Sandy Kennedy, left, and John Watson launching the campaign in March A CROWDFUNDING campaign to help Scotland become “the most entrepreneurial society in the world” by 2030 has smashed its target. Entrepreneurial Scotland has raised £140,000 from the drive, nearly twice the original £75,000 that it set out to achieve when it launched #FundTheFuture initiative in March. The funds will be used to increase the number of people who undertake the organisation’s programmes. These include the Saltire Scholar programme, which provides university students with the opportunity to spend the penultimate year of study an internship in Scotland or overseas. The cash raised will also be used to create a bursary scheme to fund its executive leadership programme. This will have a particular emphasis on supporting access for social entrepreneurs, whose vision and leadership benefits society.
DEVELOPERS have hailed a new office building in Freer Street in Edinburgh as it achieves “practical completion”. Developed by Vastint Hospitality as part of its New Fountainbridge mixed-use development, it comprises 59,554 sq ft of Grade A office space over seven floors, said to be “providing a welcome boost to the city’s commercial property market”. In addition to No2 Freer Street, phase 1 of New Fountainbridge includes the newly open 262-bedroom Moxy hotel with rooftop bar, other commercial and retail units plus extensive public realm. It is set within a masterplan of new pedestrian and road routes with landscaped green spaces which will re-connect Fountainbridge to the Union Canal.
Sandy Kennedy Fiona Campbell has it. Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne has it. Nadeem Sarwar has it. Grant Currie has it. Ryan O’Rorke and Assean Sheikh both have it. We all need it. Resilience. Resilience is a word often used, yet little understood. Right now, we crave resilience: for our children, for our teams, for our communities, for our firms, for our society, for our planet, for ourselves. The Oxford English Dictionary definition is: 1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. 2. the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. When everything is stable, trundling onwards, we don’t value resilience – we take it for granted. The status quo, the predictability of life, encourages us to ignore it.
A NEW first-time venture restaurant will have its ethos centred around the concept of whole-animal cooking. The Palmerston is being launched by Lloyd Morse and James Snowdon in the West End of Edinburgh and it is claimed to be a pioneer in the emerging genre. The founders say they are championing sustainability and the method sees every part of the animal used, including largely forgotten cuts, to create an explorative menu of innovative and traditional dishes. Working directly with Scottish farmers, the team will source responsibly-reared meat that will be fully prepared by The Palmerston team. Partnerships with local vegetable growers and fruit producers will see the menu feature must-try dishes for vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians alike .
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ast week one of my favourite people, Freddie Knoller, a Holocaust survivor, turned 100. I met him years ago as a young reporter, and was struck then, as I remain, by his incredibly positive outlook on life, despite the terrible hardships he underwent.
Freddie, full of old-fashioned Viennese charm, was very brave as a young man.
I imagine he and other young Jews of his generation can hardly have expected to live to such a great age. Indeed, so many died untimely deaths it scarcely bears thinking of – except that, for Freddie’s sake, and that of the remaining survivors, we must indeed think of what happened and remind the world whenever we can.