Why not learn a new skill this spring? It could be the most exciting thing you do this year! If you’re thinking of a career move in 2012, want to dust off some old skills, pick up that new talent you’ve been thinking about for a while or even flourish in your current role then training courses are the best way to start. If you want to get your creative juices flowing then our Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator courses are all perfect. If you want to take the web by storm then our Web Design courses are all tailored to different skill levels and SEO and Social Media are both important as well. If you are looking further up the career ladder or want some help in the corporate environment our range of Business and Management training courses are all very useful. We run everything from Management Skills Training and Leadership Training to accredited PRINCE2 and Six Sigma Training. Spring is not just for learning though! In your time off why not attend some of these great events…

Sussex Beer Festival takes place on 8-10 March and if you’re having a bit of a dry month at the moment then this is something to really look forward to. The festival has around 230 beers on offer, including a range of British and foreign beers, as well as other mouthwatering tipples, such as ciders, perries and wines. Tickets cost between £4 and £7, depending on the day you go, and include a free souvenir glass and programme.

Beer by Tim Dobson on Flickr

2012 sees the 45th Brighton Festival taking place between 7 and 29 May, guest directed by Vanessa Redgrave, and celebrating themes of liberty and freedom. The festival is an important annual event for the town and is the largest multi-art form festival in England. You can expect to find a broad selection of dance, music, art and film on the programme and a wide range of events for all the family.

Children’s Parade 2010 by Brighton photographer on Flickr

At the same time as the Brighton Festival is happening, the Brighton Festival Fringe is taking place, which holds the impressive title of the third largest fringe in the world. In the past the festival has attracted audiences of up to 180,000 and had more than 625 events taking place across Brighton and Hove. Anyone can take part in the Brighton fringe, whether complete beginner or competent professional, which results in a fantastic mix of arts talent and fabulously groansome performances!

Circus of Horrors – Brighton Fringe – By Heather Buckley on Flickr

Sussex Food and South Downs Fair takes place at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton between 6 and 7 May. The festival offers food and drink lovers two days of complete indulgence with tastings, cookery classes and a fine selection of delicious produce to try and buy. There is also music and demonstrations of local rural life that give the event a fun and educational feel.

Eastbourne Festival takes place between 7 and 29 April and offers an impressive selection of traditional and contemporary arts performances, including dance, theatre, poetry, street dance, theatre and storytelling. The festival is now in its fifth year and has become a serious arts flagship, so that it is now viewed as a showcase for talent in the Eastbourne area.

If you’re a fan of the races then an evening discussing the favourites for the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival at the Cheltenham Festival Preview Evening at Plumpton Racecourse, Lewes is likely to be right up your street. The smart event brings together a panel of racing pundits, trainers and well known media commentators for an evening of racing chat and a slap up two course meal. Tickets for the evening cost £50.

Plumpton Racecourse by Ronnie MacDonald on Flickr

The annual Glyndebourne festival opens for ticket sales on 24 March, with the first performances commencing in mid May. The Glyndebourne festival is an opera extravaganza that consists of six productions each year, staged in a 1,200 seat opera house, set in fabulous grounds that make for a romantic picnic spot. Tickets start at £10 for a standing position up in the gods, going up to £230 for a prime stalls seat.

The Glyndebourne Festival by HerryLawford on Flickr

Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival takes place each year for ten days between 30 March to 09 April and is a showcase for local food and drink. Events included in the umbrella of the festival include Brighton coffee and cake festival, Sussex gourmet bus tour, the big food debate and Brighton wine festival.

Celebration of Spring – if you have thoroughly had enough of winter by now and you’re ready for the primroses, warmth and Easter eggs of spring then no doubt you will be quite keen to celebrate its arrival. Parham House near Pulborough holds a special Celebration of Spring each year on Sunday 22 April with activities for kids and speakers, tours and sales for the adults. Tickets are £9 for adults and £4.50 for children.

There may still be a few more months of cold (possibly grey) days left until the UK starts to warm up again but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still plenty to look forward to. With all these exciting events and festivals coming up, Sussex is certainly the place to be to welcome in the spring in 2012.

John wrote this post for Elite Hotels who run some of the best hotels in Sussex and wedding venues in Sussex.

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Catch-a-ride is set up to encourage people to car share by connecting drivers and passengers. This is a great idea to reduce travel costs, emissions and traffic!

Read more about the competition at Catch-a-ride’s blog or we’ve provided all the info below…

The Competition

The competition theme is ‘Car Share’ so send in your most interesting photo of people car sharing for a chance to win a fantastic prize. You can interpret that as you like but the most interesting one wins! Just don’t break the law of the road or your entry will be discounted.

The Prize

Up for grabs is a 16-megapixel Nikon Coolpix compact camera, perfect for taking more photos of your car sharing adventures!

The Rules

1) Only UK residents may enter

2) All entries must show a car share journey but must not include any activities that go against road safety

3) By entering, you agree that www.catcharide.co.uk may use your photo on their website. Photos will not be used for any other purpose.

4) Photos must be in JPEG format and a maximum of 1MB.

The Entry

To enter, send your car share photo to: contact@catcharide.co.uk

The Closing Date

All entries must be in by 15th March 2012.

Photo by Heather Buckley. Follow Heather on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Why not really make your photo stand out with some nifty Photoshop tricks? By coming on our Photoshop Training course you will be able to edit your photos professionally to really make them shine. If you’re already competent on Photoshop and want to take your skills to the next level then our Advanced Photoshop course is worth checking out. Call us on 01273 622272 or email awylie@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk to discuss either course or any other training requirements.

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1. Competition – Street Photography
2. Street Photography Competition Winner!
3. Photography Competition – Black and White – NOW CLOSED!
4. “Black & White” Photography Competition Winners
5. Photography Competition – Environment

Britain has traditional seaside resorts and cosmopolitan cities. It has destinations that are individually historic, cultural, offbeat, fashionable, entertaining and picturesque. And then there’s Brighton. If one city could be described as more than the sum of its parts, it has to be the exhilarating and ever-surprising Brighton. A settlement on Britain’s south coast since the Middle Ages, Brighton’s popularity flourished in Victorian times thanks to the advent of the railway and the emerging notion among the moneyed middle-class that bathing in seawater was beneficial to health. Rapidly developing and expanding in response to its new status as a desireable holiday destination, Brighton has never looked back.

Part of the secret of Brighton’s undeniable and enduring year-round appeal is the city’s quirkiness and carefree ambience. Brighton gives the impression that ‘anything goes’ which makes it accessible and enjoyable for every visitor regardless of their personal tastes or circumstances. Families, couples, celebrities, city slickers and country bumpkins are all equally warmly-welcomed in Brighton and all will find plenty to amuse and entertain them here. Unashamedly multicultural and multigenerational, Brighton’s denizens are as varied and colourful as the city itself and contribute to its harmonious and vibrant atmosphere.

The greater part of Brighton’s appeal, though, is that it possesses an abundance of attractions that cater for every possible taste. The beach itself is a natural draw; a long expanse of clean shingle punctuated by the famous Brighton Pier. Topped by a wide promenade, Brighton beach is ideal for seaside strolls, sunbathing, sailing, all manner of beach and water sports or simply snoozing a summer’s afternoon away in a deckchair. The Victorian Pier provides the perfect opportunity to breathe in some fresh sea air no matter when you visit Brighton; it only closes on Christmas Day.

Behind the traditional restaurants, cosmopolitan bars and ultra-hip clubs that line Brighton’s seafront lies an eclectic and exciting city that amply rewards exploration. For first-time visitors, Brighton’s open-topped tour buses are a great way to get your bearings and locate some of the city’s major attractions such as the famous Royal Pavilion and the Sea Life Centre, but Brighton’s atmospheric and labyrinthine historic quarter with its quaint cobbled alleyways is best appreciated on foot. Here you’ll discover a world of fascinating independent shops and boutiques, offbeat bars, fashionable galleries and chilled-out coffee shops. Dedicated shopaholics can also immerse themselves amidst the big-name high street retailers in Brighton’s modern Churchill Square shopping centre, whilst bargains can be bagged at the outlet centre down at the quayside of Brighton’s Marina.

The culturally-inclined visitor will not only enjoy the Hindu-Gothic majesty of the Royal Pavilion, but also the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery which is situated in the Pavilion Gardens area. Here, Brighton’s history is recounted through contemporary and historic artworks, whilst world art, fashion design, pottery, fine art and performance are all represented in their own exhibits. Brighton’s Grade II listed Theatre Royal has been entertaining audiences for more than two hundred years and remains a prestigious venue in which to enjoy a play or concert on an evening out in the city. There are other fascinating museums and galleries dotted throughout Brighton, covering subjects as diverse as penny-arcade slot machines, natural history and Brighton’s fishing heritage.

Families with kids looking for a traditional seaside holiday with all the associated amusements would struggle to find a better resort than Brighton. All the fun of the fair is to be found on the pier, with thrill rides, roller coasters, waltzers, a haunted house, helter-skelter and more providing all of the fun you can handle. Celebrating its 140th anniversary, the Sea Life Centre is one of Brighton’s most famous and exciting attractions. Here you can get close to sharks, starfish and seahorses thanks to an underwater glass tunnel. You can watch turtles, sharks and rays at feeding time and learn all about them and you can even help with conservation by adopting your own animal. Brighton has plenty of parks too, such as Preston Park which is perfect for family picnics and features plenty of open space for kids to play football, has an adventure playground and sports courts and hosts concerts and events during the summer. For spectacular aerial views of the city and coast, Brighton’s latest seafront attraction –the Brighton Wheel- is a must for anyone who’s not afraid of heights.

After dark, Brighton’s legendary nightlife comes to the fore. Innumerable great restaurants offer the widest imaginable choice of dining experiences with cuisines to suit every taste from Tapas bars to Trattorias and from steaks to sushi. Brighton’s clubs and bars are considered the best in the south of England, so whether you’re preference is for live jazz or a DJ set by local resident Fatboy Slim you’re guaranteed nothing less than an exhilarating and entertaining night out in the city.

Few destinations truly live up to the cliché of ‘offering something for everyone’, but Brighton really does. It might sound too good to be true, but the only way to find out is to visit Brighton for yourself; once you’ve been captivated by this easy-going, fascinating and fun city by the sea, you’ll see just why Brighton is so irresistible.

John lives in Brighton and runs Brighton Hotels Online – a site which reviews the best cheap and boutique hotels in Brighton.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from everyone at Silicon Beach Training in Brighton, hope to see you in 2012!

The time between Christmas and New Year is a great time to think about learning a new skill in 2012. We predict big things for mobile development this year and believe our Android and iPhone App development courses will be hugely popular as everyone looks to join the mobile revolution.

We also offer a full range of creative courses. There is something for everyone, whether you want to improve your photo editing skills with Photoshop Training, you are a budding designer who wants to get to grips with InDesign Training or you want to enter the world of Internet Marketing with SEO Training, Social Media Training and Google Analytics Training.

Don’t forget we also run business oriented skills with accredited PRINCE2, Scrum, Agile and ITIL courses running throughout the year as well as soft skills training including Management Skills, Leadership Skills and Business and Personal Development Training.

Hope you have a great Christmas!

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As each day passes smart phones integrate themselves deeper and deeper into the lives of people all over the world. Long gone are the days of just making calls on your phone, now web browsing, emailing, social networking and navigation are all key features used by today’s modern phone user.

Customisation is a key advantage to owning a smart phone, with thousands of downloadable apps, both free and for purchase, available to tailor your phone to your life. There’s an app for almost everything!

The two key players in the smart phone OS market are undoubtedly Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, with Android overtaking iPhone sales by 2 to 1 over the summer. Android also has the new smart phone owners market pinned down, being purchased by 56% of first timers. One of the main points which has caused this surge surpassing the iPhone is down to Androids open source format, allowing it to be used by a wide variety of manufactures, thus offering a wide selection of handsets to the consumer at different price points making them more affordable compared to Apple’s iconic alternative.

Another key point to Android’s success is largely down to the apps they have on offer. Android’s App Marketplace is filled with a wide variety of apps which make as much, or as little, use of the phone’s functionality as the developer desires. Unlike the iPhone, Android’s open source OS allows developers to work with the full potential of the phone’s features, opening up a pandora’s box of possibilities for people looking to get into Android App Development, something which is becoming more and more accessible.

It’s time to join the  app party!

Once app development was only achievable by professional developers and script kiddies, now it has never been better for newcomers to get involved in app development, with an array of internet tips to give you a taste, and comprehensive face to face Android App Development training courses being set up to get you well on your way to creating your own dream app.

Due to market demand, Silicon Beach has developed a full 5 day Android App Development training course which has been designed to take you right through the full development process. From learning about the Android’s development environment to designing and building your own app, to learning how to get listed on Android’s Marketplace, everything you need to know build your own successful app is included.

While its market share is still behind never discount the iPhone. The iPhone 4S boosted Apple’s stake in the market, outselling Android in its launch month (October 2011) selling 4 million units in its opening weekend. With its own vast catalogue of apps for the iPad as well as iPhone it is still a must for all app developers. Silicon Beach also offers comprehensive, hands on 5 day iPhone App Training courses, so you can make sure your future apps are available to the major majority of smart phone users.

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iOS 5 Development for iPad and iPhone Training

We are thrilled to announce the addition of our new iOS 5 App Development for iPad and iPhone training course here in Brighton. This is the latest course in our range of Mobile Development Courses, designed to prepare individuals and businesses for the mobile age.

Designed for programmers, the new 5-day iPhone Training course provides delegates with everything they need to know to design and develop Apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch using the new iOS5 SDK (Software Development Kit).

The programme is a hands on workshop led by an award-winning iOS App developer, with real-world experience developing successful games and utilities that are currently available in the App Store. Because we only use experienced developers who are designing Apps right now our courses are guaranteed to be up-to-date.

The workshops are hands on – we provide each delegate with a 21.5″ iMac to use during the course with the SDK and emulators ready installed. We also provide full course materials and example files. So just bring along your iPhones and iPads for app testing.

When is the iPhone Training Course Available?

As the iOS5 has only just arrived, and includes significant changes from iOS 4 for developers – the new iPhone App development course will be available from Q1 2012 – as our trainers are currently busy updating the training material.

Our first 5-day iOS 5 Course will be running on 6th-10th February 2012.

Course fees are £1,200 + vat per delegate, and we expect places to book up FAST.

Who is the iOS 5 Course For?

The iPhone App Development Training course is intensive and gets delegates coding with Objective-C, it is therefore aimed at developers with experience using a modern Object-Oriented Programming language such as Ruby on Rails, Python, C++, C# or Java

If you are not sure whether you have sufficient experience to to take the iOS 5 course, please call our office on 01273 622272 and one of our training managers will be happy to answer your questions.

What Does the iPhone App Training Course Cover?

iOS 5 Training

In simple terms – you’ll leave the course with the skills you need in Objective-C and the iOS5 SDK to start developing iOS Apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Because our trainers have developed real Apps and taken them successfully to market, you’ll also learn everything you need to know about the App Store and marketing your creations.

On the final day of the course you will be given the specifications for an iPhone App and build it!

You can see the full course content by downloading the iOS 5 for iPad and iPhone Training Course Outline – however the topics covered include:

• Building iOS applications for  iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad.
• Objective-C for iOS apps – all you need to know.
• Interface Builder, Xcode, Instruments and the iPhone / iPad Simulators
• A detailed breakdown of the iOS 5 SDK and how it works – demystifying the App development process
• Deploying iOS 5 Apps on real devices and provisioning
• Implement the Facebook SDK into your iOS Apps.
• All you need to know about App Store submission

Sounds AMAZING – How Do I Book?

Call us on 01273 622272 or e-mail info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk for more details and bookings.

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Tate Modern by Heather Buckley

Our new Street Photography Competition gives you a chance of winning onOne Software’s superb Perfect Photo Suite - more details on this great prize can be found below.

The ‘Street’ theme is open to your own interpretation, just get your feet on the street and start snapping!

If you are after some inspiration have a look at Eric Kim’s work, Eric is a well known and respected Street Photographer from LA.

The successful winner will also gain lots of exposure through our Twitter and  Facebook accounts. Follow us on Twitter to see if you’re mentioned as our own weekly favourite entry! It’s worth following Heather on Google+ too (the photographer of the image above).

Note – our Twitter mentions don’t necessarily mean you’ve been shortlisted – our Judge Eric Kim will be choosing the winner, more info on him below…

Street Photography Competition PRIZE

The lucky winner will get their hands on Perfect Photo Suite 6 courtesy of onOne Software.

onOne Software, a leading developer of innovative, timesaving solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, have announced Perfect Photo Suite 6 along with new products Perfect Effects, Perfect Portrait, Perfect Mask, and an update to Perfect Layers. All products in the Perfect Photo Suite 6 now work as standalone applications in addition to working directly from within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture and Adobe Photoshop. If you wish to brush up on your Photoshop skills we offer a range of Adobe Photoshop Courses as well as Lightroom Training.

This additional functionality means that the Suite can be used directly within Lightroom and Aperture without the need for a separate host application as was previously required. Perfect Photo Suite 6 will continue to include full support for Photoshop CS5 and CS4 with many of the products now functioning as Smart Filters.

Giving photographers intuitive tools that work where they do, the Perfect Photo Suite 6 now offers solutions for photographic effects, portrait retouching, creating and working with multilayered files, replacing unwanted backgrounds, image resizing, depth of field control, and edge effects, in one affordable package. The Perfect Photo Suite 6 includes Perfect Effects 3, Perfect Portrait 1, Perfect Mask 5, Perfect Layers 2, Perfect Resize 7, FocalPoint 2 and PhotoFrame 4.6.

“Street photography is all about capturing the beauty in the mundane” – Eric Kim

Eric Kim is a street photographer currently residing in Los Angeles, you can follow Eric on Twitter here- @EricKimPhoto. He specializes in black and white street photography, and has taken photos all over the globe, including Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, Prague, London, and Korea. The images that you can see on Eric’s website are mostly candid street photography of people in their natural environments.

Here is Eric’s thoughts on Street Photography -

“There is not one definition which defines street photography. Depending on who you ask or where you find your information, you will come upon conflicting responses. Some street photographers will say that it is about capturing the emotion and expressions of people, while others may put a higher emphasis on the urban environment. However I believe that the most effective street photographs are the ones that synthesize both the human element as well as the urban environment. To capture a moment in which a person is interacting with the environment or in which the environment is interacting with the person is a true mark of a skilled street photographer.”

How to Enter the ‘Street‘ Photography Competition

1. If you have a Flickr account you can add your photo directly to the Flickr Group Pool.
2. You can email your entry to photocomp@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk with “Street” as the subject of the email. Attachments should be no larger than 3MB.
3. For email entries: the file name must state the title of the image and the photographer, e.g. Heather Buckley’s image above could be named as “Tate Modern by Heather Buckley“, and the email message should also state the photographer’s full name.
4. A maximum of ONE photograph entry per entrant will be accepted.

If you don’t already have a Flickr account it’s easy and free to set one up, you then need to join the group and add your image (you can only enter 1 image) to our Flickr Group Pool.

When is the Photography Competition Closing Date?

The deadline is Friday 16th December 2011 at 5pm (GMT).

Photography Competition Terms and Conditions

Please read the competition terms and conditions before entering.

We run quarterly photography competitions so keep in touch, let us know if you have any suggestions for the next competition theme or if you want to sponsor future competitions.

Thanks to – PhotographyCompetitions.NET, ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions, Competitions Today, UK Competitions and Prize Draws at UKwins, Photo Competitions, http://www.crazycompers.co.uk, Competitions Time

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5. Photography Competition – Lifestyle NOW CLOSED!!!

NEW 1-day Mobile Web Design Training workshop, 5-day Mobile Web Design Course Package and iPhone App Development Course available to book now!

Call 01273 622272 or e-mail alistair@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk to book your places early!

Back in 1999 we were one of the first training companies to offer web design training. At that time a lot of businesses still didn’t have websites – web designers were charging a fortune for their services and were always off snowboarding!

The advent of the web was a step change for all businesses – and our Web Design Week package (incorporating our Web Design, Dreamweaver and Photoshop for Web Graphics courses) helped our clients to take control of their websites instead of outsourcing everything to developers. The package is still popular with newcomers to web design.

Fast forward 12 years and we’re seeing another major step change in the way people access the web – MOBILE!

Most phones can access the web now – and the use of smartphones with proper web browsers is exploding. Browsing from mobile devices is set to outstrip desktop browsing within the next couple of years. Our own Google Analytics reports show that our mobile traffic is up 230% in the last year – for more detail on this read our latest post on Mobile Web Design.

Is your website mobile friendly?!

Think about what the figures above might mean for your business… In the near future, more than half of your users might be visiting your website from their phone – and what are they going to see?

If your competitors’ websites render perfectly on their mobiles and yours is unreadable – who are they going to call or e-mail first?

Thankfully – our new Mobile Web Design Course package is here to help! Aimed at those who already have basic web design skills (including HTML and CSS) – our new week long package provides a comprehensive overview of the design considerations and main technologies you will need to understand to whip your site in to shape for mobile users.

What’s in the new Mobile Web Design Week?

The good news is that you don’t necessarily need to build a whole new website! Using responsive web design techniques or multiple css stylesheets will enable you to load different versions of your site for different devices – your desktop site can stay the same, with a new stylesheet loading a new version for mobile visitors.

Our Mobile Web Design Week includes:

• Monday - HTML5
• Tuesday - CSS3
• Wednesday – Mobile Web Design Training*NEW*
  This NEW COURSE introduces delegates to everything they will need to know to deliver and style mobile web content for a wide range of mobile browsers
• Thursday/Friday - JavaScript

This comprehensive training package will give you everything you need to start designing interactive sites for mobile that are compliant with the latest web standards.

Each course can also be booked individually – or you can book the whole package together for a combined rate of £995 + vat. The courses would be £1,440 + vat booked separately – so that’s a whopping saving of £445!

You can choose to attend all of the courses in the same week – or spread the training out over a few months.

Courses start in January, and the first Mobile Web Design Week will be running from 30 January to 3 February.

Places are available to BOOK NOW!

For more information and bookings please call us on 01273 622272 or e-mail alistair@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk

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