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We started off the week with a BIG welcome toGML Consulting Ltd, the latest Norwich based business to jump on board our digital signage networks across Norfolk!

The ad was designed by GML themselves, using both motion graphics and informative content, the advertisement slowly flicks through and displays each service the agency has to offer. The lavish use of the vibrant colours certainly increases impact, attraction and engagement from our captive audiences.

GML Consulting are an established, web development, creative design and digital marketing agency. Based in Norwich, GML supply, support and deliver to their ever increasing portfolio of national and international clients. GML have grown into a complete marketing and creative company that complements any business. Proud award winners for ‘Best use of electronic media’ GML continually work to deliver each project to this high standard.

So why use DOOH? It’s simple really; these days’ consumers go out of their way to avoid traditional advertising methods. TV adverts can be skipped, emails are often disregarded and attempts to bombard consumers with online adverts often causes irritation. DOOH is an innovative medium for marketing that allows companies to strengthen their marketing campaigns by creating content that is subject to a high level of proximity, impact and attraction.

For a while it was an advertising sector in need of a name as it’s been developing rapidly and in so many ingenious ways. But what to call it? The consensus is ‘Digital Out Of Home’ (DOOH) – and the amount of productions we’re involved in has grown exponentially of late.

Evidence of our involvement can be found on vertical plasma screens in shopping malls, student unions, bus-shelters and in-stores. If you travel on the Stansted Express into London, you’ll even find our work on the ticket terminals! And also the animated messages coursing around the edges of football grounds or high above Piccadilly Circus. Plus videos projected across the tracks of the London Underground or sequentially screened up the escalators.

In fact DOOH is such a radical addition to the communications toolbox that it takes skilled and visionary agencies to fully embrace the exciting possibilities for their clients. We’re fortunate to work with three of them – Accord, bigdog and BBA Digital – and we’re proud to display just a fraction of their output within our latest DOOH showreel.

So if you’re thinking of adding DOOH to your campaign, we’ll be happy to help you get on screen whatever theshape, size or location!

Prof Jonathan Jones, of The Sainsbury Laboratory at Norwich
Research Park, has been selected as a 2025 Wolf Prize Laureate in Agriculture
along with Professors Jeffery L. Dangl and Brian J. Staskawicz “for
groundbreaking discoveries of the immune system and disease resistance in
plants.”

The Wolf Prize is awarded annually to exceptional
individuals across scientific and artistic disciplines. In science, the prize
is awarded in Medicine, Agriculture, Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics. Now
in its 46th year, the Wolf Prize has recognized 382 scientists and artists
worldwide for their transformative contributions.

Prof Nick Talbot, Executive Director at The Sainsbury
Laboratory said, “Crop diseases claim up to 30% of the global harvest each year
and controlling them sustainably is critical for food security. The Wolf Prize
in Agriculture 2025 recognises the contributions of three exceptional
scientists whose work has been critical to our understanding of plant immunity.
We now have the knowledge to develop durably disease resistant crops, which
will be of huge benefit to humankind.

“I am very proud that the work at The Sainsbury Laboratory
by Professor Jonathan Jones has been recognised in this way. Our institution
has now won the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for agriculture twice in its 35
year lifetime, which is an extraordinary achievement. I am also pleased that
Professor Brian Staskawicz and Professor Jeff Dangl, who have served on our
advisory board, have also been recognised for their outstanding contributions.”

This marks the ninth Wolf Prize in Agriculture awarded to a
scientist in the UK of which the last three were consecutively awarded to
scientists based on their work at Norwich Research Park.

Prof Jones said, “It’s wonderful to see this recognition of
the importance of understanding the basic mechanisms that underpin plant
disease resistance; without that knowledge, we will not be able to establish
durable disease resistance in our crops.

“I’ve been very lucky to have received sustained funding
from David Sainsbury’s Gatsby Foundation over more than three decades, and from
BBSRC and the EU, and to have had the privilege of working with an outstanding
diversity of international talent whose brilliance, dedication and hard work
underpinned the discoveries that this Wolf prize recognizes.

“The Sainsbury Laboratory on Norwich Research Park has
been a fantastic location for a research career. Many thanks to my wonderful
colleagues, our greater research community and our many outstanding advisory
board members (two of whom are my cohonorees) that have enabled The Sainsbury
Laboratory to become an incredible engine of discovery.”

The David Lawrence Construction Skills Centre, a £3.75m construction training centre designed by LSI Architects, at Easton and Otley College’s Easton campus has been officially opened. The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership has invested £2.5m in the new construction training centre whichwill enable the college to treble its number of construction students.The Construction Skills Centre project is the first of the LEP’s Regional Growth Fund supported projects to be completed, with the dealfor the region’s £221M signed by Lord Hesseltine at the turf cutting ceremony for the centre in March of this year.

This will help overcome a growing shortage of skilled workers which threatens the industry’s ability to meet demand, including key targets for house building.

Mark Pendlington, chairman of New Anglia LEP said: “This new construction training centre means the next generation of bricklayers, carpenters and electricians will be learning their skills in state of the art facilities.

“And with three times as many apprentices and students coming into the construction sector over the coming years, the college can make a very real change to the housing picture in Norfolk and Suffolk and nationally too.”

The new training centre will offer training in skills including bricklaying, joinery, site carpentry and electrical. The college’s Suffolk campus has been offering construction training for more than 10 years, with the Norfolk site having launched its first courses for the sector in 2012.

David Henley, principal of Easton and Otley College, said: “I joined the college in April 2015 and the creation of such a fantastic resource – that will bring masses of opportunities to apprentices, students and industry – is one of the many reasons why I chose to work for this great college.

“In terms of construction, since 2012 in Norfolk, we have trebled the amount of construction students we teach in three years and we are aiming to do the same again in the next three to four years thanks to this new investment. We are confident that our new building will be a flag-ship centre for construction skills in the East.”

David Lawrence, the college’s former principal, who will name and open the building, said: “The college has played such a huge positive part in my life I’m so very honoured that the college has decided to name this superb facility after me. It is very humbling and the official opening will be a very proud day for my family and I.”

Rupert Kitchen, partner at LSI architects, said: “The Construction Skills Centre will play an important role in addressing the employment shortfall that currently frustrates the growth ambitions of many regional construction sector businesses.

“The large scale, simple form, new building is the college’s most recent addition to the campus, following the pattern of development set out by the wider campus master plan drawn up by LSI Architects.”

A fire and rescue service has given the first service-free fire extinguisher its greatest “stamp of faith” – by signing exclusive rights to sell it.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service is so impressed with the performance and cost-savings offered by the Norfolk invented and manufactured P50 it has signed a ground-breaking agreement with manufacturer Britannia Fire to be its exclusive distributor across five counties in the North East.

Money generated by the sales of the award-winning UK-manufactured extinguisher, made from the same material as bulletproof vests, will be injected back into the fire service to offset cuts.

County Durham and Darlington is the first fire and rescue service to sell the recyclable extinguisher that saves companies and organisations tens of thousands in annual service contracts. Invented and developed by Britannia Fire owner Roger Carr at his Norfolk factory, the Kevlar-wrapped extinguisher only requires three simple in- house steps.

The agreement to sell the P50 across Durham and Darlington, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland and Northumberland is the first commercial operation of the service’s new trading arm, Vital Fire Solutions (VFS) Ltd – a sister company to its Community Interest Company.

In return, Norfolk-based Britannia Fire will work closely with Durham to promote the service’s extensive portfolio of business and industrial safety training courses and its new multi-million pound state of the art training facility in Bowburn near Durham.

Britannia Fire General Manager Andy Spence said the agreement was a “massive endorsement of the P50” after a year of discussions.

“This is phenomenal for Britannia Fire and the endorsement we have worked towards. No fire service enters into an agreement like this lightly.

“For a fire service to recognise the value of the P50 as an efficient fire fighter and the cost savings it offers customers by eliminating the need for costly annual service contracts demonstrates the worth of the P50 in the market.”

“We are replacing metal extinguishers with the P50 across the UK and internationally via our growing list of distributors – in supermarkets, university campuses, the banking sector, police force buildings and other organisations.

“Our export market is across Europe and the Middle East, with discussions with potential distributors on other continents.

“Our factory is running at capacity now with new distributors in the UK and across the world joining every day.”

Tony Grufferty, Business Development Manager for County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service’s Community Interest Company, said: “For a fire service to do this is a stamp of faith in the product.”

“The P50 is endorsed by the service as an innovative product that we believe can help businesses, organisations and individuals protect their premises and keep people safe.”

The P50 was launched in 2010 after years of development by Britannia Fire owner Roger Carr, who has 50 years’ experience in the fire extinguisher industry. The P50 is the world’s first corrosion-free fire extinguisher.

Smaller 4kg and 2kgs are due to be launched later this year for the domestic and car markets.

Produced and distributed by TMS Media.Rachel Moore – [email protected], 01493 662929

Norwich International Airport has formally unveiled brand new Flybe routes to Alicante and Malaga, with tickets for the region’s first sunshine flights in almost a decade now on sale at www.flybe.com .

The new routes are made possible following a deal between Norwich Airport owners Rigby Group and Flybe last month. The Alicante and Malaga services will both operate twice a week and the return of Saturday flights to Jersey for peak summer, combined with the other holiday flights available at the airport, brings the total number of holiday flights out of Norwich up to 20 per week.

Andrew Bell, who heads up RCA (Regional and City Airports), the airport management division of Rigby Group PLC and owners of Norwich, said: “We are delighted to be able to announce that the 2016 summer sunshine routes to Alicante and Malaga are on sale. A lot of hard work has gone into securing these routes for the region, and we’re confident that the ability to fly direct from the East – avoiding the stress and travel involved in the major London airports – will once again prove to be a big hit with our customers.

“Combining these scheduled sunshine routes with our existing business routes and growing number of holiday flights means Norwich is getting ready for a very busy 2016.”

Tickets to Alicante and Malaga are available for booking at www.flybe.com and are currently available for travel from 27th March through to 30th September 2016.

FLYBE’S 2016 SUMMER SCHEDULE FROM NORWICH (NWI)

ALICANTE (ALC)- two flights a week (Tue/Fri)

Dep NWI 1440 Arr ALC 1815 Dep ALC 1205 Arr NWI 1350

MALAGA (AGP) – two flights a week (Mon/Thurs)

Dep NWI 1445 Arr AGP 1845 Dep AGP 1215 Arr NWI 1405

JERSEY (JER) – Saturdays 7th May – 17th Sep

Dep JER 0905 Arr NWI 1020 Dep NWI 1105 Arr JER 1225

In celebration of The Benjamin Foundation’s 30th anniversary, Johnny Bakewell, a Paramedic from Humbleyard GP Surgery, will row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. Johnny will row for 12 hours a day in what will be an physical, and emotional, challenge.

The Benjamin Foundation works with young people across Norfolk & Suffolk who face significant barriers to their ability to thrive, and whose need for help is often hidden or ignored.

By donating to this challenge, you will have a positive impact on young people and help create stronger, empowered individuals who finally feel supported to overcome challenges in their own lives.

Donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/johnny-rows-forth

We’re running a Winter Appeal for our Breaking Barriers service, which works with children in the East of England who have a parent in prison (of which there are more than 190,000 in the UK).

Our practitioners help children who are going through a traumatic time and are often struggling in school, becoming detached from their remaining parent at home and exhibiting signs of stress and anxiety.

We give them ways to cope with the trauma and maintain their bonds with the parent in prison (which is also proven to help prevent the prisoner from reoffending when they are released).

It’s a really powerful service that has a huge impact on the children it works with – and is especially important at Christmas when children can really miss their mum or dad who is in prison.

Click here to find out more

We’re heading over to Anglia Business Exhibition on Wednesday, 7 May 2025, at Trinity Park Event Centre in Ipswich. Now in its 29th year, this valuable event brings people together from across the region for a day of networking and opportunities – so it’s definitely worth crossing the border for! ​

Come and chat with our friendly experts about your website and app needs.

We’ll also be advising on all aspects of email marketing and our Smart Messenger platform.

Don’t forget to try your luck in our fun instant win competition while you’re at our stand.

👉 ABE25 Details & Tickets​

See you there – no passport required!