Blog Post: December 2024 Newsletter

Dear recipients of the Oscar periodical

I hope this finds you warm, well, and ready for the festive break.

In a small break from tradition, this quarter I’m not going to drone on about AI, automation and other related tech things from the realm of data geekdom. Nor will I share endless waffle about database updates, changes and the general movements of the UK Public Sector. Most of all - despite the much fan mail we receive - I’m not even going to reference Oscar BOT and all the tremendous beeps, clicks and persistent data organising that is its lot…..and finally; though it is most tempting, I’m not going to get on my soapbox and pass comment on the current micro and macro political, economic and social landscape that confronts (and confounds?) us all.

Instead I’m just going to do three things:

1 - Wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas.

We will be closed from 5pm on Friday 20th December 2024, re-opening at 9am on Friday 3rd January 2025. Systems and data delivery will be running at all times of course and email will be monitored regulalry if you really really need us between these times.

2 - Share a couple of our highlights from 2024:

25 Years this very month since Oscar was born. We’ve still got a few Silver Jubilee mugs left - so first 3 people to reply can have one dispatched in time for some mulled wine :-) - (I can still remember going off to find a JP to sign the company incorporation certificate….I was young then!)

2024 saw the launch of our first ever annual Schools Report. If you’ve not seen this, you can get a free copy here

More generally; we received our 8 millionth article view, helped with some ground-breaking lobbying and marketing campaigns, welcomed some wonderful new clients on board and even found some (mainly) very useful use-cases for that tech I committed not to talk about.

3 - Make a vague and unsubstantiated reference to many exciting things coming in 2025

……………nope, nothing to see here (“vague and unsubstantiated” as described). Though there are, promise!

There - short and sweet - nothing else to say except thank you to all the lovely people we work with, thank you to the team here for all their hard work and here’s to a peaceful and prosperous 2025!

From all of us at Oscar

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