Business Diary: March 5

The co-founder of Revolution Software has been talking to the Very Reverend Vivienne Faull, the new Dean of York Minster, about ancient Christian texts and his new game, The Serpent’s Curse.

Mr Cecil, who was speaking at Venturefest on Thursday, said the most important thing in maintaining the “innovation flow” after 30 years of developing games is making sure he really enjoys the work.

“It’s about finding ideas that are really exciting,” he told the audience, adding that the new game’s background involves the Gnostic Gospels and Mary Magdalene, a close friend of Jesus Christ.

“I’ve been speaking to the new Dean at York Minster about such things,” he said. Revolution set up a US company to access the Kickstarter crowdfunding website and raised nearly $1m in 30 days to develop the game, which is released this September.

The fundraising was backed by 15,000 hardcore fans of the Broken Sword adventure game series.

Buttertubs place to be

WELCOME to Yorkshire chief executive Gary Verity was in fine fettle at the Venturefest dinner on Thursday evening.

The larger than life businessman took part in a question and answer session with the Yorkshire Post’s Business Editor Bernard Ginns about how he managed to persuade French cycling chiefs to bring the Tour de France to Yorkshire.

Mr Verity talked the 250-strong audience through the highlights of the two-day Grand Depart stage.

“The money shot will be Buttertubs Pass,” promised the chief executive, describing how a fleet of French TV helicopters will follow the riders through the peaks and troughs of God’s Own Country.

He might have been preaching to the converted – a show of hands in the audience showed that one third are keen cyclists.

Going bananas

THE British public is being asked to pay attention to where their food comes from as part of Fairtrade Fortnight, which runs until Sunday.

But businesses also have a big part to play in ensuring smallholders in the developing world are treated fairly.

And The Headingley Experience, which runs all the catering and conferencing at Headingley Carnegie Stadium in Leeds, has taken a novel approach to getting involved in the campaign. It is giving a Fairtrade banana to every delegate attending a meeting or conference over the course of the Fairtrade Fortnight.

The giveaway is part of a campaign being run by Sodexo Prestige nationally, which will see 10,000 pieces of fruit handed out at venues across the UK and Scotland. Sodexo, which operates The Headingley Experience, recently unveiled its long-term sustainability goals in its A Better Tomorrow plan for the company up to 2020.

The organisation is already committed to using a range of Fairtrade products including sugar, coffee and tea.

“By giving out Fairtrade bananas we’re not only showing our support of this important organisation but we are also giving delegates a healthy snack,” said Colin Perkins, account director North, of The Headingley Experience.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to focus on the really vital work that The Fairtrade Foundation is doing.”

Muscle bound

A DIRECTOR is swapping boardrooms for bodybuilding in an effort to raise money for Variety, the children’s charity. What started out as a bit of fun for Patrick Allen, CEO of investment firm One Degree Capital, and MD of the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre in Huddersfield, has turned into weeks of gruelling work-outs and diet regimes as he prepares to take part in a competition in May to become Mr Harrogate – bodybuilding champion 2013.

He has set himself a target of raising £5,000. Mr Allen, former group marketing director at the Co-operative Group, trains three times a week with David Stecca, his training partner and former Mr Universe, and twice on his own.

Mr Allen said: “I was training with Dave just for fun to get fit, but before I knew it, I’d somehow agreed to enter a bodybuilding competition.

“I decided if I’m going to do it I might as well get people to sponsor me and donate the money to charity.

“It’s not your usual 10k run or marathon, so I thought people would like that it’s a bit different and donate lots of money to see me make a fool of myself!”

Visit www.justgiving.com/mrmuscleCEO to donate.