Events to be streamed live to Guernsey audience by GTA University Centre

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The GTA University Centre is putting together a programme where live events will be streamed live to a Guernsey audience.

The move follows the success of a pilot event where a lecture given by William Hutton, principal of Hertford College, Oxford, was streamed live from London. Mr Hutton is a political economist, columnist and former editor in chief of the Observer and more recently he was appointed Chairman of the UK’s Big Innovation Centre. His lecture, which was part of Plymouth University Business School’s Beyond Capitalism lecture series, looked at sustainable business strategies for the 21^st century.

‘For many years, the GTA has had visiting lecturers and speakers for its courses but this was the first time that we had hosted a live event streamed from the UK. It was very much an experiment but one which was extremely successful,’ said deputy chief executive Simon Le Tocq.

‘William Hutton was an excellent speaker, very engaging and his extensive experience meant that his lecture was relevant to all audiences. Based on the positive feedback, we will now be looking at a programme of similar events for 2014.’

The 90 minute lecture, which was also streamed to audiences at Plymouth University, One Great George Street, London and Highlands College in Jersey, was followed by a lively debate led by Deputy Gavin St Pier, minister of Treasury & Resources, and Dr Elaine Monkhouse, GTA University Centre chief executive.

‘Our aim will be to deliver to a Guernsey audience, high quality, thought provoking and educational speakers talking about subjects which are relevant to the island. This will be combined with a panel discussion using local experts to consider the implications for Guernsey,’ said Mr Le Tocq.

‘Live streamed events are well suited to Guernsey because as well as saving the cost of travelling to an event, it also provides an opportunity for thought leaders, be they senior managers from business, politicians or educationalists, to come together, hear the latest thinking on a wide range of subjects and then debate and share ideas.’

The invited audience represented a broad spectrum of industries and included politicians and business leaders, as well as students from the Grammar School.

‘The stream itself was really clear, it was almost as if we were in the same room as Will, and certainly got the audience thinking with a few continuing discussions post event on Twitter. As one of the audience noted, Guernsey’s geographical location sets it up well for live stream events. It is too expensive for islanders to travel off island to attend a lecture, but easy for them to get together to watch a streamed event and discuss it afterwards. So all in all a real success,’ said IoD committee member Martyn Mann, who was one of the attendees.

Mr Le Tocq said they were now looking at a number of different high calibre events which could be streamed live to Guernsey including keynote speakers, annual conferences, TED lectures, ICSA seminar and IoD lectures.

‘We know that current models of how we learn and train are changing and it’s important that the GTA keeps up to date with those changes, and aspires to lead the way. We want to ensure that what we offer is relevant to a Guernsey audience and so we are open to suggestions on what other events might be beneficial and look forward to hearing ideas from the business community,’ he said.