships and then having to change your behavior in this situation, your a former peer set having to do that, but now you're in that commercial operations role. How has that influenced your perspective, knowing that you've been on the other side, you've been in the seat of the individual that you're now trying to help work through a lot of different change management topics.
So one of the critical, I would say characteristics to have when they hired that position, so they hired me into that role, was to have someone who had experience in the field. And one of the main reason for that is because I actually have lived their reality. So I know exactly how the access is, I know how it can be difficult on a specific day because you tried to connect with six healthcare professional, but you succeeded in connecting with only one on that day because it was a very busy day. So to know that reality and also to know what they're living, I think it really helps me to kind of give my tint, if you want, to any decision that they're taking regarding AI tools or new channels, because we can really tailor these new tools or new new channels, if you want, so that it reflects the needs from the field with regards to connecting what the healthcare professionals.
That makes perfect sense. And it's something that I think in the topic of Contextual Intelligence that we talk about this notion of needing to take all these different variables or perspectives into account, one term that I find to be quite accurate and helpful, but is sometimes undervalued is the term empathy. This ability to be able to put yourself into the position of your target audience. And if you can't do that, then you can't personalize the experience quite as well for them. Some of that comes from first person experience, some of that comes from data and how we understand their past behaviors and what they're looking for. But I can only imagine that that empathy you have for the audience that you support and the pharma rep or other members of the commercial team is so heightened by the fact that you remember that experience you've been in that experience yourself.
Absolutely. I think it's really well said. Yeah. Empathy is definitely a key criteria there.
Good. So in many ways Bayer Canada was a bit ahead of the curve and our work with you, you'd already integrated marketing automation into your efforts, you were running multi-channel customer journeys. This was even before rep access essentially disappeared when the pandemic began. What drove that decision making, what spurred that to be ahead of the curve that way? First, let me start there.
Yeah. So I would say that the decision to implement marketing automation with AI driven strategies was really taken before that, since it was Bayer global direction. So although what Canada has done it really quickly was to enable these multiple other channels such as remote meetings, like I said, throughout our CRM system, remote consent collection, email triggered campaigns because of the COVID situation. By being quick and launching these new technologies, we were able to include them into our marketing automation tool and really expand our capabilities by sophisticating and refining our campaigns. I think that this really helped us because we all know that the customer access became really limited in the past couple of months, which is totally understandable because we needed a quick way to keep in touch with our customers. So we did not, take that decision because of COVID, we were already there. We just sped it up very quickly to make sure that we were leveraging everything we could during that situation.
And how have you seen that? I guess, what are the benefits that you've seen from that? The fact that you were ahead of the curve that way, so some of the foundation pieces around digital channels and marketing automation were already in place once face-to-face visits became difficult or impossible, and now it was all about digital. Did you see the benefit of that right away, or did it still require change management practices to make sure that everyone was comfortable with these methods?
I think change management is an ongoing process, so it's never ending if you're asking me, but what I can tell you is that because we were already there before that COVID situation, I think that what it allows us to do is to, during that ambiguity time, we didn't stop our interaction. We were able to still continue to follow up with our healthcare professional, and still have impact when the reps went back into the field right after. So it kind of like bridges that gap that we have, and that's all because we were able to launch that and use these new tools even before the COVID situation hit us.
So we've talked quite a bit about the impact and the change management for field reps. How about for the marketers who are responsible for those digital channels and making sure that what they're doing through the non-personal channels are aligned with the remote engagement that the rep is still wanting to do. How has that come together and what have you been able to achieve in that way for the brand and marketing side?
So of course for the sales rep, it was kind of like a small difference to their day because we were only implementing a new technology. So it was, if you're asking me, there was less change management to be done at that place compared to the one that we needed to do with the marketers, because the marketers right now, they were used to building a plan for a whole year, here's my activities that I need to go through, and after the planning phase, let's execute these strategies, and let's go through our year, which is completely not what we're doing right now.
So what we're doing right now is, we're working into an agile environment which allows us to work really quickly and adapt really quickly to any situations. So I think the biggest change was really for the marketers because they needed to adapt to that new way of working and be a really agile and flexible regarding their planning campaigns. So we're working into a smaller cycle right now instead of being a whole year it's a very small cycle. So we really needed to support them a lot throughout that change. Yes.
And are you seeing increased levels of engagement from HCPs through those digital channels? Mostly, well, for two reasons, one, they don't have the option of the in-person visit, but they're also needing to learn new behaviors on their own around telehealth and how they consume information. Have you seen the engagement on that front increase as well for digital?
I think we were really positively surprised let's say it like that, because initially we thought like, "Oh my God, we're going to spam our customers with a lot of emails." But after that when we were looking at click rates and open rates, and also all the actions that they were taking with these emails and what it was allowing us to do basically to micro-segment them after, and tailor that content so that we could send even deeper communication on the topic of interest for these people, we were really surprised of the receptivity of our customer. We don't have a lot of opt-out so far because of all of these emails, which was an initial assumption that we would have in the beginning, that we had in the beginning.
That's good. And it's something that we've seen as well, that there is just a receptivity to these new channels and what may be perceived as spam, as long as you tailor it appropriately, you personalize it appropriately and it becomes more value-driven rather than volume of contacts, then you do see that positive response to it. In your strategy, you guys have also focused on securing HCP consent. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what's led to that approach and that emphasis?
Yeah. So consent is a huge, huge, huge, important topic because there's actually a law that does not allow us to send anything if we don't have consent. So what we've done around consent was really to kind of like we initiated a campaign, and illustrated what was the big value of getting that consent. Because consent is kind of like, not really well understood if you want, there's a discrepancy between the field and also the head office on who's owning the consent. Because you are as a sales rep, you're collecting consent, and then the head office will start using that consent with your customer. But we needed to do a lot of change management at that level, so we could bridge that gap and saying, "Hey guys, we're all working in the same team, the goal is not to flood the inbox from your customer, but it's really to allow us to send them some tailored content that you'll be able to follow up. And you'll be notified that they received that content, so you'll be able to follow up and then have much more impact in face-to-face with that customer."
So that campaign of consent that we initiated was really around collecting more and more consent, and it was an initiative that was driven by the field. They were defining targets, they were defining as well the reward programs. So we really want them to feel very engaged in driving that initiative so that we could leverage, not leverage, but that we could improve and increase our level of consent in the field. And we're currently still doing that right now, but we're actually seeing a lot of great and positive results around collecting consent.
I'm getting the sense Marc that you deal quite well with ambiguity, that you… Some of the things that we've talked about change management could be defined very broadly in a number of different ways. Consent could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and you could determine who is responsible for which part of it. This seems to be an environment that you seem to play quite well in and you know how to navigate. Is that right?
Absolutely yeah, you're totally right.
Okay. Another area that we've kind of branched out to, and we've focused on more in the last two years, and I know you have as well, is around supporting MSLs in the field. That's something that obviously being able to support them with intelligence and sort of data-driven recommendations on actions, how do you see the key contextual differences between the way that you support field medical versus the way you support field sales?
I think their reality is really, really different. I'll speak for Bayer, but for Bayer our commercial team really works with what we call multi-channel cycle plans. So these, the sales reps are acting on a specific plan that they need to go see that customer X number of time this year, and we need to stick to that if we want to achieve our target. On the medical side is slightly different. We know that they can't, the openness from the customers is probably higher, it's like they're willing to receive more MSLs than sales reps, but they're not sticking to a multi-channel cycle plan. So if we're serving some suggestions or if we're serving some emails that we're sending to customers, and we want to let the MSL know, we need to allow more time as well to the MSL to connect with these customers and really build a designed plan, if you want, for that specific journey for that customer.
So the reality is really different than the commercial side, and what was really important on our side was really to tailor these tools specifically to how they're going to use it in the field. So yeah, and that was one of my main criteria when we also build it for the commercial side, I really wanted to sit with the sales rep and ask them, "okay, what do you need to be more efficient in your day, and what exactly, how can I help you with that?" Is that to serve you some suggestions around pacing is that the follow-up with some customers because they received an email from marketing? So we kind of designed all of these tool together and that's exactly what we did as well with the MSLs.
Excellent. Yeah. That's great. So I'm curious, because we talk about this with all of our guests pretty much, this notion of introducing AI and machine learning into the commercial process and into the medical education process, it typically takes on a tone of technical change. But quite often it is the human behavior that can drive a lot of the success, the speed of adoption, the speed of impact. What is your philosophy having been on both sides of that, understanding that we need to bring new technologies into the way that we operate, but also appreciating and recognizing that it is very much about the human behavior. Having been one of the players out in the field yourself, and now being responsible for helping institute that change. What is your view on appreciating both the technological and the human side of that process?
There's one thing that we really need to sell to the field and it's that AI will never replace anyone. The reason is we need social contact with our customer, we will always need a social contact with our customer face-to-face I mean. I think AI is really there to improve on efficacy, to the help you become more efficient in the field. So I think that there will always be a Salesforce in the field physically seeing healthcare professional because of this, all right, so that's the first thing. Although the combination of these two different ways to reach out to our customer is much more impactful than one point of contact, just hammering the same key selling messages over time.
So AI is really there to help the rep navigate into this multi-channel environment and be more efficient. We always say that our digital assistant is there to give you the right information at the right moment, the right time and for the right person, so that you're able then to take what is the next best action possible. So I really believe that the synergy between Salesforce and the AI tool will really encourage driving results if you want, and also help us become more efficient and drive these results. But I don't think it's going to replace a human being, never, no.
Yeah. That's reassuring to all of us. So you are our first guest from Canada, and it's always helpful when we have guests from new markets to be able to share to listeners broadly. What is unique about the Canadian market that would be helpful for other members of commercial teams or other technology companies that are trying to support customers that operate in Canada, what would be important to share that's unique to the market?
A very simple answer for that, and I would say that our regulations with regards to what we are able to communicate to our customers are heavily regulated. We're acting on a heavy regulated environment that sometimes cause unwanted delays with the appropriation of marketing material, which would cause also delays with the campaign that we're designing. So I would say these heavy regulations are really probably the big difference between US market than the European market.
Got it. Great. Well, we're going to move into a part of our interview which is always quite entertaining hopefully it'll be enjoyable for you as well, but I'm quite curious to hear your answers to some of these questions, but we're going to do what we call Marc Mollé in context. A couple of things about you and your career and your influences, so if you're game for that we'll jump into that. Does that work for you?
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay. So our first question is who has been an influence on your career that might surprise us?
That's funny because this is a question that you usually get into an interview for a job posting. I got that one two times for some job, and I always answer the same answer and I think it's very surprising because yeah, we'll see. So I love music, I really love music, and I would say that Jimi Hendrix was a big influence on my career, and the reason is that, he was not necessarily socially accepted during these times when he was performing in front of audiences. And he just work as a way, very hard through the, well to get him where he was, and that's very, very inspiring for me.
Interesting, good. I love that. Okay. So if money was not a factor, and I'm wondering if maybe we're going to get something in the music realm here. If money was not a factor, what career would you most like to pursue?
Almost music, but I would say professional video maker and working on movie sets. Yeah. I would love that.
Now what role, what would you want to be doing, would you be directing, would you be the cinematographer, what would you want to be doing?
I really love filming, so that's one thing. So to be the person holding the camera, but also all the editing after, editing is really yeah, my old candy if you want.
Got it. I can relate. So I took a period of time to pursue screenwriting in the middle of my career because I had a personal passion for it, and I can appreciate that as well there's a lot that… And there's actually a lot that you learn from working in teams and in storytelling and in developing narrative to influence audiences in that process. So you should do it at some point. I recommend it. What profession would you most not want to pursue no matter what it paid?
Very easily, very easy accountant. Even though I like to create budget and try to stick to it, but I would not do it for someone else.
I got it. Okay. Well understood. So you can go in a number of different directions with this one. We've made it, what is the best book you've read recently and why, but it could also be the best TV series or movies since we're all doing a lot of that on streaming services, but maybe the best piece of entertainment that you have enjoyed recently and why?
Well, I'll go with the book. One book that I read recently that was really good is called Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. If you haven't read that it's a very, very good book, and it really gives you a good perspective on how to be a great leader. Yeah. And one of the best learnings that I got from that book is that, leadership is not about titles, not about status or willing power, it's really about people and how to bring the best out of everyone within a team.
I can imagine that has a lot of application to what you do on a daily basis. So I could see the influence there, that's great. All right. You're at a family gathering and your eight year old nephew asks what you do for a living. This is going to be interesting with change management. What do you tell your eight-year-old nephew?
Very simply, I put a smile on people's face by helping them with their challenges on a daily basis.
Wow, nice. Okay. Uncle Marc, how do you do that? What do you do? Do you serve ice cream to them, what are you, how do you make that happen?
That's the tricky part that an eight-year-old would not understand. This is not like ice cream or candies.
That's right. Excellent. All right. And our last question, your ultimate dinner party for four, who is in attendance and what are you serving them?
My girlfriend and my parents, I really I'm a family guy, a lot. So, and we would probably have like a surf and turf. How original is that?
Surf and turf, you cannot go wrong with it. Yeah. I appreciate that. Well Marc, as I mentioned to you earlier, I've heard unbelievably positive things from our teams in terms of working with you. I can understand why I haven't had the opportunity to chat with you here. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us and give us a unique perspective on your work. So thank you for being here.
Thanks again for inviting me, that was my real pleasure. Yeah.
Thanks Marc. That's it for this episode of Contextual Intelligence, I'm your host Clay Hausmann, and we'll be back in two weeks with a new episode. In the meantime, you can find all our episodes on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And please leave us a review or a comment or a question or all of the above, so we can make sure that this podcast brings the proper context to your work. Thanks everybody for joining us.
As a specialist in change management at Bayer Canada, Marc Mollé has been guiding the organization through the adoption and implementation of an omnichannel approach. In this episode, Marc takes us inside the process—from the early decision making that put Bayer ahead of the curve to the ongoing success of the initiative—and shares how it has enabled them to be agile during the market changes of 2020." Also, don't miss "Marc Mollé in Context," in which he describes a book that enlightened him, the job he'd never take, and why Jimi Hendrix is his ultimate inspiration.
Today's Host
Clay Hausmann
|CRO of Aktana
Today's Guests
Marc-Antoine Mollé
|Change Management & Platform Expert at Bayer
As a specialist in change management at Bayer Canada, Marc Mollé has been guiding the organization through the adoption and implementation of an omnichannel approach.
Marc-Antoine's Linkedin
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© 2023 2020 - Aktana, Inc.
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WATCH: Discover the origins of 'Bumblebee' on Earth in new adventure film
In the more than 12 years since the first Transformers film commenced shooting in White Sands, New Mexico, the straightforward idea of turning a popular toy into a movie has surprised even its creators by growing into a worldwide phenomenon with box office receipts totaling $4.3 billion. With Paramount Pictures' new action-adventure Bumblebee, the saga enters new territory with a story as emotionally resonant as it is action-packed.
Check out a new Spot below and watch Bumblebee in Philippine cinemas Tuesday, January 8.
As the film begins, audiences get their first glimpse of the Bumblebee of Cybertron lore. Known as B-127, the bright yellow transformer is a fierce warrior who has fought in a centuries-long conflict between the Autobots and the Decepticons. When all seems lost for the Autobots, B-127 is dispatched to Earth with a mission: Protect the planet and its inhabitants in the hope of establishing a refuge for his comrades.
His arrival is complicated when two Decepticons, Shatter and Dropkick, follow him and launch an attack that endangers Earth's inhabitants, and an American military team decides, understandably, that the alien species is a threat to mankind. Bumblebee attempts to hide from his pursuers disguised as a dilapidated yellow Volkswagen Beetle, but when a teenaged girl named Charlie decides to restore the vehicle, she inadvertently discovers his true identity.
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura describes the film as an origin story. "This is Bumblebee's origin story on earth. Since the movie predates the Bay chronology we had the opportunity to do a deeper dive into his character, giving the audience even more reason to fall in love with him. He effectively creates a brand new story through his relationship with Charlie. It becomes a rite of passage story for both of them," he explains.
When Screenwriter Christina Hodson first fleshed out her original take on Bumblebee, the filmmakers were attracted by her vision, Hodson envisioned a smaller, more family-friendly Transformers film with an emotional story at its core.
The producers were intrigued by the concept of a "kinder, gentler" Transformers story that incorporates a more emotional, humanized version of the bots. Christina convinced us to take a leap of faith and make a different kind of film than we had before," says di Bonaventura. "The audience has always wanted to know more about who the Transformers are, and her story allowed us to develop the characters and tell a more intimate story. We let the audience get to know a Transformer in a way they never have before."
Hodson's first draft, completed in the fall of 2016, was an emotionally centered story around Hailee Steinfeld's character Charlie and Bumblebee, "I love seeing girls going on adventures," Hodson says. "And I wanted to create a female character who didn't fit into typical boxes. I think one of the things that makes Charlie feel like an outsider is that she isn't just one thing. She's a bit nerd, a bit tomboy and a bit athlete. It is absolutely full of Transformers-style thrills and adrenaline and adventure and fun, but has a lot of heart, too."
The idea of focusing on one specific character was also greeted enthusiastically at Hasbro, creators of the originalTransformers. Brian Goldner, the company's CEO and an executive producer of the film, was delighted to read a script that addressed the "inner life" of Bumblebee.
"We at Hasbro are guardians of the Transformers lore, so we particularly appreciate the way Charlie brings him to life in a whole new way that still connects directly to what fans know and love about Bumblebee."
"Bumblebee was the perfect choice, he is a fan favorite and probably the most human-like autobot. Bumblebee is heartfelt, has a youthful exuberance and is a multi-layered character," explains di Bonaventura.
Goldner also endorses the idea of setting the film in the 1980s, when the first Transformers toy line, animated television series and comic books took the world by storm. "Setting the story within that vibrant decade is a wonderful tip of the hat to the talented creators of those characters," he concudes.
Bumblebee is distributed in the Philippines by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/uipmoviesph/ and use the hashtag #BumblebeeMovie.
About Bumblebee
On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.
Bumblebee is produced by Transformers franchise veterans Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Michael Bay, along with executive producers Steven Spielberg, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. Chris Brigham (Argo, Inception) will also executive produce. The screenplay is written by Christina Hodson.
Directed by Travis Knight (Kubo and the Two Strings, Coraline), the film stars Hailee Steinfeld (Edge of Seventeen, Pitch Perfect 2), Pamela Adlon (Better Things), John Cena (Blockers, Daddy's Home 2), Stephen Schneider (Comedy Central's Broad City) and Jorge Lendeborg Jr. (Spider-Man: Homecoming).
Transformers film
WATCH: John Cena Comes to the Rescue in 'Playing with Fire' Trailer
Austin Butler is Cast as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's Film About the Global Icon


text:
using System.Collections.Generic;
using osu.Game.Replays;
using osu.Game.Rulesets.Replays;
using osu.Game.Rulesets.Taiko.Replays;
using osu.Game.Rulesets.UI;
using osuTK;

namespace osu.Game.Rulesets.Taiko.UI
{
    public class TaikoReplayRecorder : ReplayRecorder<TaikoAction>
    {
        public TaikoReplayRecorder(Replay replay)
            : base(replay)
        {
        }

        protected override ReplayFrame HandleFrame(Vector2 mousePosition, List<TaikoAction> actions, ReplayFrame previousFrame) =>
            new TaikoReplayFrame(Time.Current, actions.ToArray());
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Preparation & Resurfacing
Concrete Shot Blasting
Concrete Scarification
Epoxy Floor Removal
Parking Deck Membrane Removal
Carpet & Tile Mastic Removal
Stains & Colors
Epoxy & Floor Coatings
Concrete Floor Epoxy
Amazing Concrete Feats: Halloween Edition
Photo Courtesy of EasternState.org
Halloween seems an appropriate time to share one of the more eerie concrete stories we know. This one takes place in one of the creepiest locations in the Pennsylvania area, the old Eastern State Penitentiary.
Though it's been closed for years, the Penitentiary is a popular haunt around Halloween thanks to its spooky reputation and terrifying holiday attractions. However in 1945, the scariest thing about the prison was the inmates jailed inside. Some of those inmates have become infamous for not only the crimes they committed, but for doing the unthinkable — escaping from a concrete cell.
Clarence Klinedinst was an inmate who was also a skilled stone mason and plasterer. He was a favorite of the guards and due to overcrowding, was allowed to repair Cellblock 7 in order to stay in it. Using his tools, he created a false panel in the wall of his cell (68) and began one of the most daring prison escapes. Klinedinst and his roommate began digging a tunnel after lights out, keeping a plaster mask in their beds to fool guards. Using spoons and tin cans, they dug a 31-inch opening in the concrete wall.
Over the course of a year and a half, they dug 15 feet down, 97 feet out from under the prison, and another 15 feet up to free land above. The tunnel was sophisticated too, Klinedinst shored it with wood bracing and even equipped it with lights and ventilation fans. He was even able to filter the excess dirt through a tube into the sewage system so no one could detect their work.
On the morning of April 3, 1945, Klinedinst, his roommate, and ten other inmates including Willie Sutton snuck into the cell on their way to breakfast and made their way through the tunnel, the largest section of which was just 3 by 3 feet. The twelve men successfully made it to the other side of the prison walls, but many were captured within minutes.
Sutton, still covered in mud. Photo courtesy of EasternState.org
Willie Sutton was a bank robber known for being charming, cunning, and sly. He was the first escapee recaptured after the stint, and made it just two blocks from the penitentiary. Years later, he took credit for being the mastermind behind the plot. While his role in the plan is debatable, it certainly helped him reach infamy.
Klinedinst was a free man for three hours, and his roommate was shot and captured at the home of a former girlfriend. Another escapee actually returned to the penitentiary on April 11, asking to be let back in because he was hungry. Eventually, all of the escapees were recaptured and guards filled most of the tunnel in with ash.
In 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the escape, the tunnel was reopened after an archaeological study. The tunnel, as well as Cellblock 7, were made available to the public.
As much as we work with concrete ourselves, we can't help but be amazed by the ingenuity of this group. You can read more about the escape from Smithsonian.com.
E: info@shotblastinc.com
Shot Blasted 495 bridge over Christina River in Wilmington, DE
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Tile & Carpet Removal in Lynchburg VA
We were excited to be in Lynchburg, VA working at Sellers Verna R MD-Centra Health. Recently, we were called in mid-project to prepare this health facility for new flooring. Our Read more
Blast and Seal in Fredericksburg, VA
We traveled to Fredericksburg, VA to take on a project for a customer. We performed a shot blast and seal on a 220,000 sq ft surface. Check out the photos Read more
Removing Tile and Blasting a Gym Floor at Collegium Charter School
We had the opportunity to help one of our clients, Collegium Charter School in Exton, PA, with their new gymnasium floor. We removed the tile from the 6,400 sq ft surface Read more
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They said the proteins that cause dementia are a type called prions which can stick to metal surfaces, like surgical instruments, and are resistant to conventional sterilisation.
They suggested it could be theoretically possible to become infected with Alzheimer's seeds through a blood transfusion, brain surgery, or invasive dental work, like a root canal operation.
And because the incubation period can be up to 40 years, people could be unaware that they have been contaminated.
The scientists stumbled on the discovery while studying the brains of eight people who died of CJD. All had developed the disease after being injected with human growth hormone taken from bodies between 1958 and 1985, when the practice was banned.
Unexpectedly, four of the patients had huge levels of amyloid beta protein - a sticky deposit which forms among brain cells and stops them communicating with each other properly in Alzheimer's patients.
Smaller amounts were found in three others. Although none had developed dementia, scientists say it is likely they would have, had they lived longer.
"What we need to consider is that in addition to there being sporadic Alzheimer's disease and inherited or familial Alzheimer's disease, there could also be acquired forms of Alzheimer's disease," said lead scientist Prof John Collinge.
"What relevance this has to common forms of Alzheimer's disease out there, we don't know," he added.


I saw the movie Degrassi: Don't Look Back. This movie stars Olivia Scriven (Degrassi), Ricardo Hoyos (Degrassi), Sara Waisglass (Degrassi), and Ana Golja (Degrassi).
When a local girl goes missing, the Degrassi gang bands together to try and find her, only for one of their own to become missing in action.
Also known as Degrassi: Summer Girls.


The KRONEN product portfolio covers the entire chain for fruit, salad and vegetable processing: preparing, cutting, washing, drying, peeling as well as packaging. We can also offer interesting solutions for meat, fish and poultry processing.
Our customers are Fresh-cut and convenience food producers of all company sizes as well as the frozen food industry, catering businesses, commercial kitchens, supermarkets and also airlines and cruise lines from Germany and around the world.
Furthermore, regional suppliers, farmer-to-consumer stores and bakery or butcher shops have been relying on KRONEN's quality for many years.
Whether you are looking for stand-alone machines, entire processing lines or custom-made machinery: It is one of our biggest strengths to meet the individual requirements of our customers flexibly and to deliver tailor-made solutions.
Contact us, we are happy to consult you!
The Dutch fruit and vegetable wholesaler Postuma AGF has put in operation an entire processing facility for vegetables. With this, the family business can provide a diversity of high quality fresh-cut products in-house to their customers. The processing kitchen is mainly used to deliver high-quality fresh-cut vegetables. The range has already been significantly expanded with the new machines.
Passengers of most of the airlines in Europe and overseas benefit from KRONEN's innovative vegetable, salad and fruit processing technology thanks to airline catering companies such as Barakat Quality Plus or LSG Group.
Just as well as commercial kitchens and cafeterias do in Germany and around the world – for example the public soup kitchen of Sao Paulo, the university kitchen of Toulouse or the Brigham Young University in Utah.
Furthermore, international cruise lines - such as Norwegian Cruise Line or MSG Kreuzfahrten - make use of KRONEN's quality machines.


Barbeques Galore Launceston offer a range of wood heaters, bbqs and outdoor furniture. Keep warm this winter in Launceston with one of our wood fire heaters!
Barbeques Galore Launceston has everything you need for entertaining friends and family to create the ultimate outdoor living experience, and to warm your home in the coldest winters. You'll find a selection of quality outdoor furniture and BBQs to help you create a fantastic meal with ease at Barbeques Galore Launceston.
There's more to Barbeques Galore than just barbeques – we also have all your barbeque accessories, outdoor furniture and wood heating needs covered here in Launceston.
The team at Barbeques Galore Launceston stock a range of quality products in-store, to make you feel confident when shopping with us at Barbeques Galore.
Planning a BBQ in West Launceston? Outdoor entertaining in Launceston and Newstead? Need help with bbq accessories in Trevallyn or Invermay? Barbeques Galore Launceston has your needs covered.
Even if you're heading away for holidays, you don't need to worry about last-minute barbeque dramas. We have stores situated throughout Hobart, so you are sure to find a Barbeques Galore nearby.
No matter whether you live in Invermay, Prospect, Kings Meadows or Mowbray, if you're looking for outdoor furniture, heating, fireplaces, wood heaters, accessories or barbecues in Launceston and the surrounding suburbs, there's only one stop you need to make. Visit Barbeques Galore today to find the perfect addition to your home's outdoor area.
Barbeques Galore Launceston is located at 151-159 York St, Launceston, TAS, 7250. Call them today on 03 6334 4922.


Open source isn't just a licensing/business strategy, it's a better way of producing software and a better way of training developers. The driving principle of the academic model is to make students fail. The bell curve rules, if all students pass something is 'wrong'. The driving principle of open source is to help each developer reach their own greatest potential. Good developers are good for the project.


text:
universaltopvideos
Byadminuni
Founded in 2007, Pragmatic Play is a Maltese game developer. It is a preferred partner of many top online casinos. Its games are developed in HTML5, making them compatible with all mobile devices. They are also available for free play.
Pragmatic Play offers a range of slots. Most of them are designed in three-dimensional style with impressive graphics. They have 243 ways to win and excellent animations.
Pragmatic Play has a reputation for producing some of the best slots available in the industry. The company has won many awards for its innovative slot games. They are also known for their focus on mobile optimization.
Pragmatic Play games are also certified by Gaming Laboratories International. They are periodically tested for fairness and randomness. The company also has a proprietary bonus platform called Enhance ™. This platform offers free rounds and prize multipliers. It also runs social tournaments.
The company is licensed in over 20 jurisdictions across the world. In addition to its casino games, Pragmatic also offers bingo and poker solutions. These games are available in over eighteen languages. The company has offices in Romania, Ukraine, Great Britain, and Malta.
Pragmatic Play has also developed several scratchcards. The company also provides a games development platform. This allows operators to configure games to meet their needs. The company also offers a wide range of jackpot games.
The company's main focus is on online slots. They have over a hundred titles in their library. They also offer table and scratchcard games.
What You Should Know About Casinos
adminuni
Jan 28, 2023 adminuni
Understanding the Laws and Regulations of Online Gambling


It has been a couple of years since we really started to make the most out of Twitter. Since then we have experimented with a live Twitter feed on our homepage and alongside our blog articles. We have hired a dedicated social media producer. And most recently we joined the Twitter Promoted Products beta.
I'd like to start with a few caveats.
Firstly, Econsultancy is a B2B-focused brand and our audience, goals and tactics are somewhat different from those of a B2C company. I'm sharing this information mainly because that's what we try to do, but also to attract more insight from people like you.
Secondly, I don't think you should read too much into some of these numbers. Not yet, anyway. There is a real customer engagement story here. It's not all about the easy-to-spot numbers, but sometimes about how they're interpreted. See my wishlist at the foot of this post for what we should also be looking at.
Thirdly, we haven't truly optimised our site to make the most of Twitter referrals. Our Twitter account is largely powered by our blog content, and blog articles are certainly not the best converting pages on our (or any) site. We plan on doing a better job of integrating the Twitter API in the months to come, to create new functionality that will increase onsite engagement.
Now let's see how this compares to the same period in 2010?
As such, we might surmise that visitors who enter via our 'Twitterfeed' links are either following @econsultancy on Twitter, or may have stumbled upon a retweet by somebody who is.
Further analysis shows that 'Twitterfeed' referrals have a higher average order value than both 'Twitter.com' (which can be defined as non-'Twitterfeed' links on Twitter.com) and also – perhaps surprisingly – customers referred via natural search. This backs up my hunch that customers who have clicked on our Twitterfeed links are far more highly engaged than those who visit via 'Twitter.com' (ditto search). And also that it pays to engage, as the theory goes.
The percentage of new visitors referred by Twitter is increasing. Perhaps not surprising given Twitter's vast growth.
The overall volume of visitors is also going up… but then again we have been active in Twitter's Promoted Products beta, and have bought traffic that way. That will account for some of this near-30% growth.
Relatively few visitors find their way to Econsultancy via the Twitter mobile site. This number seems low, but then most of us use Twitter clients on our smartphones. Mobile users tend to be new visitors.
Time on site is falling. This could be due to any number of factors, particularly our content.
What we're especially interested in is whether or not this is new revenue, or revenue generated by existing Econsultancy users who use Twitter to stay tuned into to what we're doing (much as they might once have done via email, which remains a powerful channel for us).
So roughly 60% of our Twitter visitors are a) Returning Visitors, and have previously been on the Econsultancy website, and b) Returning Visitors generate 90% of the transactional e-commerce revenue we allocate to the Twitter channel.
It may seem like Twitter isn't all that great for Econsultancy as far as new customer acquisition business is concerned, and that we should be having a major rethink. But scratch beneath the surface and there's much more to it than that. It's not at all easy to dismiss Twitter as a source of value to our business.
Firstly, the key thing to note here is that we're only counting e-commerce revenue, which is defined as transactions that take place onsite. Visitors who become customers typically buy subscriptions, book training courses, or sign up to paid events. All of these things have a modest value, typically less than £2,000.
Higher value purchases tend to be invoiced, and e-commerce revenue, as defined by our Google Analytics filter, doesn't include anything paid via an invoice. So if you're a new visitor who subsequently asks Econsultancy to create and deliver a global in-company digital training programme, or who sponsors one of our major events, then that's not going to be counted by Google Analytics if you ask to pay by invoice. These things fall outside of the boundaries of 'e-commerce', as far as our tracking is concerned.
Also, we do not include advertising revenue in e-commerce revenue, because it can't really be considered as 'e-commerce'. Econsultancy isn't massively reliant on advertising: we normally show one ad in the sidebar of our blog pages, and that's pretty much it. That said, I can tell you that Twitter users have accounted for at least £30k in ad revenue over the past year.
As such I'm in no doubt that that revenue derived from Twitter users is in the six-figure range, which is enough to justify the effort and the budget we spend on it.
What we're less clear about is whether the 90%-10% Returning-New ratio is consistent across the invoiced revenue. If anything I'd expect the higher value accounts to be more likely to be based on existing relationships, rather than new ones. That said, we can allocate around 40% of advertising revenue to new visitors referred by Twitter.
Twitter visitors are becoming more valuable. In February 2011 Twitter visitors were worth, on average, 14p per visit value. That's twice as much as they were worth in February 2010, though is currently about a third of the average site visitor.
We can see that Twitter visitors typically spend less than the average customer (£84 vs £116). Search traffic lives somewhere between the two, with customers referred by a search engine spending around £100 on average. Search volumes are of course significantly higher.
Twitter visitors convert to customers about 56% less than the average site visitor. Search traffic is, perhaps rather obviously, twice as likely to convert as Twitter traffic. I do think that Twitter is becoming more important as a search tool, at least as far as my own behaviour is concerned, but that it remains largely a browse-based medium (unlike Google, which requires a keyword query in order to be useful, and is much more intent-orientated).
Measuring hard metrics such as traffic and sales is just the start. We must step back and see the bigger picture when measuring social media.
For example, I haven't (yet) measured the accrual of inbound links and any acceleration in link velocity since we started to seriously use Twitter. I'd like to be able to do that, to see how all of the chatter and retweeting on Twitter flows out onto other sites, and how that affects search rankings and referrals.
I haven't yet looked at the softer brand metrics. I know for a fact that Econsultancy's brand positioning and reach has improved in the past two or three years, which just so happens to coincide with the rise of Twitter (and our adoption of it as a platform). I just don't know exactly how much it has improved, nor what the value of that might be.
I'd like to be able to split out Twitter users in more detail, for example by Twitter client, e.g. 'Tweetdeck' vs Twitter.com. I have a strong suspicion that advanced Twitter users behave differently from Twitter.com users.
I've mentioned Twitter Search, which is a) useful but b) rather limited. As such we're watching the rise of Google Realtime closely and will soon start tracking it in Google Analytics, to see what proportion of Twitter-related traffic may originate from it.
And finally, I want to look at the customer lifetime value of new visitors referred by Twitter, to see whether they're any more or less loyal than the average Econsultancy subscriber.
There are all kinds of other things to share with you, and plenty more that I'd like to be doing, but for now let's wrap this up. I'd love to hear about your own experiences of making sense of Twitter. Do leave a comment below.
may have some stiff competition soon.
One Sunday earlier this year I made the mistake of deciding that a shopping spree on Oxford Street would be a good idea. My first Larry David moment occurred within about two minutes of entering the first shop.
After an unproductive and highly frustrating couple of hours I bailed out and let rip on Twitter. One tweet included the dreaded f-word.
Is PHD Worldwide the latest agency to commit a social media faux pas?
It's looking as if global media agency PHD Worldwide should have taken more notice of the old TV adage: "Never work with animals or children".
It subsequently features lots of other teens who earnestly play a game of buzzword bingo by spouting phrases like "social graph" and "social APIs" at the beleaguered viewer, thereby making it immediately non-believable (even if, at its core, the video seems reasonably accurate about where things are heading).


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Tavish Scott
Tavish Scott MSP
Welcome to Tavish Scott MSP's biography pages
Here you can find out about your MSPs' political activities and how to get in touch with them.
Member for: Shetland Islands
Region: Highlands and Islands
Party: Scottish Liberal Democrats
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That the Parliament congratulates the Shetland team on winning the junior inter-county competition 2019; notes that Shetland lifted the Stuart Cup ahead of Orkney with a 173-124 win; understands that Seumas Mackay and Hannah Robertson ably captained Shetland to victories in swimming, hockey, athletics and football, and through a tough encounter against a winning Orkney netball team; recognises the talent and effort of the participants from across the Northern Isles and the hard work of the coaches and organisers who make the annual event such a success, and looks forward to training beginning in earnest ahead of next year's clash.
Motion S5M-17518: Tavish Scott, Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Date Lodged: 03/06/2019 Show Full Motion >>
Supported by: Monica Lennon, Liam McArthur, Bill Kidd, Richard Lyle, Tom Arthur, Gil Paterson
Current Status: Fallen on 02/10/2019
That the Parliament congratulates the winners and nominees from Shetland at the Fishing News Awards 2019; recognises that Chris Duncan, who is a skipper from Altaire, won the Pelagic Fisherman of the Year award and that the Whalsay-based, Research, was named New Pelagic Boat of the Year; notes that the Serene and the Tranquility were also up for New Boat of the Year awards, alongside a nomination for Duncan Cumming of the Avrella for Demersal Fisherman of the Year, Ross Sutherland of the Arcturus for the Young Fisherman of the Year title and the Shetland Shellfish Management Organisation for the Sustainability Award; believes that the strong Shetland representation at the awards is a reflection of the dedication and ingenuity of those working the in the sector, and recognises the continued importance of the fishing industry to Shetland and the wider economy.
Supported by: David Torrance, Bill Kidd, Richard Lyle
That the Parliament considers Shetland's inclusion in Lonely Planet's list of the 10 best travel destinations in Europe for 2019 thoroughly deserved; notes that Shetland was the only UK destination included; believes that the isles are a fantastic tourist destination boasting spectacular coastlines, wildlife, food and drink and heritage; considers that a visit to the isles should take in Up Helly Aa, celebrated every January, traditional music on show throughout the year, world famous Fair Isle knitting and unrivalled seafood while exploring the rich history and dramatic scenery on its doorstep; believes this coveted recognition by Lonely Planet to be testament to the hard work of all those involved in the tourism industry and who make Shetland such a welcoming place to visit; looks forward to another busy tourist season, and hopes that more visitors will be encouraged to venture north in the future.
Supported by: Edward Mountain, Bill Kidd, Rona Mackay, Liam McArthur, David Torrance, Richard Lyle, Stewart Stevenson, Clare Adamson, Angela Constance, Maureen Watt, Gillian Martin, Tom Arthur
That the Parliament believes that there is no more important investment than in the education of Scotland's young people; recalls that the First Minister said that education would be her administration's number one priority, but believes that this has not been reflected in its focus, policies, staff conditions, recruitment and retention, or the means of measurement of Scottish education.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 15/05/2019
As an amendment to motion S5M-17091 in the name of Liz Smith (Subject Choice), insert at end ", and asks the Scottish Government to initiate a review of implementation to help inform these actions, recalling that the OECD's 2015 perspective on improving schools in Scotland recommended extensive evaluation of curriculum for excellence at both local and Scotland-wide level."
Motion S5M-17091.1: Tavish Scott, Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Date Lodged: 30/04/2019 Show Full Motion >>
That the Parliament congratulates the winners of the 2019 Shetland Young Fiddler of the Year Awards; notes that Ashley Hay won the overall title, after her success in the Traditional and Open senior categories and winning the prize for best played slow air; applauds the other award winners, Evie Williamson, who won the Young Fiddler and Traditional junior categories, Anya Johnston, for the best played reel, Gracie Gowans-Little, the Intermediate Young Fiddler winner, Maisie Henderson, who won the Traditional Intermediate category, Holly Anderson, for the best played waltz, Christine Hughson, for the best reel in the Shetland style and Jayden Moore and Margaret Robertson, who won the Junior and Senior tune competitions respectively; commends all of the competitors for their dedication, and believes that their achievements represent a thriving future for Shetland's traditional music.
Supported by: Edward Mountain, Bill Kidd, Stuart McMillan, Richard Lyle, Clare Adamson, Alex Rowley, Tom Arthur, Maureen Watt, Alison Johnstone
That the Parliament congratulates team replenish from Brae High School on winning the Shetland Young Enterprise competition; notes that the team was inspired by the plastic waste washing up on Shetland's coastline to produce reusable aluminium water bottles; recognises the strong competition from the Bee Better team from Anderson High School, which also had an environmental focus and produced beeswax wrap replacements for cling film; commends the efforts of both teams and their advisers, and wishes replenish all the best representing Shetland at the finals in Edinburgh in June 2019.
Supported by: Donald Cameron, Stuart McMillan, Bill Kidd, Jamie Halcro Johnston, Richard Lyle, David Torrance, Gil Paterson, Tom Arthur
That the Parliament congratulates Shetland Women's Aid on being awarded funding of £280,716 from the National Lottery Community Fund Scotland; understands that the funding will be used to support service users by providing a three-stage trauma recovery programme to help break cycles of abuse across adult, young people's and children's services; further understands that the five-year project will provide one-to-one and group therapy sessions, as well as a refuge when needed, and will help encourage services users to re-engage with their local community; considers the funding award thoroughly deserved, and commends the work of Shetland Women's Aid and Women's Aid services across Scotland.
Supported by: Bill Kidd, Stewart Stevenson, Stuart McMillan, Miles Briggs, Richard Lyle, Rona Mackay, Joan McAlpine, Tom Arthur, Gail Ross, Clare Adamson
That the Parliament congratulates the Community Development Company of Nesting (CDCN) on being awarded £44,851 from the SUEZ Communities Trust; understands that the funding will be used to transform the Aald Skül in Nesting into a multi-function community space, which will accommodate the Nesting History Group, office space for a development worker and business start-ups and a gym and training space, and improve the scrap-store facility; believes that this funding will be put to good use to the benefit of the whole Nesting community, and wishes the CDCN group well as the project progresses.
Supported by: Richard Lyle, Miles Briggs, Stewart Stevenson, Joan McAlpine, Tom Arthur
That the Parliament congratulates the Shetland Soap Company, part of COPE Ltd social enterprise, on the launch of its new website; notes that the website reflects the company's recent rebranding of product ranges and packaging and gives visitors a seamless user experience; recognises that the Shetland Soap Company has a strong social mission, giving meaningful employment to people with learning disabilities and autism, who handcraft all of the soaps in its premises in Lerwick; understands that this new, sleek website will allow the Shetland Soap Company to grow what it considers its impressive, socially conscious brand, and wishes the team the very best in achieving that growth.
Supported by: Liam McArthur, Tom Mason, Bill Kidd, Richard Lyle, Alexander Burnett, Tom Arthur
Search for other Questions asked by Tavish Scott
Question S5W-24061: Tavish Scott, Shetland Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Date Lodged: 26/06/2019 Show Full Question >>
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21121 by Fergus Ewing on 8 February 2019, how many units in Shetland received payment in 2014 from (a) the Basic Payment Scheme, (b) the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme, (c) greening measures and (d) other agri-environmental schemes, also broken down by the amount allocated.
Answered by Fergus Ewing (17/07/2019):
2014 payments to businesses in Shetland by scheme and amount:
Scheme Amount of Businesses Amount Paid
Single Farm Payment (Predecessor to BPS) 898 £3,500,000
LFASS 800 £2,538,718.44
RP 149 £1,183,217.60
LMO 144 £218,830
Please note;
BPS/Greening - Not applicable as BPS scheme only came into existence in 2015.
AECS – Not applicable as AECS scheme only came into existence in 2016.
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 17/07/2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21226 by Fergus Ewing on 15 February 2019, what the total eligible hectarage claimed under agricultural and environmental support schemes in Shetland was in 2014.
Total Hectarage claimed in Shetland in 2014 by scheme:
Hectarage Claimed (Ha)
Single Farm Payment (Predecessor to BPS)
LFASS
LMO
BPS scheme only came into existence in 2015
AECS scheme only came into existence in 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that alternative models of early learning and childcare provision are promoted to eligible families.
Answered by Maree Todd (18/07/2019):
The Scottish Government is increasing the funded early learning and childcare entitlement and is introducing Funding Follows the Child to increase flexibility and choice for families.
From August 2020, parents and carers- including those of eligible 2 year olds – will be able to choose to use their child's entitlement at any ELC provider that meets the National Standard, has a place available and is willing to enter into a contract with the local authority.
The options offered to parents will depend on local availability but local authorities are working with a range of providers across the private, third and public sectors, including childminders, to increase choice. Local authorities are required to consult every two years on the delivery of funded early learning and childcare in their area. This consultation should include models, flexibility and systems of choice so that parents can inform options on offer within the local authority area.
It is important that parents and carers have access to the information they need to make informed choices about early learning and childcare for their child. Our Parent Club website ( www.parentclub.scot/elc ) includes advice and guidance to help parents make an informed choice when considering what ELC is best for them and their family. We are increasing the amount of information available on the Parent Club website and local authorities are working to raise awareness locally as we prepare for August 2020.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 18/07/2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Children and Early Years on 1 May 2018 (Official Report, c. 13), what data it will use to evidence the near doubling of the uptake of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds; what its response is to reported concerns regarding how such data is collected, and by what date this data will be published.
The Scottish Government collects data on the number of two year olds registered for funded early learning and childcare (ELC) through the annual ELC census and publishes this each December. These statistics have been designated as National Statistics by the UK Statistics Authority, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The most recent publication is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-schools-scotland-9-2018/ .
We recognise that the current ELC census is not sufficient to provide the information necessary to support this growing sector and so we are carrying out a development project to improve the ELC census and move to an individual level child census, which should produce initial results in 2021. This will allow us to overcome some of the recognised issues with the current census such as the double counting of children who are registered at more than one ELC setting.
We are working with HMRC and DWP to improve our estimation of the eligible two year old population based on the eligibility criteria and in light of changes to the qualifying benefits parents receive. The legal data-sharing gateway that we are pursuing with the UK Government will further improve the data available.
In addition, as part of the ELC expansion programme, the Improvement Service is collecting data from local authorities on our behalf. The next ELC delivery progress update will be published this summer and will provide information on the number of eligible two year olds receiving more than 600 hours of funded ELC.
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made with the UK Government on data sharing to help identify two-year-olds who are eligible for funded early learning and childcare, and whether difficulties on this issue relate to data protection laws preventing the DWP providing a list of just those parents who definitely are eligible.
Unlike local authorities in England, local authorities in Scotland do not have access to, or receive, information from the Department for Work and Pensions which would identify families who are potentially eligible for funded early learning and childcare for 2 year olds.
In order that Scottish local authorities can also access information that will help to promote the offer to potentially eligible families, we are working with the UK Government to develop new legislation under the Digital Economy Act 2017 which will create a legal data-sharing gateway for Scottish local authorities. In this matter we are reliant on the UK Government and UK Parliament and subject to their timescales.
Whilst the development of a legal gateway is underway, we are working with local government. HMRC, DWP and across the Scottish Government to establish routes for sharing data safely and securely once the legal gateway is in place.
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the Minister for Children and Early Years on 1 May 2018 (Official Report, c. 13), how it will meet the aim of a near doubling of the uptake of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds, and by what date this will be achieved.
My statement of 1 May 2018 confirmed that the Scottish Government and local government had reached a landmark multi-year funding package to enable the near doubling of the statutory entitlement to funded ELC from 600 to 1140 hours each for all 3 and 4 year olds and eligible 2 year olds from August 2020. Supported by that agreement, an enormous amount of work is underway in local authorities across Scotland to phase in the new offer ahead of full implementation from August 2020.
Our funding agreement with local government, whilst runs until 2021-22, includes resources sufficient to deliver a near doubling of the uptake of funded ELC among eligible 2 year olds. We and local government are working in partnership with the ELC sector and through other services to raise awareness of the offer for 2 year olds. In addition to increasing the information available nationally, including through a new ELC Hub on Parent Club, we are working with partners to ensure that trusted professionals, such as Health Visitors, Housing Officers and Family Nurses, are aware of the ELC offer for 2 year olds and able to signpost eligible families to more information about what is available locally.
We are also working with the UK Government to secure a legal data-sharing gateway to enable Scottish local authorities to receive information from the Department for Work and Pensions about potentially eligible families. The UK Department for Education has attributed a significant increase in uptake of their 2 year old offer to a similar data-sharing gateway already in place for English local authorities.
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that early learning and childcare provision is promoted through a diverse range of sources, and whether it is exploring cross-promotion with other entitlements.
The Scottish Government is working together with local authorities and wider stakeholders to ensure that early learning and childcare (ELC) is promoted in a range of ways. This includes:
The development of an ELC hub on www.parentclub.scot/elc as a trusted place for information on ELC.
The use of social media to reach parents and carers as well as those working with them.
The development of leaflets and posters about the ELC expansion, being disseminated via ELC settings; libraries and stakeholders.
The inclusion of an ELC leaflet in the Scottish Book Trusts toddler Bookbug bag, which is distributed to all 1 year olds in Scotland.
We also know that trusted professionals are key to reaching families who are less likely to take up their ELC place, so we are working with partners to ensure that professionals such as Health Visitors, Housing Officers and Family Nurses are aware of the ELC offer and the changes that are taking place with the expansion to 1140 hours. This includes the development of a 'toolkit' for partners to use to ensure consistent messaging.
Other planned work for 2019-20 includes:
The distribution of a multi-language leaflet that will contain a high level outline of the ELC offer in 6 languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Urdu, Gaelic, Polish, and Arabic and signpost parents to where they can get further info on ELC.
The development of a marketing campaign which is likely to include channels such as radio, outdoor advertising, digital and social media, along with targeted activity with a range of stakeholder and partners relevant to the target audience. The main focus of this campaign will be timed to coincide with the local authority application window.
We are also working internally across Government to make best use of new systems and capabilities, such as Best Start Grant, to identify opportunities for shared communications where we can deliver key messages about ELC and particularly the 2 year old entitlement.
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent Child Health 27-30 Month Review Statistics, what steps it is taking to close the child development gap between young children in poverty and their peers who are not in poverty.
Investment in Early Learning and Childcare Nurseries, the increase in Health Visitor numbers and the implementation of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway are among the steps the Scottish Government is taking to ensure children and families get access to the right support in their earliest years. The Universal Pathway, published in October 2015, recognises that poverty is one of the biggest risk factors linked to poorer health and development outcomes. It includes three Child Health Reviews which assess children's growth and development. These contacts provide an opportunity for health visitors, children and their parents to build a strong relationship, in which health visitors can appropriately support all families, including acting as a gateway to other services.
Additionally from August 2020, we are near doubling the statutory entitlement to funded early learning and childcare from 600 hours to 1140 hours each for all 3 and 4 year olds and around a quarter of 2 year olds. Evidence shows that high quality ELC has a positive impact on children's outcomes. Our offer of funded ELC for 2 year olds is targeted towards those children who are most likely to benefit from early access to high quality funded ELC. Our commitment to funding 435 Equity and Excellence leads in ELC settings serving Scotland's most disadvantaged communities means that many of the eligible two year olds are also benefitting from access to an extra graduate-level practitioner who can further support their development.
The broad range of action we are taking to tackle child poverty is set out within our first annual progress report due under the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act – published on 26 June 2019. This sets out the clear steps we have taken towards genuine reductions in child poverty levels, including plans for the new Scottish Child Payment.
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Save the Children's briefing, Thriving at two and beyond, what steps it is taking to improve (a) the uptake of funded early learning and childcare for, (b) awareness and understanding of the funded childcare offer for families with, and (c) the quality of funded early learning and childcare for eligible two-year-olds.
The Scottish Government welcomes the focus on 2 year olds from Save the Children and their briefing "Thriving at two and beyond" which rightly draws out the key themes of our own ongoing work with local authorities and stakeholders to increase uptake, awareness and quality of the 2 year old funded early learning and childcare (ELC) offer.
We are working with the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative to support 9 multi-agency Local Authority teams to increase awareness and uptake of the 2 year old offer in their areas. We are also working with the UK Government and UK Parliament to secure a legal gateway and data sharing agreement so that Local Authorities in Scotland can also access accurate information about eligible populations.
We are improving the information available to parents and carers to help them make informed decisions about ELC, in particular through our new ELC Hub on Parent Club. We are continually looking for opportunities to promote the offer through other services such as Health Visiting Pathway and Financial Health Check, as well as making best use of new systems and capabilities, such as Best Start Grant, to join up our messaging about the services available to support families.
Quality is at the heart of our ELC offer. From August 2020, all ELC providers will have to meet our National Standard, to ensure that all children benefit from a high quality funded ELC experience. We are also refreshing the national practice guidance 'Building the Ambition' and increasing access to graduate-level practitioners in our most disadvantage communities through our funding for 435 Equality and Excellence leads.
To ask the Scottish Government whether local authorities in Scotland (a) are entitled to access and (b) receive the lists that are produced by the DWP for local authorities in England, seven times per year, of parents who are potentially eligible for funded early learning and childcare for two-year-olds.
In order that Scottish local authorities can also access information that will help to promote the offer to potentially eligible families, we are working with the UK Government to development new legislation under the Digital Economy Act 2017 which will create a legal data-sharing gateway for Scottish local authorities. In this matter we are reliant on the UK Government and UK Parliament and subject to their timescales.
Whilst the development of a legal gateway is underway, we are working with local government, HMRC, DWP and across the Scottish Government to establish routes for sharing data safely and securely once the legal gateway is in place.
Email: Tavish Scott
Visit: Tavish's website
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I have loved this bright summer dress since it came out, I think back in late spring. And of course, I was going to wait until it went on sale. I was thinking it would be included in the After Party Sale (this morning at 8am!). But, just like this eyelet dress from this post, Sarah held it for me at the Belk she works at when it went on sale for 50% off! Isn't she the best? This is easily the most colorful dress I own, and it has pockets, so basically it's the perfect summer dress for me! I love how it can be so casual, but I was able to dress it up a bit for work (as seen in this Instagram) by layering it with a chambray and flats. I also really loved this location, so many pretty sunflowers! I wanted to go back to the sunflower field I went to last summer, but they either didn't grow them this year, or they were taken out to be sold. But on the way there, we found some more! By the way, the sunflowers I am holding were not cut from the ones behind me, they were bought before, there is even Instagram proof!


was born in Montreal, Quebec. As the son of a prominent dentist, he grew up in an atmosphere where medical and health related discussions were common.
Sanford Lapedis became dedicated to homeopathy after he himself was cured at the age of 22 by a homeopathic practitioner.
He received his MDHS from the International Academy of Homeopathic Science, and holds a degree in Naturopathy, and is a licensed Naturopath with the Academy of Naturopaths & Naturotherapists.
He is a well established classical homeopath with more than 30 years of experience in the field of restoring people back to health and well-being.
Of his mission, Sanford Lapedis says: "In order to uplift society and the general well-being of humankind, the focus of our efforts must begin with the physical and mental health of each individual."