What’s your first tech memory?

“Earliest tech memory? Playing with my Dad’s LED tester. His job was in LED R&D back in the 1970s so we had a big heap of spare LEDs lying around, and a clever metal black box you could plug the bulbs into, flick a switch, and hey presto, the bulbs sprang into life.”

(My response to the Guardian technology blog question ‘What’s your first tech memory?’ in the run-up to Rob’s 70th birthday on the 26th. He even co-authored a book on the subject, Williams, E. W. and R. Hall. Luminescence and the Light-Emitting Diode. Pergamon Press, 1978.)

My first memory of a coincidence was playing with a fire engine as a 4-year-old outside our starter home in Danbury, Essex, while firemen raced into the kitchen to put out an oven fire started by Diane. And now I’m back in Essex again (the less posh end).

New internal communciation benchmark data

This internal communciation benchmark data report from Melcrum looks of interest, especially for me having just today launched a website in China – medicexchange:

“The number of internal communicators reporting staff increases in the last year varied across all regions, with the smallest percentage increase being 29% (Rest of World). However, it was respondents in Asia Pacific who reported the highest rate of growth, with 43% of departments reporting an increase in headcount.”

Apparently based on a survey of over 1,100 professional communicators, the report presents detailed information on budgets, salaries, structures and trends in internal communication. The data is also broken down so that you can benchmark with other functions in your industry and region.

PS: The report’s called ‘The Pulse’.