Around this time last year, I was stuck in a queue to get onto the A5103 into Manchester one rainy morning, when I realised that I would be 40 in just over two years. I was stubbornly keeping a foot in the normal working world, despite getting nothing out of my job, and working for an organisation that was dying a long, incremental death. A wise man once observed to me that nobody lies on their deathbed and says ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office’. He was right, and on that morning, I went into the office and quit. Freed from the responsibility I might have to an employer, I started as a full time trainer and consultant, and subsequently, began blogging and tweeting.
I do not miss working for The Man. However, as my last two jobs involved working with some great people, I do miss the office banter, the communal ridiculing of senior officers, and dealing with angry punters (seriously, if you want to outsource your most aggressive applicants, let me know). Another thing I miss is participating in, and sometimes running, the office Christmas Quiz. In the absence of real office colleagues, I have decided to run a quiz for blog readers and twitter followers, and there is an actual prize.
THE PRIZE
You can choose from:
A) A day’s training delivered by myself on any Information Governance topic – FOI, Data Protection, the Environmental Information Regulations, or something more specialist like DP & HR, marketing and the law, or DP, FOI and the Media. Whatever you want, you get. I will train up to 20 people. You will get the same tailored course I would do for you if you were paying.
Or
B) A complete review of all your organisation’s existing FOI, DP and other IG policies, including a full report on changes and improvements that I think you should make to improve them and avoid them causing enforcement action.
Check out my website www.2040training.co.uk for more information (see what I did there?).
WHAT IS THE CATCH?
If they choose prize option (A), the winner’s organisation will agree to pay my expenses – standard class travel and an inexpensive hotel if you’re far from Manchester and an overnight stay is required. Option (B) will be done remotely.
Both options are UK only prizes (but this does include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands).
The winner must claim their prize before the end of June 2012.
Any organisation that has already booked training with me will receive the prize in addition to the contracted work.
HOW DO I ENTER?
You can either answer the Anoraks Quiz or the Civilians Quiz. You can submit an entry in both categories that counts as two entries. All entries go into the draw, but there is only one prizewinner overall.
Answer the questions set out below, marking your answers with the appropriate quiz name or names. Email your answers to mail@amy.thedevelopment.zone by the 31st January 2012 including your name, organisation and email address.
No purchase is necessary, and you will not be added to a mailing list.
THE WINNER
The winner is the entrant with the most correct answers in either category. All entries will be read and marked, and a draw made of all entries with the highest number of correct answers (i.e. everyone who gets 10/10 in either category) from the 2040 top hat.
The correct answers will be published with the winner’s name and organisation (should they consent for it to be published) on this blog on 15th February 2012. Again with permission, the winner’s name will be tweeted from @tim2040 on the same day.
FAIR PROCESSING
Your contact data will be used solely for the purposes of the competition; they will not be retained or shared with any third parties. Entrants will not be contacted unless they have won. All details will be deleted once the winner has claimed their prize and will be retained solely for the purposes of a re-draw in the event that the winner is unable to claim their prize for any reason.
Any promotional activity – quotes, testimonials, or a local-paper style thumbs-up winning photo on the 2040 website – will be at the winner’s discretion.
THE QUESTIONS
Quiz 1: Anoraks
1) Who do I think has been the best UK Information Commissioner?
2) When discussing commercial prejudice during the passage of the FOI Act (Scotland), name one of the products used in the Scottish Parliament to illustrate the concept of a trade secret.
3) In which country is Aarhus, host of the convention that gave rise to the Environmental Information Regulations?
4) True or false: the Information Commissioner is forbidden from prosecuting Government Departments for a breach of a Data Protection Act Enforcement Notice.
5) Who is David Murray, protagonist in an important UK privacy case?
6) What is the closest equivalent to S42 of the FOI Act 2000 in the EIRs?
7) Why is it technically impossible for the answer to question (1) to be Eric Howe?
8) What is the significance of the numbers in the name of my company, 2040 Training?
9) Which is the odd one out: Durant, Eszias, Markinson?
10) For which political party was the UK Information Commissioner Chris Graham twice an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate?
Quiz 2: Civilians
1) How many fictional characters have achieved a Christmas Number 1 since 1990?
2) How many of the four Die Hard movies are set at Christmas?
3) What fruit is the Belgian beer equivalent to mulled wine, Gluhkriek, flavoured with?
4) Does the large illuminated Father Christmas outside the Town Hall in Albert Square in Manchester look like Zippy from Rainbow?
5) Which of the following Christmas-themed horror movies have I invented? Kill Crazy Santa, Silent Night Deadly Night, You Better Watch Out
6) Which newspaper revealed the contents of the Queen’s Christmas Message in 1992?
7) What is Justin Bieber’s Christmas Album called?
8) Name a Christmas tradition that is pagan in origin? HINT: although celebrating a festival around the winter solstice is a pagan tradition, the answer is not ‘Christmas’.
9) According to the popular Christmas song, how many gifts did my true love send to me in total?
10) Which TV characters have a dog called ‘Santa’s Little Helper’?
Good luck, and regardless of your religious or philosophical convictions, I hope you keep out the cold and enjoy the season with your nearest and dearest. There will be more blogs in 2012.
