t2 business solutions blog

The Cultural Olympiad in Wales

The Olympic and Paralympic Games were secured for London on the basis that the whole of the UK would be involved in a celebration of culture during the four years between the Beijing Handover in August 2008 and the London Games in 2012. This four-year celebration is the Cultural Olympiad.

Culture and sports have, in the past, been extremely closely associated with the Olympics and in fact during the last UK Games in 1948 medals were being awarded for the arts as well as for sports.

A busy programme of events is being developed throughout Wales over the next four years. These projects and activities will culminate in 2012 and which will, it is hoped, grow to involve as many of the young people of Wales as possible.

click here for more information

Olympic Heroes Return to Cardiff

icWales reported today on the massive welcome for our Olympic Heroes! Nine Welsh athletes, including four medal winners, were today given an open-top bus tour through the streets of Cardiff Bay before arriving to hundreds of cheering and screaming supporters.

Crowds lined the route to applaud the members of Team GB including gold medal winners Nicole Cooke, Tom James and Geraint Thomas, and silver medal winner David Davies. They were greeted on the steps of the Senedd building by First Minister Rhodri Morgan and Welsh Sports Minister Alun Ffred Jones, in front of a sea of Welsh flags – and a solitary Union Jack.

Cyclist Nicole Cooke said: “It still feels just as good as it did the moment I crossed the finish line. I think it was one of the best emotions of my life. To be an Olympic winner right at the top of my sport has been a dream.”

Congratulations to all nine Welsh Olympic Heroes, and a massive congratulations to the four Welsh medal winners! Da Iawn! Well Done!

Create your own comic book

Yep thats right...people will soon be able to create their own comics online using a mixture of stock characters, speech bubbles and backgrounds via a new digital application called Comicbrush.com.

The site has been developed by digital comic publisher Clickwheel and is headed up by the firm's creative director Will Simons. It is due to launch on 17th September.

Comicbrush.com will be free to use and will allow users to access a periodically updated library of clip art and speech bubbles from across a variety of comic book styles.

The site will also carry a collection of paid-for premium comic artwork, which can be bought via a built-in shop.

Comic enthusiasts will have the option of uploading their own photography and drawings to combine with the comic art packs. The finished comics can then be emailed, uploaded to social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace and sent to iPhone and iTouch handsets.

Managers Needs Training to Deal With Stress

An interesting article on the ILM website explains how managers need to be trained properly to deal with stress issues.

According to research by Chiumento, only 16% of employees take a proper lunch break due to workplace pressures. A spokesperson for the International Stress Management Association has warned that firms could face problems if such issues are not dealt with properly.

It has been said that managers should take the time to engage with employees and ask them what they feel can be done about the situation. According to the Stress Management Society, the condition affects one-fifth of the working population and costs UK industry £3.7 billion each year.

t2 business solutions offers a Managing Stress training course which highlights stress issues and how to resolve them. For more information visit t2's website.