In Katherine’s spare time she runs a Brownie pack.  They’ve recently been learning about animals so the opportunity was perfect for her to bring back first hand information as well as being a great experience for herself.

Katherine’s had a fantastic experience (returning to the office with only a few lion bite injuries).  Take a look at what she got up to below.

Our first job of each day was to clear up the lion cub enclosures before the public came in, these cubs were 1-6 months old, but were not as tiny as I was first expecting! We also had to play with them and teach them not to bite / scratch the public that came into the enclosure to pet them.

Other duties involved preparing food for the animals that were there, which included cheetahs, hyenas, wild dogs, porcupines, jackals, aardwolf, lions,  giraffe, meerkats and many more.   We had to go and collect termites from their mounds to feed the meerkats and aardwolf as a treat.

Giraffe food (acacia leaves, sunflower and maize pellets) were also sold to the public by ourselves and we were there to supervise and sell. Feeding the giraffes was good fun although they do slobber a lot!

The lion park has a breeding program for white lions as these are scarce in the wild, and so numbers need to be increased, there was only 1 white lion cub at present (4 months old), as the latest litter was 3 tawny lions, that were only 5 weeks old when I arrived, so cute, but still with very sharp teeth and claws. As volunteers we had to bottle feed them 3 times a day, which was more pleasant than the raw meat we were feeding the other carnivores. Local farmers donated most of the meat we feed them with, but normally in the whole form, so we had to advise our meat man how many pieces we needed the cow/horse to be chopped into depending on how many animals we were feeding each night. Not the most pleasant job, but its all in the circle of life.

The problem ?  You’re sitting in the stands enjoying the game with your kids when someone behind you starts yelling foul and abusive language, racist chants or causing trouble.  You can’t tackle them, for fear of what they might do (especially if they’ve had a few beers).  Getting a steward or the police over will draw attention to you and let the yob know that it was you who complained.  So you put up with it or you leave early – but either way you probably won’t want to take your family to the City Ground in a hurry again.

Fortunately such instances are extremely rare at Forest thanks to the efforts of Safety Officer Alan Bexon and his team.  They are extremely proactive and through their meticulous planning and intelligence database, it is safer to watch the Reds now than it’s ever been.

But if the worst happens, Esendex’s Web SMS system is there to help.  Alan says;

“we wanted a solution that could quickly help fans tell us of troublemakers in confidence and not have their own safety compromised”.

Fans simply text the keyword ‘Forest’ to 60066 along with the details of the problem, getting an instant acknowledgement back.

“Within seconds our security control centre gets a copy of the text as an email. The video cameras zoom in on the offender and record the incident.  Stewards and security are dispatched to monitor the incident and the situation is brought under control – all without anyone knowing who complained”.

The number is printed on the reverse of tickets, in the matchday programme and advertised around the ground.  Alan would like to see the 60066 number adopted as the single crowd safety SMS shortcode for every club, so travelling fans would always know the number to text, no matter which ground they are visiting.

Alan’s forward thinking has been recognised by the FA, one of a select team chosen to contribute to the FA’s recently published safety best practices.  Alan’s keen that other clubs follow Forest’s example and use this simple and cost effective SMS solution to make football safer and more enjoyable for everyone.

We’ll be telling all our customers more about this nearer the time, but in the meantime here’s a photo of the building work currently in progress.

The offices are more than double the size of our current home and it’s going to be a great working environment.  We can’t wait to move in and look forward to welcoming some of you there too.

Our CTO Adam checking out the new office

SMS messaging is 25 years old this week. So we’re offering 5 lucky people the chance to win iTunes vouchers worth £25 each.

It’s free to enter!

Just text WIN with your name (e.g. WIN yourname) followed by the best SMS message that you have ever received to 80800. We will need your name to contact you if you are picked as a winner for the competition.

Alternatively, email us your entry to marketing@esendex.com

Examples….

• exam results
• a marriage proposal
• the despatch of your iPhone 4

The competition will close at midnight on the 31st of August and the winning messages will be published on our blog. Only one entry per person.
Please read our terms and conditions before entering.

Good luck!

We have received some great feedback from customers about our application, in particular how easy it is to use. In fact many customers state that if they had known how easy it was to use, they would have started using it sooner.

These comments have prompted us to produce this short video to demonstrate this. We hope you enjoy it and find it informative. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Gemma has been involved with GeekUp for 4 years now. She first got into the Geek community by attending GeekUp Manchester and attending and speaking at the North West Ruby User Group. Gemma was instrumental in setting up GeekUp Preston, where she organised regular meetings with beer and homemade cake. Gemma, helped by her fellow Preston GeekUppers, then went on to organise the very successful Barcamp Blackpool.

(Photo courtesy @Caius )

Now that Gemma is based in Nottingham she has decided it’s time to move GeekUp a little further South, and set up GeekUp Nottingham. Details of the event are as follows:

When: Monday 2nd August 6:30pm
Where: Upstairs at Dogma
What: General geekery and beer. Aim to share knowledge and social network with folks involved or interested in the web and technology industry.
Speakers:
Peter Cooper (Author of “Beginning Ruby” http://www.petercooper.co.uk/) speaking for us:
Ignoring Common Sense: The Aircraft Carrier Made of Ice and Other Technical Flights of Fancy
Get permission to abandon common sense through a look at flights of fancy and “failures” of common sense in the worlds of engineering, computer science, and fashion.
Also speaking, Dominic from Nottinghack (http://www.meetup.com/Nottinghack/) talking about:
Nottinghack – a Hackspace for Nottingham
An overview of the hardware hacker and maker movement in the UK & an introduction to Hackspace Nottingham – Nottinghack.
Followed by a show and tell. Bring along something cool to share with the group, whether it’s a new shiny gizmo, IDE, code snippet or handbag!

Get in touch if you want to get involved gemma.cameron@esendex.com or sign up at:

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/6589920/ENG/Nottingham/GeekUp-Nottingham/Dogma/

If you are not able to attend Monday’s event, you can listen to Gemma being interviewed on BBC Radio Nottingham on Sunday 1st August at 4:15pm

Last week our first ever Operations Director joined Esendex. He will be responsible for improving and driving the development of our operational changes and services, aligned with our global business growth strategy.  Bryan says;

“ I am very excited to be joining Esendex with their ambitious plans to be a global leader in business communications.  I spent 2 years in the USA, as VP for a software company, prior to joining Esendex. So, my experience working abroad will help me to understand how best to support and provide an excellent service to our global customers, whilst adding significant business value to both our client base and Esendex.”

Although Esendex has an excellent service level record for almost 10,000 clients, Bryan believes that there is room for further improvements. He also is aware that the infrastructure and associated operational services need to be strong and scalable in line with our global expansion plans.

“We need to ensure that all our clients experience “excellence” in our service and solution offerings. This means that all operational systems, services and associated activities need to be efficient and reliable.  Personally, I have been impressed since joining Esendex with  their approach to providing good service to their customers. One of  my goals will be to make it an exemplary service.”

Software Developer Gemma is taking part in the Goodwood Roller Marathon on the 8th of August. It’s the largest roller race in the UK.

Although Gemma doesn’t consider herself the sportiest person ever, she does love to skate and she is doing a full marathon…..that’s a whole 26.62 miles.

The charity that she will be supporting is Help for Heroes. They do a great job in helping wounded men and women of the armed forces.

Any donations would be really appreciated, You can donate via the Just Giving webpage.

Good Luck to Gemma!

Please have a good look and let us know what you think!