Art in the Sky

SKYPARK, the Glasgow office complex, has once again shown that business and arts can be happy bedfellows.

The sprawling business park, which regularly gets involved with artistic endeavours, has donated gallery space to host the latest exhibition by artist Chris Byrne. It brings to life many of the structures which once dominated Glasgow life, but are no longer there.

Mr Byrne said: “The exhibition promotes the importance of the ruin, something that I feel is overlooked in today’s society as these buildings are often hidden in plain sight.

“The collection aims to de-construct the boundaries set up in cities, to keep people away from investigating this captivating environment.”

The exhibition is free and runs until October.

The lizard king

IT is the amazing the lengths vets will go to in order to keep their clients happy.

Oliver Jackson, managing director of Pets ‘n’ Vets, pictured above, recalls being asked to look after a particularly temperamental, giant lizard when he plied his trade in London.

Mr Jackson, who expresses a fondness for looking after reptiles, said this seven-foot, Monitor lizard would literally throw furniture around its owner’s home when it was “hormonal”.

He said: “This lady used to drive around north-west London on a moped [and] she had a rucksack, one of these big suitcase rucksacks, and used to put the lizard in the back with its head sticking out.

“She used to take it to parks, put a dog harness on it and walk it around parks.

“I used to treat this Monitor, it was the most amazing thing.”

Data in focus

A CONFERENCE aimed at improving access to data science talent for the commercial, public and academic sectors is taking place in Edinburgh next week.

Recruitment firm MBN, which is hosting the event in partnership with The Data Lab, has lined up industry specialists from Channel 4, Morgan Stanley, Sainsbury’s Bank, NCR, Glasgow City Council, Thornton’s and Klozers to take part in the data science summit at Dynamic Earth on Wednesday September 13.

Paul Forrest, chair of MBN, said: “With intense competition for top data talent, effective career paths can play a critical role in an organisation’s ability to achieve its human capital goals.”

Movie matters

OLI Norman, the entrepreneur behind daily deals business itison, could never be accused of lacking imagination.

Covering the company’s latest accounts this week, The Bottom Line discovered that itison has expanded its popular movie drive-in nights by holding a screening of classic film jaws on the Ayrshire coast at Troon, and showing Top Gun at a site overlooking the runway at Edinburgh Airport.

It builds on the firm’s successful drive-in screenings of classic Christmas films at Loch Lomond Shores.

If we were fond of a pun we might say it’s a wonderful life. Taxi!