INVEST IN BATH
Cover story
Bath Quays - Investing in the city ’ s future
Once complete , Bath Quays will be the most significant new office development opportunity for Bath in 25 years , creating a vibrant riverside destination .
The waterfront mixed use scheme will be only five minutes walk from Bath Spa railway station and will offer office , residential and leisure opportunities . It will transform both the north and south sides of the river into a dynamic and collaborative business quarter .
Bath Quays is set to enhance the city and region ’ s reputation as a home for enterprise . The development will deliver Grade A office space and flexible workspace , creating a hub of innovation in the digital and creative , financial and professional sectors .
The development will deliver much needed modern office space and will reconnect the city to its riverside with pedestrian and cycle routes , a riverside park and a new bridge .
Accreditation by the International WELL Building Institute ( IWBI ), which promotes health and wellness in buildings and communities , will be sought for the new office space .
290,000 sq ft of new work space will be created , comprising of 250,000 sq ft of Grade A office space with floorplates from 6,000 sq ft up to 60,000 sq ft . It will also create 40,000 sq ft of creative work space following the refurbishment of the Listed Newark Works site on the south side of the river with units from 500 sq ft .
Located in the Enterprise Zone , businesses at Bath Quays will also benefit from business rates relief , to find out more visit : www . investinbath . co . uk / EZ
Ruby , Ruby , Ruby , Ruby .....
An internationally renowned Japanese developer is coming to Bath to speak at a home-grown conference putting Bath on the map for tech .
For most of us a Ruby is the name of a semi-precious stone . For the techies of Bath and beyond , it ’ s a dynamic programming language used by many developers across the world . It was designed and developed in the mid-1990s in Japan by Yukihiro Matsumoto . Today the code powers many popular websites including Airbnb , Kickstarter , Basecamp , Strava , Etsy and the government website Gov . uk .
Bath businessman Simon Starr , owner of web app development company Rockfield Systems has always been a Ruby fan and in 2015 started a Bath-based Ruby conference . It takes place over two days of scheduled talks and has an international attraction . After a sabbatical in 2017 , the event is back for 2018 and will be hosted at The Forum in Bath from Thursday March 22 – Friday March 2 and its founder Yukihiro Matsumoto is flying in to deliver a keynote speech .
We met with Ruby Bath organiser Simon to find out more about it .
What made you start the Ruby Conference in Bath ? I had the idea for Bath Ruby after attending another Ruby conference in 2014 . At the time , this other conference was the only Ruby focused event in the UK and it occurred to me that there was probably enough demand to justify more than one . With no prior experience of event planning , I relied on naive optimism and largely made it up as I went along . Everything went smoothly and I had a lot of great feedback so I decided to make it an annual project .
What are its aims ? Part of my reason for putting on the conference is to raise the profile of Ruby in the South West - after 25 years the language is more popular than ever , and a number of local firms are hiring “ Rubyists ”, but many are struggling to find people because there ’ s a shortage of skilled developers in the region .
Who does Ruby Bath attract ? And how far do people travel to attend ? Most of the audience consists of software developers who use Ruby in their day-today work , but it also attracts people with a general interest in software development . I invite all of the speakers myself and try to curate an event with a broad range of talks that everyone will enjoy . The majority of attendees come from around the UK , but it also attracts a lot of people from across Europe and even further afield ; this year we ’ ll have delegates from as far away as Ukraine , Canada , and even Argentina !
How many people are you expecting to attend this year ? In the past the capacity has been limited to 500 and it ’ s always sold out . This year I ’ ve moved it to a larger venue and I ’ m hoping for at least 600 attendees .
Construction and refurbishment on the south side of the river commences this year and pre-lets are currently available .
Outline planning has been submitted for development on the north side with site enabling works due to begin in 2019 .
For further information about Bath Quays visit : www . bathquays . co . uk or email : info @ bathquays . co . uk
What ’ s on this year ’ s agenda ? The highlight this year is a keynote from Yukihiro Matsumoto , the creator of Ruby , who ’ s flying over from Japan to give his first ever talk at a UK conference . I was fortunate enough to see him speak at an event in Spain a few years ago and I ’ m really excited about welcoming him to the UK . Talks over the two days will range from practical topics , like techniques for making your code easier to read , to more abstract ones , including a reflection on the impermanent nature of software .
How can anyone interested find out more ? All the details are on the website at 2018 . bathruby . uk where tickets are still available for £ 199 including VAT . Bath Ruby can also be found on Twitter at @ BathRuby .
Keynsham Town Council launches business network
Last year , Keynsham Town Council agreed to provide support to initiate and help build a new business network for businesses of all sizes and types in the town . The plan is to support the network in its initial stages with the aim of stepping back once it is established , so that the group can run itself . Members will also be included in a free Business Directory which will be delivered to every household in Keynsham later in the year .
In January this year , Keynsham Town Council Chairman , Cllr Clive Fricker sent an invitation to approximately 260 businesses , for a launch event which was held at the St Monica ’ s Chocolate Quarter facility in February . A full house heard how two significant developments are planned for the business community- participation in the towns Neighbourhood Development Plan and the new business network . Both matters are also enthusiastically supported by the unitary authority B & NES .
Clive Fricker said : “ The objective of this event was to make initial contact with a large number of the businesses around Keynsham , to allow people to meet and to get an idea of the level of interest in moving the group forward .
“ The Neighbourhood Development Plan will have a significant impact on the future infrastructure and people of Keynsham . In preparation for over a year , we are now working hard to complete the plan by later this year and our business community has
a key role to play . In the next short period they will receive a questionnaire from KTC to enable us to include the business input to Keynsham ’ s future .”
If you have a business in Keynsham and want to find out more about the network contact Dr Cheryl Scott , Town Clerk , on 0117 986 8683 or email : townclerk @ keynsham-tc . gov . uk
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2018 23