Inspired after attending the Women in Public Policy seminar at Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy marking the United Nations #InternationalDayofWomeninDiplomacy Great lessons on supporting women to achieve in public service and a pleasure listening to Afra Al Hameli Roudha Alshehhi Antoine Delcourt and Dr Sara Chehab

Thanks to all the Wanderers who toured to Vienna and Bratislava last weekend. We took 28 on tour and they played five matches with five wins against an Austrian club, a United Nations team, the Slovakian Parliament, and two matches against an impressive Ukraine club. And we saw England win.

Great fun to play football across two continents and three countries recently, as part of Westminster Wanderers Football Club tour to Slovakia and Austria, including matches against a United Nations team & Slovakian Parliament - thanks UK in Slovakia - and back in UAE turning out in Abu Dhabi Strollers social match.

Events are moving rapidly in the Middle East with widespread concern over potential for escalation. However, good to see the UAE humanitarian aid work for those suffering in Gaza being reported by ⁦Bloomberg⁩ and highlighting ⁦MoFA وزارة الخارجية⁩ role. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Thank you to the Telent Group for their sponsorship of Westminster Wanderers Football Club this season. It’s provided new kit but also helped us set up a new youth team and enabled us to donate old kit to charities in Ghana and Nigeria. And will help run our four teams and weekly social football

A lovely sunny Friday afternoon in Abu Dhabi been enriched by the arrival by post of multiple copies of The Spectator So plenty of weekend reading. All editions from June and July so I should be able to read about the UK general election and what happened, don’t spoil it for me!!

One of the things I love about #AbuDhabi is Al Mina fish market. An amazing selection of fresh, decently priced fish from the Gulf, Indian Ocean and Red Sea. A well run market and you can choose, haggle, buy and get the fish cleaned, and grilled on site. And they taste great.

Very sorry to see the news about the planned departure of Cabinet Secretary Simon Case from UK Government. Having worked with him at No10 & Cabinet Office I found him to be impressive, inspiring and hugely resilient at a challenging time for the country and for UK Civil Service

Pleasure to speak at the Communication and Public Relations Australia #GovernmentCommunicationForum Great questions and points from the audience of Australian government communicators as we discussed comms strategy, essential skills and success factors. Crucial to align campaign goals with available resources.

I got to see all four Westminster Wanderers Football Club matches today. It took 40km of cycling, between Southwick, Richmond and Chiswick but was worth it and I saw other matches organised by Graham Rodber & team for the magnificent Southern Sunday Football League. Thanks to the refs, players and WWFC managers!

Delighted to join Professor Paul Willis leadership training Westminster City Council Great discusssion organised by Westco Communications on comms leadership covering learning from US election, transforming comms teams & motivating colleagues. Enjoyed expert local gov view from Robin Campbell

An inspiring morning at JOMEC @ Cardiff Uni speaking to impressive students on the MA Global Comms course. We talked through strategy, #Messengers campaigns, #BrutalSimplicity (Thx M&C Saatchi Group ) OASIS, PITCH #Grit and GovComms campaigns from Government Communication Service Moritz Schaefer and Westminster City Council

Fascinating afternoon at Global Media Congress seeing latest application of technology to media reporting & communication practice. Adoption of AI for news, realtime evaluation, and impact of micro influencers in driving conversations prominent. Modern and traditional #UAE on show.

Pleasure to attend launch of the Edelman #TrustBarometer report for the UAE. Good insights: “Trust is intent to do something and capability to do it” & punchy discussion about AI “in every part of our lives already and it’s only going to become more prominent” Thx Omar Qirem عمر

⁦Fascinating results from new ⁦Brand Finance⁩ 2025 Soft Power Index. US remains top, China rises to 2nd, the UAE retains 10th position & El Salvador is fastest-rising nation brand. Report says that nations using hard power see soft power damage. brandfinance.com/press-releases…

Leading Communication, Managing Reputation bit.ly/RTViews1179 Effective communication enhances business and enriches lives, explains Alexander Aiken in #RTViews.

UAE Welcomes ICJ Ruling Which Represents a Resounding Rejection of Baseless Sudanese Claims mofa.gov.ae/en/MediaHub/Ne…

Sorry to see news of the death of a giant of international relations, Joseph Nye. The mind behind concept of #SoftPower often quoted and always inspiring, as below. Powerful obituary from Harvard Kennedy School which says that his goal was to identify polices for a more peaceful world.

Good news that the Government Communication Service will get a UK Civil Service Permanent Secretary to lead the profession. linkedin.com/posts/alex-aik…

Pleasure to write for PRovoke Media with some thoughts on the credibility of evaluation ahead of the AmecOrg #AMECSummit and make the case for more human insight to assess the AI and comms leadership that identifies, tracks, reports and acts on metrics. provokemedia.com/latest/article…