HTM guest speaker tells of success

First year Hospitality and Tourism Management students had the opportunity of listening to the success story of a former student earlier this month who has gone on to set up her own business.

Nicki Shevlane graduated in 2007 and was the invited guest speaker on March 1 for the current HTM students. Nicki started her 'club night' business while in the third year of her studies, launching at The Arches in Glasgow and still running there today.

Octopussy now operates in five cities in Scotland and Ireland and is due to expand in to England later this year. She also owns the Jelly Baby and Straighten Up brands which operate in the nightclub and festival markets.

Nicki employs over 300 people and she told the first year students how she got started and grew her business, as well as giving an overview of the events and nightclub business. Distinctively, Nicki's club nights feature novelty attractions such as ball pools and bouncy castles in the nightclub setting.

Andrew MacLaren, Department of Management, said Nicki's talk had gone down well with the students and added that Nicki had now agreed to work in partnership with the business school as she expands, taking students on in internship roles across all aspects of her business from PR, Marketing and E-Marketing to Operations and Events Management.

Workshop on game theory

Dr Alex Dickson (Economics) is organising a workshop on game theory with a particular focus on games with aggregative features. The workshop will be held at the University of Strathclyde in the Scottish Universities Insight Institute on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th April. If you are interested in attending the workshop please contact Alex Dickson no later than March 25.

New book for Hunter Centre academic

Professor Sara Carter has had a new book published, titled the 'Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship in Agriculture and Rural Development' and published by Edward Elgar. The book is an edited collection of work from around the world, containing contributions from 46 authors and 17 different countries. The book is co-edited with colleagues from the Nordland Research Institute in Norway and Jonkoping International Business School in Sweden. The formal book launch took place on March 2 at the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Oslo.

Book published by management academic

Professor Robert Chia (Department of Management) and colleague Professor Hari Tsoukas from Warwick University (formerly Strathclyde) have edited a Research Monograph in the Prestigious Research Series: 'Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol, 32: Philosophy and Organization Theory', which has just been released by Emerald Books in March 2011.