The Stirling Business Podcast

How Stirling Builds Organisational Learning For The World

Stirling is not just a beautiful place to visit, it is a place that can teach businesses how to learn. I’m joined by Alaa Gerad from the Stirling Centre for Strategic Learning and Innovation, a Scotland-based think tank and act tank working with organisations across more than 20 countries to build real capability in organisational learning, innovation, and futures foresight. We talk through Alaa’s practitioner-academic path, from quality management in industry to consultancy and assessment work with major organisations, and why that experience convinced him that learning has to be designed as a system. He explains the centre’s LIFE model: Learning, Innovation, Futures Foresight, and Excellence, and why excellence should be the outcome of consistent learning practices rather than a separate initiative. If you lead a team, run an SME, or support performance in HR and L&D, you’ll hear how different roles need different learning interventions, not one-size-fits-all training. A highlight is the centre’s work with the British Standards Institution (BSI), including a newly launched organisational learning standard and the practical support around it: certificated programmes, capstone projects tied to real business needs, and six months of mentoring to help people actually implement. We also get into partnerships with universities and colleges, immersive learning through visits and retreats, and what it takes to connect academia to industry problems at pace. To finish, Alaa offers a direct challenge to the local business community on customer service and responsiveness, and a practical way for listeners to get involved through the centre’s membership and events. Subscribe, share the episode with a founder or manager who cares about culture, and leave us a review so more people can find the show.

Lights Camera Stirling

Stirling keeps turning up on screen, often when you least expect it. One day it’s a medieval stronghold or a gothic graveyard, the next it’s doubling for another city entirely and selling the illusion perfectly. We sit down with author and academic Tom Christie to unpack why filmmakers return to Stirling again and again, and what his new book Lights Camera Stirling reveals about the city’s hidden life as a film and TV location.   Tom takes us behind the scenes of independent publishing with Extremis Publishing, the arts and culture press he runs with his sister Julie. We talk about how a small publisher balances editing, design, marketing and events, and why helping writers find their voice matters just as much as selling books. From there we get into the heart of the project: Stirling’s heritage, landscapes and cultural organisations, and how all of that combines to create a place directors can shoot across genres, decades and styles.   Along the way we touch on 60 productions featured in the book, including titles like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Greyfriars Bobby, Good Omens and multiple versions of The 39 Steps. We also explore Stirling’s film education pedigree at Forth Valley College and the University of Stirling, plus the potential impact of the planned Stirling Studios on jobs, training and homegrown talent. If you care about Scottish filmmaking, film tourism, screen culture or the creative economy, this conversation is a smart, local lens on a fast-moving industry.   Subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, share the episode with a friend who loves film locations, and leave us a review so more people can find the Sterling Business Podcast.

Portable Gardens That Grow Fresh Meals Anywhere

Fresh food is easy to take for granted until you’re deployed, cut off, or travelling for months with no resupply. We’re joined by Stuart Preston, founder of Okal Astronautics, to talk about a bold idea with real engineering behind it: ag tech that can grow nutritious food anywhere from frontline conditions to future space missions. Stuart shares how 16 years as an Air Force aircraft engineer shaped his approach to building hardware that has to work first time, under constraints, and under regulation. We unpack Okal Astronautics’ plug-and-play plant pods, their Rugged Garden portable grow chamber, and the longer-term vision for Botanic Sky, a space agriculture system aimed at long-duration travel and planetary surface missions. Along the way, we dig into why controlled environment agriculture matters for morale as much as calories, and what storage and refrigeration challenges appear when you start thinking beyond pre-packaged astronaut food. We also get practical on the startup journey: how networking opens doors in the space ecosystem, how early “spray and pray” VC outreach turns into a focused investment strategy, and why rapid prototyping and fast iteration are non-negotiable as commercial space stations and Moon and Mars timelines accelerate. Stuart explains how AI tools help him move faster on software and firmware, plus what it really takes to scale manufacturing through suppliers, PCBs, and more robust power options like batteries and future solar. If you care about space tech, resilient food systems, hardware startups, or the future of sustainable agriculture, this is one to share. Subscribe, leave a review, and send this to someone who loves building things that matter.

How A Scottish Inventor Cuts Heating Bills By Up To 50%

Your heating system might be wasting money on something you cannot even see: dissolved gases in the water. We sit down with Stirling inventor Jim Bissett, founder of Biscuit Controls, to explain Hydrogenie, a retrofit device designed to remove dissolved oxygen, capture sludge, and improve how central heating systems behave in the real world. Jim breaks down the core physics in plain language, from vortex flow and negative pressure to why getting air out of the system can reduce corrosion, stabilise circulation, and support better boiler efficiency.  We also dig into the numbers and the practicalities. Jim shares reported results from testing and field installs, including domestic savings claims up to 50% depending on building heat loss, plus commercial examples that show how energy efficiency retrofits can stack. We talk about the broader “Genie” portfolio too: Kerrogenie for heating oil performance, VoltoGenie for voltage optimisation, and CircleGenie for controlling secondary hot water loop pumps that often run 24/7. A standout case study comes from our own hotel setting, where combining voltage optimisation and hot water control helped reduce annual electricity costs from roughly £44,000 to around £30,000 to £32,000.  The conversation goes beyond today’s products into what comes next, including Jim’s early work on capturing dissolved methane from slurry and digestate streams to turn waste gas into usable energy. If you care about reducing energy bills, improving boiler performance, lowering carbon emissions, and finding practical building services solutions that do not require ripping everything out, you will want to hear this one. Subscribe, share it with a facilities manager or property developer, and leave us a review with your biggest question about cutting energy waste.

The Stirling Visitor Levy Explained

A new visitor levy is on the way for Stirling, and if you run accommodation or work in tourism, the details are worth getting straight now. We’re joined by Jillian Schofield, Service Manager for Culture, Events and Tourism at Stirling Council, to explain what the Stirling Visitor Levy is, why it’s being introduced, and how it will work in practice for guests and providers. We talk through the headline numbers in plain English: a 3% levy added on top of the accommodation rate only (not food or other extras), collected by accommodation providers and remitted through a collection platform. Jillian also sets Stirling’s plan in the wider visitor levy Scotland picture, with Edinburgh going first, Glasgow following, and other councils preparing their own schemes. Most importantly, we clarify the timeline: Stirling launches on 14 June 2027, applying to bookings made after 1 January 2027 for stays on or after that June date. From there, we dig into what the levy is meant to fund. The proposed investment priorities include infrastructure (the biggest share), destination marketing and product development, events and culture, a Community Tourism Fund, and practical business support. We also discuss why representation matters, and how a Visitor Levy Advisory Forum is being formed to reflect Stirling city and the wider rural area, from hospitality and accommodation to heritage, attractions, and events. If you want more updates, keep an eye on Stirling Council’s visitor levy information online, and send questions to visitorlevy@stirling.gov.uk. Subscribe, share, and leave a review, then tell us what should be the top priority for visitor levy spending in Stirling?