UCISA CISG Conference Evening One

Got over to Manchester on the environmentally friendly train....for 7:00 in time for the evening reception. There are quite a few business stands here in the exhibition with only one stand not claimed so maybe the credit crunch isn't yet affecting suppliers to HE (just yet?). There were a number of interesting conversations e.g. about Leicester's new library/IT Building, the relocation of IT staff at Liverpool to Senate House perhaps involving a change to dress code (suits versus jeans de rigeur) and more importantly (and possibly worth coming just for this) an insight into the effect that something called Unicode might have in various applications and systems interfaces. Don't touch with a bargepole seems to be current thinking and don't be first over the parapet. The main issue may not be the systems that change but the interfaces. UCAS are due to enlighten us all tommorrow so that should be worth attending. Must say that Unicode wasn't on my personal radar. Hopefully it is on others more gifted than me to understand what it might mean.