In August 1982 a production company called Lens & Co, run by ex-BBC soundman Bill Hammerton, was asked by Southampton City Council to make a film (yes, 16mm film!) to record the impact the finish of the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race at Southampton made on the city.

It was presented by round-the-world yachtswoman and subsequently best selling author Clare Francis. It was shot by cameraman Ian Clarke, and directed by Focus’s Ian Ward.  Ian has some great memories of flying over the final ‘parade of sail’ in helicopters, and then working nights in the edit suite surrounded by rolls of film (‘that unique smell!’), and having a ‘real giggle’ with Clare Francis in the studio when they recorded the voiceover!

For older Southampton people this film will bring back many memories, as it features the world famous Ocean Terminal, built in 1950 and opened by the Prime Minister, Clement Atlee.  It was eventually demolished in 1983, and is  now replaced by the spectacular QEII Cruise Terminal, with Southampton once again hosting some of the most famous ships in the world.

The Tall Ships arriving in Southampton from Lisbon were, as ever, a magnificent sight in full sail, and the film starts by joining a Polish ship on its journey up Southampton Water. It later shows some of the practical arrangements the City had made for what were expected to be two million visitors to Southampton.  In the event there were probably nowhere near that number, but it was a wonderful occasion for everyone who was there.

Copies of the full film on DVD can be obtained by contacting us.

The Film “The Trouble with Handovers” has been made to highlight the vital importance of clinical handovers to patients’ safety.

We follow the story of David, an elderly man with dementia, after he develops pneumonia and a crush fracture in his thoracic spine. David and his partially – sighted wife have been coping OK at home with support of their daughter. But an admission to hospital goes badly wrong due to important information being lost at various handovers between staff.

The Patient Safety Federation (PSF) is made up of, run by and funded by the healthcare organisations of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Its members collaborate to address those wider patient safety issues of particular relevance to them, bringing to bear on these a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary approach.

The No Needless Ignorance (NNI) workstream is one of ten work streams under the PSF and consists of clinicians from different backgrounds with a common vision who have come together to create this innovative piece that can be used right across the NHS to illustrate how handovers between services can go wrong. Giving clinicians the opportunity to reflect on individual day to day practice and therefore improve handovers and communication to ultimately affect patient safety.

When Headland Media Ltd, owners of Walport maritime training DVD library, wanted to produce a new series on Risk Assessment they asked Focus to tender for the work.  This was our second commission for Headland, the first being about Lifeboat Drills.  One reviewer of that programme commented that ‘training doesn’t have to be boring’.  But the real success was the fact that it sold extremely well to shipping companies and operators.

This first new title in the Risk Assessment series made by Focus is ‘Slips, Trips and Falls’, and not surprisingly it wasn’t an easy commission.  Demonstrating how a seafarer can be seriously injured or killed through a slip, trip or fall wasn’t easy.  Focus considered everything from using stuntmen to animation or puppetry.  In the end the programme makes its point in a variety of ways, and hopefully will also sell well for Headland.

Crucially though, in the end, what really matters is that injuries are reduced and lives are saved among seafarers.

• September 14^th
• October 5^th
• November 2^nd
• December 7^th

There are two sessions each day. Each session will last 3 hours and costs £30 + VAT and will be held at our Southampton studios.

The morning session will start at 10am and the afternoon session at 2pm.

Refreshments will be provided.

The studios have ample off-street car parking.

Each session will be divided into two. In the first half we will look at the background and history of social media and Web 2.0. We will then look at the latest research into social media use and the continued growth of social networking as well as the research into psychology and human behaviour that shows that this is no passing fad.

In the second half we will look at a number of case studies from a range of public and private sector organisations into their use of social media. Some of the case studies will be from the public domain and some from our work with clients such as Poundland, The Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the European Food Information Council. We will use this as a basis for exploring how delegate organisations could use social media themselves.

The objective will be to ensure that all attendees can go back to their organisations much clearer on what social media is, how others are using it and how best they could start using it.

To book your place please call Nicky on 023 8044 8822.

Please note we limit numbers in each session to 6 to maximise the value to each attendee in the case study section.

 Source: The Conversation Prism, Brian Solis/Jesse Thomas  - www.theconversationprism.com

A few years ago we started attending MeasurementCamp in London. It was great as it was very much in the early days of social media but everyone who attended cared about measuring activity and the results of campaigns.

We were able to share our experiences of helping organisations such as Poundland (we did their blog and social media campaigns via their PR agency), the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (we did video podcasts) and the European food Information Council (we did their audio podcasts and webinars). As we hosted and managed the campaigns we were able to use Google Analytics and other tracking tools to report back to clients the ROI.

Sadly we (doesn’t is sound grand rather than saying I) have been unable to make the London meetings as often as we/I would have liked and the event itself stopped happening so it was great to find that they will be meeting again on 21st July. As a result of those earlier meetings information was put online.

For anyone interested in tracking the online ‘buzz’ about themselves, the competition or their industry generally they can check out the details for measurement tools and social media monitoring tools

The US Military are already active users of social media with their blogs, Twitter and Facebook pages. In fact their most senior officers do not just use the tools themselves but actively encourage all ranks to do so too – with due attention to security and operational sensitivity. All new recruits to the US Air Force have an introduction to the use of social media as part of their basic training!

Now the US Air Force Base at Maxwell Alabama has announced it is launching a series of audio and video podcasts.

Lt. Col. Michael Coleman, director of Air University Public Affairs said “…We’re excited to share the Maxwell story across the Internet, and we hope these productions will help communicate further what our mission is all about…”

For additional details of the US military use of social media, the guides they produce and their strategy see here and here.