i chi'n gallu gwaith arna. That is a statement by John Swinney on Scotland's education reforms. The cabinet secretary will, as usual, take questions at the end of his statement. I encourage all members who wish to ask Mr Swinney a question to press their request-to-speak buttons as soon as possible. John Swinney is calling. The aim of this Government's education policy is to ensure that we achieve excellence ac yn talu gyda'r oeddaeth i ddwybod cychwyn i ddweud y system hon. Felly, ar ddiweddol, mae'r blaen arall yn cael ei ddweud, ac yn cael ei ddweud yn gaf i wneud hyn. Felly, mae'r system gyda'r system yn ei ddweud yn ei ddweud i gael ei ddweud. Per y ddweud i ddweud, mae'n ffôr i ddweud o 150,000 o gael ffasys, ac yn gwybod i ddweud o ddweud o ddweud a nhw, ac yn gweithio'r 60,000 o ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud o ddweud. We are seeing the proportion of young people getting qualifications at SCQF levels 4, 5 and 6, mainly national 4s, national 5s and higher, increase, and increase fastest in the most deprived areas. We are seeing almost 23 per cent of school leavers in the most deprived areas going into higher education compared with 16.5 per cent seven years ago. International evidence demonstrates that successful education systems are decisions about children's education that are made as close to them as possible. That is why our approach is to empower schools, to empower head teachers, teachers and parents and the wider school community to make the key decisions that affect the educational outcomes of children and young people. We set that out in our manifesto when we said that we will put teachers, parents and communities in the driving seat. We have a great many high-quality professionals working in Scottish education, but I do not believe that they are currently sufficiently empowered to work together and to use their skills, judgment and creativity in the way that they think best. That is critical to ensure that the potential of curriculum for excellence is achieved. Empowered professionals must also be supported by specific measures in the national improvement framework to secure improvements in Scottish education. The combination of the Scottish attainment challenge and pupil equity funding is already delivering results by empowering the teaching profession. Teachers and head teachers are taking radical, focused and innovative approaches to improve outcomes because that funding puts them in the driving seat. The interim evaluation of the attainment Scotland fund showed that 78 per cent of head teachers had already seen an improvement in attainment and wellbeing as a result of the fund, and nearly all head teachers, 97 per cent, expected to see further improvements in the coming five years. Some would say that all of this is progress enough that the system does not need further interventions from government. Some would say that many schools already enjoy the kind of empowerment that our reforms are aiming for, that there is great work already being done in a number of areas and there is. In other words, some children and young people have the sort of education system that they need and that some of them will reach their potential. Some children are simply not good enough. We must raise the bar and close the gap for all. That is why we published education governance next steps a year ago. Since then, a significant amount of progress has been made. We worked intensively with local government to reach agreement on regional improvement collaboratives to provide additional support to schools. All six regional improvement collaboratives are now up and running, with their leadership appointed and already collaborating with Education Scotland to respond to local needs and aspirations. The first set of regional improvement plans have been developed and the second plans are due in September. All of this has been achieved at a pace that would previously have been thought highly unlikely, if not impossible, but achieved as a result of creative joint working between national and local government. Next steps also committed the Scottish Government to work with partners to support readiness for a school and teacher-led system. That led to rationalising the existing structures and governance arrangements in Scottish education. I now chair the Scottish Education Council, which brings together young people, education leaders and representatives from local authorities, the teaching profession and our partners in COSLA. It works collaboratively to ensure that there is a system-wide focus on improvement and to agree priorities for improvement activity and delivery. Education Scotland has taken significant action to deliver on its enhanced role in remit. The Scottish College for Educational Leadership is now integrated into Education Scotland, building further the culture and capacity of leadership throughout the system. Last November, we consulted on proposals for achieving empowerment through the education bill, including the head teacher's charter. Our aim was to ensure that schools had wide-ranging powers over their own management, staffing and what is taught in their classrooms, creating a culture of empowerment that enables all professionals to contribute to the agenda of improvement. The analysis of the consultation, which was published in March this year, should agree with many people wholeheartedly with our aim of school empowerment, but many were not convinced about all the details of how we plan to achieve that aim. Those voices raised the question of whether we could deliver the head teacher's charter faster, with less disruption in partnership with local authorities, and if so, why wait 18 months for an education bill? In light of those responses, I have been in detailed discussions with local government for some months. This work has not always been easy, but I can announce that we have reached a clear shared commitment. I am today fast-tracking the reform of Scottish education. The Scottish Government and Scotland's councils have reached an agreement that endorses and embraces the principles of school empowerment and provides clear commitment to a school and teacher-led education system. It does so without the need to wait 18 months for an education bill. While I am publishing a draft education bill today, along with its accompanying documents and appropriate impact assessments, I have decided that I will not introduce the bill to Parliament at this time. Instead of waiting for the passage of legislation, which cannot be fully enforced until 2019 or 2020, we have an opportunity to reform our schools more quickly through our investment in consensus building and collaboration, rather than through legislation. In coming to this decision, I have also reflected on the advice of the International Council of Education Advisers, who encouraged me to consider the benefits of pursuing a collaborative approach rather than legislating. I have listened to this advice and taken the view that by building on the joint agreement with local government, we have greater prospects of achieving more at a swifter pace. That means that the headteacher's charter can become a reality faster. School leaders will be able to make the key decisions on crucial areas of curriculum, improvement, staffing and budget, crucial to ensuring effective learning and teaching and taking those actions more quickly. By implementing jointly with local government and the education profession, we can develop guidance on empowerment and the charter as a matter of priority and more quickly than statutory guidance under an education bill. On budget powers, we have already begun work with our local government partners on new guidance for devolved school management schemes. On parental involvement and pupil engagement, we will launch a joint action plan on parental engagement next month and we will continue the work that started in this year of young people in relation to enhancing the voice of pupils in schools. Finally, on the general teaching council for Scotland, we will explore what can be done within the current scope of legislation to provide the benefits of regulation and registration to a wider group of education professionals. However, I accept the strength of feeling from teachers about the body's independence and its guardianship of professional standards. By taking the steps that I have set out to Parliament today, we are demonstrating a clear commitment to working with local government and education professionals. We are fast-tracking progress and we expect progress to be sustained and swift, but I must also make this very clear today. If sufficient progress is not made over the next 12 months to deliver the empowerment of schools that we have agreed with local authorities, I will return to Parliament and introduce an education bill. The approach that I have set out today requires tailored and targeted support. I am therefore announcing a total of £46 million of investment to support the improvement agenda. In addition to existing leadership development programmes, I can announce today a further investment of up to £4 million over three years to ensure that head teachers can access high-quality professional learning, including further investment in the highly regarded Colomba 1400 leadership academies. I can also announce up to £10 million to enhance regional capacity to support schools. The funding through regional improvement collaboratives and Education Scotland working together will help schools to close the attainment gap and tackle rural deprivation, support collaboration to share best practice and the delivery of regional interventions. To ensure that we maintain progress for looked-after children, I will make funding available of around £8 million for the remainder of this year and £12 million in each of the subsequent two years to supplement pupil equity funding and challenge authorities and schools programmes to assist the opportunities available to looked-after children. This Government believes that every child in Scotland, no matter their background, should have the very best start in life. The landmark agreement that is published today marks the next phase in reforming our school education system. It means that it can be delivered more quickly than by legislation. It means that we will empower teachers to drive improvement in schools and help pupils to flourish. It means that the whole system, schools, councils and regional improvement collaboratives are all focused on improving the outcomes for Scotland's children and young people. Teachers and parents will be the key decision makers in the life of a school. Education remains by far the most effective means that we have to improve the life chances of all of our young people. I am confident that this approach, one that builds consensus and fosters collaboration, but with high expectations for what we can achieve together, is the right approach for Scotland. I thank the cabinet secretary for her prior sight of the statement. The new education bill will deliver the biggest and most radical change to how our schools are run. It will give headteachers significant new powers, influence and responsibilities, formally establishing them as leaders of learning and teaching. Cabinet secretary, that was the flagship promise of the First Minister in the Scottish Government's programme for government just a few months ago. You yourself are on record saying that this bill was the best chance we had in a generation to reform our schools and raise attainment. I am frankly astonished by the content of the statement this afternoon, as will be thousands of parents, teachers and young people across Scotland. In that light, I have only one question. Is the cabinet secretary not embarrassed by the complete shambles of a U-turn, which not only breaks the SNP's promise to the people of Scotland, but which now leaves schools with even more uncertainty about their future under the SNP Government? The one word answer to Liz Smith is no. What I have done here is I have pursued the policy objective of the Government, which is to empower our schools and to negotiate an agreement with local authorities, which enables us to empower our schools faster than can be achieved through legislation. The policy intent of the Government is absolutely intact, and we will pursue that to deliver the objectives that the Government has set out. In relation to the experience of schools, what I see in schools is schools using the freedoms that this Government has given them through pupil equity funding, which Liz Smith voted against in the budget, to ensure that they are able to close the poverty-related attainment gap and improve the opportunities for young people. That is what I see going on in the schools of Scotland. What will come from the agreement that I have negotiated with local government is the opportunity at a faster pace to deliver the reforms that this Government is committed to and which we are determined to deliver. Iain Gray My thanks, too, for the early sight of the cabinet secretary's statement. What a shambles indeed. For two years, parents, teachers, educationalists and the Government's own international advisers have told the education secretary that his education bill was unwanted, unnecessary and misguided, but he carried on regardless. Now, at the 11th hour, his flagship legislation has sailed off into the sunset. The First Minister's top priority, her sacred obligation, is now reduced to just another last-minute cobble-together joint agreement. The only thing being fast-tracked here is the mother of all ministerial climb-downs. The cabinet secretary has failed and he knows that he has failed to martial support in or out of this Parliament for his bill. His blushies cannot be spared. Will he just own up and admit that his education bill is dead? Will he now do what he always should have done? Restore the 7.5 per cent that he has cut from school budgets and address the 20 per cent erosion of our teachers' pay? Iain Gray When Iain Gray talks about the marshling of support for the bill, what I have concentrated on—none of that has been the product of a last-minute discussion—was the product of months and months of dialogue with local government, culminating in the unanimous agreement by all local authority leaders of the contents of the education bill. That was the position that we arrived at by cosda leaders at their meeting at the end of May. What I am doing here is responding positively to the discussions that we have had and recognising that we can achieve greater progress at a faster pace by working together with local authorities. That is what the Government has opted to do. However, I reserve the right to ensure that we take forward that agenda in a speedy and timious fashion and to return to Parliament if we are not able to pursue the collaborative approach that I have set out. On the question of resources, I would have thought by now that Iain Gray might have welcomed the fact that, last year, local authority expenditure on education increased by 3.2 per cent. I would have expected Iain Gray might have welcomed the fact that local authorities are projecting to increase their expenditure on education in this current financial year by 3.8 per cent. I would have expected Iain Gray might have supported the £120 million annually in pupil equity funding going into our schools to transform the lives of young people, but Iain Gray does not support any of that because he voted against it in the budget. I am afraid that Iain Gray cannot wriggle away from the consequences of his foolish errors earlier on this year. As the cabinet secretary detailed in his statement, all six regional improvement collaboratives have now been established and their respective leadership roles filled. Can the cabinet secretary outline how the collaboratives will help to drive improvements in learning and teaching at a local level? I remind members that I am the PLO to the cabinet secretary. What we expect of regional improvement collaboratives is for them to engage closely with the work that is going on within individual schools and to respond significantly to the demands and the requests for improvement support from individual schools. The agreement that I have set out today puts schools into the driving seat of determining the enhancements to learning and teaching that they require and to seek those from the regional improvement collaboratives, which are part of the combined work of local authorities and Education Scotland and the Scottish Government. In that focused way, we want to support the enhancement of learning and teaching in the classroom. One of the key tests of the success and effectiveness of regional improvement collaboratives will be what they can achieve in improving classroom practising. Oliver Mundell, to be followed by Mary Fee. That is quite clearly not a case of job done. It is job too difficult. Given the cabinet secretary's frequent pleas to this Parliament that the bill was essential in raising attainment, can I ask the cabinet secretary why he introduced what was bringing forward the bill in the first place, why he has changed his mind and why he has brought to an end engagement with other political parties who might have been willing to work with him? What has changed my mind has been the collaboration that we have been able to build up with local authorities. I am very clear about that point. We have managed to get local authorities to a position where they are taking forward a shared agenda—they are committed to that shared agenda—which is focused on empowering schools through the design of a headteachers charter that gives headteachers much greater influence over the issues of curriculum, staffing, funding and improvement than is the case currently and enables those headteachers and schools to lead that process of improving educational performance. On the basis that I am constantly appealed to in this Parliament to build agreement and to build consensus, that is what I have sought. I have secured that agreement from local authorities and I am determined to work with local authorities to make sure that we deliver that impact on the education of young people, which, as Mr Mundell will already know, is improving already with the data that we published last week demonstrating that the attainment gap is starting to close and the work that has been taken forward collaboratively in Scottish education is beginning to have an effect. Can I ask the cabinet secretary how he will determine whether sufficient progress has been made in the next 12 months? I will seek an independent assessment of whether or not sufficient progress has been made. I will look to that independent assessment to make a judgment about whether or not the commitments that have been made in this agreement have been fulfilled in any sense in a reasonable fashion within the 12-month period. That independent analysis will be published and will inform my view as to whether to introduce legislation at a later stage. However, I make clear to Mary Fee and to Parliament that I would prefer not to do that, because I think that we can achieve more progress if we fulfil the spirit and the letter of the agreement that I have reached with local authorities. George Adam would be followed by Ross Greer. I welcome the cabinet secretary's funding announcement to enhance regional capacity to support schools. Will he agree with me that closing the poverty-related attainment gap requires the collaboration of a wide range of public services and not just schools? I accept Mr Adam's point that there is a whole range of different influences that can be brought to bear on the opportunities that are available to young people. That support can be provided by a number of professionals, but the key element of that is that all those professionals must be focused on how we ensure that our combined actions get it right for every child. That focused policy approach is an essential part of how we engage in supporting young people and making sure that they are able to fulfil their potential as a consequence of the joint working that takes place across our public services. Ross Greer will be followed by Tavish Scott. This is a humiliating moment for the education secretary as he is forced to flee from Parliament. His proposals have been rejected by teachers, parents, young people, councils and education experts, and he knows that they are rejected by MSPs as well, so he is avoiding the Parliament completely. The £10 million announced for the unwanted and unnecessary region of collaboratives could have instead been 263 decibel needed teachers or the rest of this parliamentary term. Can the Deputy First Minister just accept that the number one issue in Scottish schools at the moment is a lack of staffing resources due to his budget cuts and that shelving this doomed bill gives him a chance to admit the mistakes made over the last decade and to change course? Unless I am mistaken, I am in Parliament just now answering questions from members of Parliament and explaining the Government's position. On a matter of pure technical reality, I am actually here in response to Mr Greer's question. In relation to the objectives of the Government's agenda, I have set out very clearly to Parliament today that the Government's agenda to empower schools lies at the heart of the agreement that we have reached with local authorities. The conclusion that I have come to is that I can make more progress working in a collaborative way with local authorities to advance that agenda than I can through legislation. If that results in the creation of a school-led, empowered education system within our individual schools in Scotland, the Government's policy objective will have succeeded. I am sure that Mr Greer will be there encouraging us on all the way. I have made a number of announcements today about enhancing the investment in education, but the Government has been strengthening the investment in education through pupil equity funding and the Scottish attainment challenge. We are seeing the effect of that in individual schools. We are seeing it with the closure of the poverty-related attainment gap and we are also seeing it as a result of the Government's budget settlements in the improvements in investment in education in Scotland. All those factors come together to demonstrate the important progress that we are making on education. That is something that should give us encouragement about our prospects to close the attainment gap in Scottish education and to ensure that we fulfil the life chances of every young person. That is what the Government is unreservedly focused on achieving as a consequence of our education policy. Tavish Scott, to be followed by Ruth McWire. If education is the number one priority of the First Minister, why is she not here today? Or is it that the ministerial reshuffle is more important than Scotland's schools? If the bill is so important, why is he ditching it yet holding it as a sort of damocles over our councils? Do, as I say, or I'll be after you. Is that really a collaboration? Just as I am here answering questions that Mr Greer did not seem to think I was, the First Minister cannot be in two places at the one time. The First Minister is taking forward the Government's agenda, as she always does, and I am here to explain our position on education reforms. Mr Scott regularly encourages me to engage in dialogue and discussion with external parties, and that is exactly what I am doing. That is what has informed the conclusions that I have come to Parliament today. However, it is only fair that I make clear to everybody the determination of the Government to pursue the policy agenda. I want to make sure that the commitments that we have entered into in good faith with local authorities are taken forward and that we have every opportunity to strengthen Scottish education as a result. However, I must reserve the Government's position to legislate if we are unable to make the progress that has been committed to in our agreement with local authorities. Ruth Maguire is to be filled by Alison Harris. Can I ask the cabinet secretary to outline how the Government's plans will allow for new opportunities for professional development and teaching, and how that will help to raise standards and close the attainment gap? One of the important priorities that we are taking forward as a consequence of our dialogue with professional associations through the international summit on the teaching profession is the design of additional career pathways for teachers to enhance their professional development and professional skill within the classroom, without having to seek other opportunities through administrative leadership. Frankly, we have narrowed those career development opportunities to too great an extent within Scottish education. We need to open them back up again, and we have invited Moira Bolland of the University of Glasgow to take forward a panel that will look at the development of those career pathways and consultations with the professional associations to provide the career development opportunities for individual teachers to enhance their practice. In addition to that, the resources that I have announced today and the focus of regional improvement collaboratives are all designed to ensure that we strengthen the learning and teaching within the classroom and that we invest in that learning and teaching to strengthen the opportunities that are available for young people. Alison Harris will be filled by Gillian Martin. Not long ago, the cabinet secretary confirmed members' education questions and I quote, we will all have the opportunity to vote in Parliament on the proposed education bill. Will this ever happen, cabinet secretary? It might, but it will depend on whether we make sufficient progress through the joint agreement with local authorities. What matters to me is the outcome that we achieve. If the outcome is that we achieve empowered schools that can help to raise attainment, then for me that will be a job done because we will be closing the poverty-related attainment gap and we will be succeeding in our policy objectives. If we have to do that through legislation, then we will have to do it through legislation, but I would rather pursue the approach of collaboration, which Parliament constantly asked me to take forward. We have secured that agreement and I look forward to taking that forward. Gillian Martin will be filled by Johann Lamont. I note that, in the last five minutes, Councillor Stephen McCabe of Coesla has just said, I am pleased that our concerns have been recognised by the Scottish Government and I believe that the principles that we have agreed have allowed us to focus on improving outcomes for children and young people. I ask the cabinet secretary what discussions he has had with teaching unions or what discussions he hopes to have with teaching unions as a result to his statement. Presiding Officer, I engage extensively with the professional associations. We have discussed those issues over the course of the last few months. I will continue that dialogue with the professional associations. I am particularly interested in the involvement of the professional associations in the career pathways development and also in the work of the regional improvement collaboratives. They will, of course, be integral to the discussions that we have as we take forward the agenda to ensure that the legitimate and important interests of employees are properly taken into account in the reforms that we undertake. The cabinet secretary says that he recognised the strength of feeling regarding the reputation and independence of the General Teaching Council for Scotland. I should say that that was a strength of feeling that could not be overstated in the consultations that the education committee carried out. Why will he not today just commit to dropping his plan to abolish his vital institution? First of all, my plan was not to abolish the General Teaching Council. It was to ensure that the General Teaching Council became a broader body that could regulate a wider range of organisations in the education workforce. However, I have recognised the strength of feeling that Johann Lamont highlights in my response. If Johann Lamont, I appreciate that she will not have time to look at the draft bill, but the draft bill does not include provisions to reform the General Teaching Council. I accept that those proposals should not go forward because there is not sufficient agreement for that reform to be undertaken. I have asked the General Teaching Council to explore how, within its existing legislative structure, it can undertake the regulation of a broader range of educational professionals who, I think that all of us would generally agree, should be brought into the ambit of regulation. I am thinking particularly in relation to music tutors, which is one of the groupings of staff that the General Teaching Council is already exploring to bring within its locusts. I look forward to continuing those discussions with the General Teaching Council. I welcome the cabinet secretary's announcement of £10 million through regional collaboration to tackle, among other things, rural deprivation, and I can say a little more about that. Does he recognise that the UK Government has also responsibility to tackle rural deprivation, given the number of witnesses that appear before the education committee who said that welfare reform is making it much more difficult to close the attainment gap in Scotland schools? Mr Lochhead's last point is beyond dispute that it is increasingly difficult to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap, or that our challenge has made greater, because of the implications of welfare reform that is undertaken by the UK Government. That should not in any way diminish our determination to work to try to achieve those objectives, but it will certainly make the challenge all the greater. In relation to Mr Lochhead's point on the funding resources that I have announced today, those funding resources are important to support the regional collaboratives around the country, particularly in rural areas, to overcome some of the challenges that exist, particularly driven by rurality, and to ensure that we have in place support for, for example, the enhancement of members of the teaching profession to ensure that there is access, despite the geographical challenges of rural areas, to those learning and teaching enhancements and to guarantee that in rural areas we have a comprehensive strategy to tackle the issue of the poverty-related attainment gap, which of course is less visible in our rural areas, but nonetheless just as significant and serious as it is in our urban areas, and the necessity of closing it is just as important. Thank you very much, and that concludes our statement. We will now move on to the next item of business, which is a debate on defending the powers of the Scottish Parliament. Just take a few seconds for ministers and members to change seats.


Hello. My name is Joyce. I come from Mlawe, which is one of the countries in the sub-Saharan region, most reheated by the epidemic. I first tested HIV post-1988, and I lost my husband in 1991 because then there wasn't any treatment. But then when the Blgobofan came in in 2004, I was put on free treatment, and I went on for 15 years without the drugs because I couldn't afford to buy what was on the market. I've survived up to today, it's thanks to the Grobofan. The Grobofan supports my country in the areas of TB, HIV and AIDS, and I'm here to ask the countries that put money into the Grobofan basket to support us more. Because if it wasn't for the Grobofan, I wouldn't be here to share my story. And as a mother and a woman, if the Grobofan is taken away from us, then our country wouldn't be able to meet the MDG 4 and 5. Because we have women who can transmit the virus to their babies, but through the Grobofan, that transmission can be prevented. Thank you.


In medical school, I had the good fortune of being in a course in parasitology which was taught by a very good group of professors. I think it's the day when I had the opportunity to look through the microscope and to see the malaria parasite and then to hear about the cases internationally involving malaria. That was the day when I think the bug really bit me as far as wanting to work in infectious diseases and work in international health. In our program at the Naval Medical Research Center Malaria Department, we have an approach which has been referred to as bench-to-bedside or bench-to-clinic. And that is that we have our laboratory investigators and they're actually working in a bench setting, developing new strategies for malaria vaccine, testing those strategies if we are indeed able to develop a successful, effective, safe malaria vaccine that can be used not only for military personnel but also for the vulnerable populations worldwide. Malaria has had a major impact on our military throughout history. Malaria has had a greater impact on manpower than enemy fire in all of the conflicts that have occurred in tropical regions in the 20th century. So having a vaccine that we could give to our military personnel and to people who are diplomats or doing humanitarian efforts would be a real game changer. And I think being at the Navy, it gives you this chance to work with experts from all around the world. The Department of Defense has been working on malaria vaccines for many decades and I think that they are looking to us. They're looking to people who have the ability to do this kind of science to try to come up with something to stem the tide of this morbidity and mortality.


I don't think it's held up, but I do think it's true that it was some bag seed. There's a little bit more to the story than that, obviously, and that's where the confusion comes in. But it seems relatively safe to say that it's some combination of, you know, chem and skunk.


Alright, so in this video we're going to go over how to use images and figures in LaTeX, like what kind of logic is behind them. So here I have a pretty empty LaTeX document. Now in order to call images, generally you have to invoke a particular package. So if you go to the top of your document before you begin document, type out the use package command. And the package we're going to call is GraphicX, so GraphicX. So this is the package that LaTeX uses to call images, and it enables you to do pretty much all the basic manipulation with them. So the important function you want to call is include graphics. Now let me show you what the folder I'm in looks like. I have a couple pictures here, one named ArchPng, EditorsPng, a couple things like this. So if I run the include graphics command, let's say I want to choose ArchPng. I just say ArchPng, should be in the same folder of course, and just run that. And if you look over at my preview here, you'll notice that there's nothing here because our image has actually been put on the second page. It is here, but it's in this massive size because by default, what LaTeX is going to do is just put everything in at the actual size it is. So how are we going to change that? Well, it's pretty easy. Before you actually call, before your curly brackets for actually calling the image name, you can feed it some parameters in square brackets. So let's say we want to have, what you can do is you can adjust the width. So we'll say width should be maybe five inches. Now that we've done that, our picture has shrunk to a width of five inches. The height is automatically adjusted as well. So this is much more manageable. I'll actually just shrink this down a little more, let's say three. Now of course, you also notice it's not centered by default, but you can center images just by using the center environment. So before that, before include graphics, we can say begin center, and after we say in center, and then it should be nice and centered. So that's nice. Now there are other parameters you can feed it here. For example, in addition to width, you can of course feed it a height. So let's say the height is five inches, something like that. And you'll notice that it will stretch out to that particular length or that height and width. So one thing that is nice that you might want to use is keep aspect ratio. Now this parameter, you'll notice it will shrink back up so that its height is sort of a normal length. Keep aspect ratio is nice because what you can basically do is call this command like in a macro, where you automatically give it a width and height. And functionally, the width and height act as maximum values if you have keep aspect ratio. So that's a nice thing that you can do to sort of keep things in order. But just so you know there are actually other things you can do besides just manually putting in width and height. You can also say something like let's say scale equals point five. So that means it'll be half the size that it usually is. But I recommend using width and height because they're a little easier to use. But there is, if you don't necessarily like doing that manually, there is one command that makes things super easy that is text width. So if you set the width equal to text width, this just means fit it so it fits in with a normal line. So that'll keep things nice and even. And if you don't want it to fill up the whole line, you can actually do something like this. You can say point seven, text width. And this will shrink it to 70% of the text width. So this is honestly probably the most robust way of doing it. Making a text with something else. Because if you take this code and put it in another document, it's automatically going to readjust. So that's really nice. You can do other things just in case you might need to. For example, you can change the angle of the picture. So let's say angle 90 and that will switch it 90 degrees. Of course you can, it doesn't just have to be 90, it can be like 43 or something like that. Lautex is pretty flexible in dealing with that. So that's basically how you insert images. Now let's talk about figures because figures you might want to put, you're pretty much going to want to put all of your images in figures in any professional document. But before I talk about figures, let me do something else. I'm going to add in another package. You don't have to do this. This is just for illustration. I'm going to add in the package blind text. And this package just lets me call a command blind text. Which just is going to add in a bunch of extra text because that's what I want here. So now we have a bunch of loremipsm here. Let's go down in our document, let's say in here. And we want to include another picture. Now this time we're going to include it in a figure. So let's say include graphics, we'll set the width equal to say 70% of the text width. And the file we're going to call is, we'll call emacs.jpg. So there's our picture. It's not centered because I haven't included it in a center environment. But here it is. Here's our image. So you might want to include images in what are called figures. And in order to do that, you just type begin figure and after figure around it. So figures do a couple things. One is that they automatically, you can't see it yet, but they automatically number your images. They also make them so they're more flexible. And you can also do things like adding captions. So for example, if I, in a side of a figure, if I say caption, and let's say, let's give this a caption, let's say the effects of emacs on your fingers. Now what this is going to do is, I spelled caption wrong, never notice these things. So now you're going to have a nice little caption here.  So we'll center that by putting the begin and enter center environment. Now you should also be able to, I think you can, let's get rid of these. You can also say something like centering. And that'll actually do the same thing. So that might be a little easier for you. But anyway, here's our picture. Now the thing about figures is that you can manipulate where they appear. By default, LaTeX is going to put them into place, which is sort of most efficient. So let me give you an example. I'm just going to add some text before this. So I'll say in the figure below, you can see the medical effects of emacs, something like that. But you'll notice if you look in our text here, if I actually zoom in on this PDF, you'll notice that this text is actually going right here. So it's not actually right in front of the, I mean, it's not right above the actual figure. So that's the thing with figures. LaTeX will automatically put figures in the place where it's most efficient, most space saving. But you can change that. For example, if you go to the begin figure tag, and if you put in square brackets, just an H, what this does is it's going to keep, it's going to make sure that the figure appears exactly where you put it in the text. Or you can put T. T will automatically put the figure at the top of a page. Or you can put B. B will put it at the bottom of a page. So here it's actually on a page all to itself, because that's the only place that LaTeX could fit it. Or you can just press P and this isn't going to change anything, but P just says always put this on a page of its own. So yeah, those are the sort of functionalities you get with figures. In most documents, in most scientific articles and stuff like this, you'll often notice that figures are going to be on totally different pages than where they're referred to in text because you have to save a whole lot of space. So that's figures generally. Another thing you might want to do, I'm going to add in some more blank text so we have more stuff here. Another thing you might want to do is wrapping text around figures. So notice these pictures, both of these pictures and this figure, they're in line. But you can include a figure sort of off to the side and have text wrap around it. So if you go back to the top, we're going to use another package. And the package we're going to use is WrapFig. So it's pretty simple, WrapFig. And then we'll scoot down here. And what you could do is call the BeginRapFigure and then we'll EndRapFigure. And basically in here, this takes two different arguments. One is what orientation do you want the figure to be? Let's say we want it on the right. And the other is how much space is this figure going to be taking up? Let's say three inches or something like that. Now everything we put in here, images or text included is going to appear in some kind of figure off to the side. Let me scoot down here. So you'll notice this is a figure already. Let's replace this with an image. So let's say LaTeX. So include graphics LaTeX.png. And of course now we have to change the width. So let's change it to something that's less than three inches. So we'll say width equals 2.5. And that should, is that not working? Sorry, I flipped the recording off because something was going long and I didn't realize I didn't put inches here. So yeah, that's what I missed. Be sure to always put whatever units you want. Can be centimeters, can be inches. There are a couple, I think you can even put pixels, but anyway here's our wrap figure here. So you'll notice that the figure itself takes up three inches and the picture here takes up two and a half. Let's actually call the centering command because I sort of want this in the middle. So yeah, that looks a little bit a little better. And so yeah, that's basically it. You can add like normal figures. You can also add captions. So I'll just put some text in there because I don't care that much about it. And now the last thing you'll realize is both of our figures have been automatically numbered. So this is figure one. This is figure two. And these numbers work like any other situation in LaTeX. You can use the label and ref commands to refer to them. So what I'm going to do is label this as LaTeX pic. So now whenever I'm in the text, I can say something like please refer to figure and then ref LaTeX pic. Now if we find that in text, oh yeah, here it is, please refer to figure two. I don't know if you can see that. Let me zoom in a little more. So of course the numbering is done automatically. So yeah, that's another nice thing about figures. And you're taking this text and you're taking the code and putting it in another document. All of this stuff will automatically readjust. Okay, so anyway, just as a reminder, you learned how to put in pictures in LaTeX. You can, by default, they're just going to put them in whatever size they are. But you can change the width to text width or something else. You can call individual heights, something like that. You can use the keep aspect ratio to make sure everything's in order. You can also put images in figures. Figures, of course, can float around. You can change where they appear by putting h or p for new page or t for top or b for bottom in the little brackets after the begin figure command. And lastly, we have the wrap figure, which is called by wrapfig. And you just use this, give it an orientation and give it a width.  So anyway, hope you learned something and you'll be seeing some more soon.


Eight universities partnering with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory on Micro-Robotics sent teams of students to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland for a week of demonstrations. The Army's goal is to enhance future tactical situational awareness for soldiers operating in complex terrain and urban environments. Small autonomous ground and air robots may offer advantages. The Collaborative Technology Alliance, known as MAST, or Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology, is in its 10th and final year. This is a dry run for our MAST capstone event. At the end of August, we're bringing in all the PIs and their students to show off the work that they've done over the course of that program. The Army initiated the partnership with academia and industry to conduct basic research. Scientists wanted to understand the fundamental technologies that would enable autonomous micro-robots to work together for soldiers. For me, it's been like a childhood dream, since I was a kid. I've always wanted to be like a roboticist. I think my goal is to be able to see this, every technology that I've been working in, to see it in practice. So let's say, for example, a soldier wants to fly a UAV inside a building. I'm very optimistic and I'm very sure that everything would work more than 99 percent. The students brought original ideas and enthusiasm to the collaborative effort. It's great to see them at work and see that the students are the ones that are advancing technology. Officials said the Alliance has pushed the envelope of understanding on how small robots will work together in the future. For ARL TV, I'm David McNally.


My specialties are primarily SCADA systems, automotive systems, medical device testing. Essentially, I really like embedded systems, anything that impacts modern life as we know it. A lot of times we work with wireless systems and airborne systems. Quick disclaimer, obviously opinions are my own, not my employers. They're not picking any particular vendors. Even though we try to remove logos, some things are just gonna be way too obvious about who things belong to. In some cases, it wouldn't be actually point out of the vendor. They're the vendor who are doing things slightly better than others. So, since we're talking about automotive forensics, this is where the story usually starts. Havrec, possibly some fatalities, perhaps a fire that won extinguish for two or three days. You all see the headlines. There's often a crash and you see a sensationalized story in the newspaper about the particulars of the crash. How fast the vehicle may have been traveling about what the driver may or may not have been doing, what the driver may not or may not have been using, such as a cell phone or a DVD player at the time. And I'll point out that the article mentions a black box. I'm sure you've heard all of them about the mention of black box with airplane crashes. Your vehicle also has a black box. When investigators are working a crash or some kind of an incident, their primary source of data is a black box. Since the black box is actually regulated by Congress, there's a law about what the black box stated on the vehicle is supposed to contain and for how long. Now, other common sources, many of our vehicles now have a GPS. If you have one in your luxury vehicles, you may have a LiDAR. You and your passenger will very likely have a phone, which will also be recording data and shoveling it back to Apple or Google, Chinese government, all three. You're typically running a slew of apps, including Waze, Google, again, Apple Play, a number of other applications, which may be uploading in real time. You may be running an external GPS unit, such as one of those Garmin units, which constantly puts breadcrum along your route. Again, reliable source of data, mostly. A quick mention on LiDAR. There's two types of LiDAR systems, one that performs real time acquisition and another which simply tries to get a baseline and contains internal database of supposedly all roads that you're supposed to be able to drive and Shen tries to do a quick pattern matching. Again, most modern phones, unless you have a flip phone, has a built-in GPS, has obviously a cellular connection, so it's doing GPS trail iteration. In order to be E911 compliant, it's constantly trying to determine its position and point in time. And of course, it's using Wi-Fi technologies, such as Skyhook, again, to help narrow down its location. Even the Bluetooth and GPS are off or don't currently have a signal. External GPS units, even U.S. units, in addition to the GPS system, typically have Glossner's Galileo. If you're in APAC, you may also be using Baidu or IRNSS. Typical GPS threats, again, we have jamming, spoofing, and detection. We have RF jamming, which is simply filling up the radio frequency, whether it's L1, L2, or L3 band, or you can actually have more sophisticated protocol jamming, where you're actually trying to speak GPS protocol, but broadcasting inaccurate data may actually cause seg faults on some of the external units or cause them to lock up, as opposed to just not being able to receive a signal on the typical bands. You can have an active degradation attack, where the quality of the signal may drop from being able to position yourself within three meters or five meters to within several hundred meters. That would obviously complicate forensics or any kind of incident investigation. One of the less common attacks is actually enhanced accuracy. It makes the victim think that they actually have a far better idea of where they are than they actually do. You can actually make somebody who has, for example, 500 meter accuracy, think that they have one meter accuracy, which is fine granular, which is basically this amount of space right here, and may make them act rashly or a dry passer, because they think they know exactly where they are or where they're headed. And of course, you have location spoofing, much more sophisticated, more advanced timing attack. Requires more hardware, but it has been seen in the wild. Of course, you don't really even have to have a sophisticated attack, because people will follow their GPS anywhere. It's 2018, and this is a screenshot from an old story, but usually I can find five or six of these every single year. Where the carbon says turn left, this is a boat ramp, and people will drive right in. GPS spoofing, as I mentioned, fairly sophisticated attack, requires a lot of resources, more commonly seen at nation state level, but we have seen it at sophisticated criminal level. It has been more successful used against ships.  It's possible to obviously divert the ship into unsafe shipping channels, divert the ship towards an underwater obstruction, when the ship captain actually thinks that they're sailing through a clear channel. GPS jamming is dirt cheap, as little as $12 in some cases, from the dongles that we've seen, from the informal testing that we've done. Something like that can actually affect three to four cars around the vehicle that's actually using it. So these are sold to prevent employee tracking.  And then we have some significantly more advanced packages. Some like that will impact several city blocks quite a bit further. We have a thing in radio, height makes might. So for example, you would take this up on a helicopter with you or to 52nd floor, you're going to have a much better footprint. Sally, it's not a nation state level attack, it's around $2,000, which again, for sophisticated attackers, pocket change. There's very few solutions in the market for detecting GPS jamming, or especially GPS spoofing. We're not going to get too deep in this demo. So before we move on further, quick definition of where this positioning. It's not simply location, it's you want to know your location at a given point in time, simply saying your home is not enough, we need to know that your home between certain hours, and you want to know changing location over time. You want to know when you got to the location and when you left that location. Otherwise the location data is essentially worthless for investigation. So the so-called vehicle black box, it's actually, well, it's usually not black. It's actually called an event data recorder. The Congress has mandated every vehicle produced since 2014, have one. It typically has five to 20 seconds loop of data recorded continuously written. And once the body impact center, one of the other crash detection or crash prevention systems detects an event, it's going to start saving the data. And if everything works correctly, it's going to prevent eProm from being overwritten, which actually doesn't work too well. So there's 15 data points which have to be written by law. Most systems today use around 30 data points. Some of the most common ones are obviously velocity, which is how we know the vehicle is doing 120 miles an hour. Throttle position. If you've seen some of the headlines about the gas pedal or the brake pedal being stuck, that's how you determine if the driver was lying or if the driver confused the gas and brake pedal. If they were going full throttle or actually trying to brake. Seat belt use, very useful in postmortem, if the driver didn't survive or in litigation with the manufacturer steering. We can determine whether or not somebody is going to swerve towards the crowd or away from the crowd and if the vehicle's skidded. And of course, airbag deployment. So as much as I hate to mention Tesla, actually Tesla gives us a really good data point whether or not somebody's hands were on the wheel. Again, essential for investigation because we want to know if the human was driving or if the driving assistant was driving. It's not an autopilot, it's a driving assistant. Eye focus. There is an internal camera which can actually determine if you're looking straight ahead or if you're looking down on your phone or messing around with the DVD player. And if the vehicle's equipped with LiDAR, it actually is able to save LiDAR data. For some reason I can't get the slide to, oh okay, it is playing, cool. So this is actually what a crash looks like from the standpoint of a Tesla. This was a crash in a parking lot and this was actually the vehicle driver's fault. They confused the gas and the brake pedal and they hit the townhouse. So a pretty useful investigation combined with the other data. For those of you that know a little about forensics, everything, even if there is no standard for how something should be done, you have to use scientific methodology, meaning the steps should be recorded, they should be repeatable. You need to be able to measure the error rates and prove what the error rates are. And you need to try line them with some sort of industry standard that already exists, whether in automotive investigation or in computer forensics. There's three main ways to interrogate the so-called black box or the event data recorder. One is roughly a $12,000 toolkit. One is directly over OBD2 port, which is not supported by every manufacturer. Or the other ways to actually crack the device open and connect directly to the eProm. Tools as I mentioned, they are public, you can buy them.  They also take credit cards. They refuse to send me a free sample to nerve. Many of you, well, not many. Some, especially US vehicles, do support communication over CAN bus. So if you actually know the commands, you can download data from the event data recorder over the OBD2. The communications are encrypted. Again, on certain forums, you can get your hands on the keys, but it's a little bit problematic. This method, the biggest issue, of course, is that it induces data changes. Meaning as you're reading the data, you're actually introducing error data. If the black box failed to record data from one of the sensors, which is very common, it's actually going to write error data. So the crash is a pre-violent event. And right now, when you're sitting down, you're exposed to one G force. During an impact, your vehicle can experience as much as 26 Gs of force. Meaning a lot of electronics, even hardened electronics, will fail. So it's not then common to not receive data from sensors for the last few seconds. Again, crashes are an instantaneous event. It's an elastic collision. It can actually last three to five seconds as all your crumple zones meet their final position. This third method is the actually preferred method if you only have access to a $12,000 tool and you don't want to cause data spoilation. Looks a little overwhelming. All you have to do is find your event data recorder, crack it open, find the eProm chip, connect the clips, connect the bus pirate, and start dumping data. And hopefully not find anything in the meantime and hopefully videotape everything or preserve data to essentially prove to court if it comes to that what the data was at the time of collection. I actually have a device with you if you want to practice later in a car hacking village. This is an event data recorder that was pulled from an American vehicle. Don't look at the label. This vehicle was involved in a crash, but the airbags did not deploy. So some of the interesting things with this. Privacy concerns. Many states do not have laws about how or when the data can be pulled from your event data recorder. Even though you own the vehicle, you essentially don't always have a say in whether or not the data candor should be pulled from your vehicle.  But some attorneys know that they record vehicle position and they get a court order to pull data from a car and it gets them absolutely nothing useful, but the judge grants them the warrant. This data is not remotely accessible. There should be a star next to that. Now, the one exception is Tesla. We know the data is stored remotely off-site. We've actually been able to prove that some super outbacks also store some data off-site. The luxury models that are fitted with 4G modem will upload and sync data opportunistically. So 12 states do have court rulings about search warrant being required by the vehicle. That means that 38 states currently do not. The data is considered the property of the vehicle owner. However, after a crash, if your vehicle is towed, you essentially lose control of the vehicle. The tow truck driver can consent on your behalf or the police investigator can go out to the garage where your vehicle is stored and start pulling off data because there are no hard laws about that. So we mentioned. Sorry? Even case the warrant is required, the police can still go and pull the data and after the fact, too, they act in good faith. So most of you have a law in standby that will go and issue an emergency injunction. Your SOL because the data's already been pulled off your vehicle and the judge will just rule the police act in a good faith. I mentioned civil lawsuits. You have the case of people being hurt in an accident and the dispute is whether over or not the accelerator was pressed down or whether or not the brake was deployed. And again, whether or not the person caused a crash by looking down their phone or whether their automotive driving assistance and action caused a crash. Right now, there's several interesting cases in the courts, both in the United States and China about liability in the case of the driving assistant and being the primary cause of the crash. As I mentioned, two primary methods of access. You have the diagnostic port, which for those of you that don't know is this OVD-2 port that all of your vehicles have unless you have a vehicle prior to 1992 and 1996 and you have the airbag module also known as the body impact module. Sometimes they're combined together into one single unit. If they are combined together, it looks a little bit like that. Now I typically found under the driver's seat or in between the driver and passenger seat. It's bolted in pretty well because again, you need to be able to feel the impact of the vehicle, feel acceleration, deceleration. It has a number of sensors on board and the encryption module, which is supposed to encrypt the communication between the CAN bus and the eProm chip and a completely unprotected eProm chip with no tamper detection and no tamper protection. So, direct access over OVD-2 was pretty straightforward. Now we get to the part of don't try this at home.  It does have built-in protection meaning if there's an electrostatic discharge, it's gonna air inside of caution and you flood airbags. As I mentioned, the airbag module is often integrated with the black box. This particular one isn't, but this is actually more of an exception to the role. The states that currently have regulations about who can have access to data and when. As I mentioned, the other 35 states are undetermined right now, because there's insufficient court rulings or no court rulings. No cases have come up to the federal level as of yet. We are monitoring the case in China. That's due in court, we believe, in October. So that's gonna be really interesting. So some interesting takeaways. The eProm chip on board, once you crack the case open, as I mentioned, does not have tamper detection or tamper protection. The chip cannot know when it was last accessed or if the data was written properly by the car sensors or if I opened the chip, opened the body prior and wrote air and data to the chip just before the investigators got their hands on it. No tamper detection. For example, the black box and steering your vehicle could be modified. There's no way to externally determine it because there's not even a very simple seal over it. As you can see, there's not even a gold foil seal over it. So I can literally just unplug this and plug this in somebody's vehicle. No protection at all on a board or chip level. There is one manufacturer that sells hardware locks that cover your OBD2 port, but it's a plastic part that covers up a plastic part. So it's essentially protected by goodwill. Sorry, this is a very compressed version of a one hour long presentation that just kind of shrink down to 25 minutes plus a fire alarm. But if anybody has any questions, you can take them now or also you're welcome to play with this after the talk and try pulling data off of it. Any questions? Obviously available to answer questions over email or right outside this room. And I'm not going to hold up the next speaker.  Oh yeah, absolutely. So commercial vehicles such as 18-wheelers also have these sensors. The lock covered not just personal vehicles, so trucks do have them as well. They actually typically have more loggers because there's a separate one for the cargo compartment and a separate one for the actual rig. Modern trucks also collect a lot more data. It'll be interesting to see what the Tesla truck is, but some of the...  But a lot of truckers now use dash cams, which again would make great evidence.  But I have not had a chance to steal a black box from a truck, but my understanding is that they work exactly the same way, simply because of the regulations. Regulations didn't distinguish between buses, trucks, or passenger vehicles. The legislation only covers the United States, but because the U.S. is such a major consumer, the vehicles that are made to serve the U.S. market are also very similar vehicles to what's made for other countries. So the black box is still in there. We know that the vehicles that crash, for example, Saudi Arabia, have the same black boxes because again, we see the same headlines with the same data being pulled up. And again, as I mentioned, there's integration for the airbag deployment. Yes, good question. Yes, one of the screenshots I had, you can actually see a good size capacitor on it. Define the screenshot in a hurry. So yes, there is a large capacitor. From what we've seen, you'll give you about 12 seconds of data. The collision data that I've had access to had lasted for maybe five seconds, at least the important stuff. Welcome. All right, thank you folks for coming. Thank you.


Hello and welcome to exchangeformedia.com. With me today is the most eminent leader of media and entertainment industry, a leader who needs no introduction, Mr. Mark Reed, global CEO WPP. Welcome to India, Mark. Thank you. It is wonderful to be here again. So what brings WPP's board meeting to India this year? I think it's a really unique point in India's history. With the G20 at the weekend, India becoming the world's most populous country this year, you can really see the importance of it. Now, it's something you and we at WPP have known for some time. India today is our fifth biggest market, a real area of growth and innovation and vibrancy for the company. Really, we wanted the board to come here. We haven't been here since 2017. It felt like it was time as a board since 2017. We lost our board meeting in 2017, time to really see how the market has developed here. So you just said that India is your fifth largest market. It is also one of your fastest growing markets. What are the factors that drive WPP's growth in India? Well, it has been actually our fastest growing market for the last 10 years. It's been driven both by the domestic growth and by the international growth. We have about 10 and a half thousand people here in India, about 50% working with Indian companies and Indian clients and about half supporting our global business. And what's been amazing is both of those areas have grown substantially. Mark, according to your latest financial numbers, India grew by 0.8% in H1 compared to 37% growth last year for the same period. This represents a significant drop. Of course, we know of all the global factors that have contributed to this decline. But what, according to you, were some of the factors that led to this decline and where did you see the growth coming from? Yeah, look, I think it's really interesting. I mean, Group M expect India to grow about 12% this year overall. But there's no doubt that growth has second half waited because of the very rapid growth. I mean, India, actually one of the only markets didn't decline in 2020 during the year of COVID. It was really flat. But 21-22, we saw very strong growth. And there's no surprise against those comparisons that we should have slightly tougher first half of the year. But we expect to see strong growth maintain in the second half of the year and for many years to come. In a recent statement, you claim that 50% of WPP's tech offshoring for your global clients occurs in India. And you're looking to scale it up rapidly. Could you please share your plans, your scale of plans in India? Yeah, I think we have a really great offshore development business here. We've got some centers of excellence companies or parts of WPP that help people with their production, help people build e-commerce websites, implement Adobe or Salesforce technologies. And those skills are in great demand. What we have in India is really strong technical expertise at a price point that makes it extremely competitive. I don't see India as a low cost country. It's really about that combination of skill and expertise and price points. So we see demand for those services expanding around the world. As technology's impact to the advertising communications business actually only to become much more people intensive. Group M has been the fastest growing part of our business for a number of years and the headcount there, the number of people employed has grown. And a lot of that work can be done very efficiently in India. That's one of the areas we're seeing to expand. Our production business will expand. AI is going to drive demand for technology services. And I think it's a really important role that India can play in delivering AI services to the global WPP organization and client list as well. So would we see some announcements like after you visit here about your scale of plans? Are you stuck? The things that we need to announce really. I mean it's really a continuation of what we've been doing so far. I think a lot of it will come from organic growth, expanding the capabilities that we have. We've been bringing a lot of our IT, so people that support the company with all the resources here. We're expanding our finance capabilities here. We're expanding the technology development centers here as well. So is there any numbers like you hire these many people or is there anything concrete that I can look for a headline? I've been talking about doubling the size of WPP's business in India in the next five years. I think that's achievable. That would mean probably hiring seven or eight thousand people in a company over the next five years. There's no reason I don't think why we shouldn't be able to do that. And so I think that's the scale of the investment that we're going to make in this market. In June this year under your leadership, WPP won the prestigious title of company of the decade at prestigious Cannes 2023. How does WPP as an agency differentiate itself from the other agencies in the business? I don't know about others. Look, creativity is integral to WPP's DNA to our way of working. Why do clients come to a company like us? It's because they need the very best ideas. In some ways it's because we employ people that our clients don't employ. We employ creative people, mavericks, people that come up with fantastic ideas. We have people that have a great understanding of marketing strategy and consumers. We're able to combine those with our clients to produce groundbreaking work. The work that we did for Cadbury's using Shah Rukh Khan to promote Diwali is an idea that's been celebrated on a world stage. What does that idea contain? It contains a creative idea. What's the company's really innovative use of technology and an understanding of the media landscape and how to develop and deliver that around the world? So I think that India can play a really interesting role. In the future, our industry is about creativity and about technology or, presumably, say like imagination and intelligence as AI and artificial intelligence is a half of technology. So if we're in the business of imagination and intelligence, think of the world in a different place. It's a country that has great strengths of creativity, as well as great depths of technology equity. So I think it's a real unique market for us. So you've mentioned this before also that India has amazing creativity and technology, but what I would want to understand from you is that you deal with so many markets, what is it that India needs to learn? Where is India lacking? How can India evolve? So I think that India always needs confidence or a country lacking confidence. But I think that I don't think there's anything particularly India can learn from abroad. I mean, lots, frankly, that we could learn from India, certainly in the West. I mean, this is a young, vibrant, exciting economy. Coming back here after three years of COVID, it's great to see people back in the office collaborating and learning. It's a very young and diverse economy. It's embraced technology more than most countries. And I've seen a massive shift there since I was here last time, the explosion of digital payments, the digital infrastructure that the country is building and enabling a massive growth in the economy. So I think that India has a bright future ahead of it. And I think that it's come to fruition already. It's a country whose best days are ahead of it, but also is enjoying your Renaissance today as well. You spoke about the great work that Ogilvy and WaveMaker did together for the monthly Shahrukh Khan ad. So it's a work that was done jointly by a creative and a media agency as well. So you think that it's time for these silos to break and there should be more consolidation of media and media. Look, I think media and creative come together under WPP and I think those businesses should be able to work fluidly together. So the last thing I want to see is silos between parts of our organization. I think clients absolutely want to see media and creative work much, much more closely together. I don't think the solution that is to slam the businesses together. I think the solution is for us to have really strong expertise, but also be able to help those businesses collaborate. We have seen that was a great collaboration. There's many others within the organization. The work we're doing with the Coca-Cola company under this one WPP umbrella is producing some of the best work in the Coca-Cola system that they're seeing around the world. We've done groundbreaking campaigns around Coke Studios, Coke and the IPL. And I think that's showing the power of what we can do when we bring all of WPP together to help clients succeed. And now the World Cup. Coming up. So what is your perspective on emerging opportunities in the media industry, such as influencer marketing, real media, gaming etc? So I think the media industry is a really interesting inflection. Four or five years ago commentators would say, well, you know, the role of advertising, diminishing, people are watching digital channels, they're not watching television, they're not reading newspapers anymore. Well, it's clean, not the case, right? We've seen an explosion in advertising opportunities, streaming platforms like Netflix, taking advertising, music and audio platforms like Spotify, Audio, also taking advertising. We've seen Amazon and Flipkart and other retail media companies growing that, advertising because of delivery services like Uber Eats and local services here. So I think there's an explosion in advertising opportunities and ways for our clients to reach consumers. So I think there's never ever been a more exciting time to be in our industry. Now that plethora of opportunities makes it a much more complex landscape for clients. That's why we come in where agencies can help clients to navigate that landscape, to have creative ideas you can cut through in this channel, or also to use technology to link them together and data to understand where those ideas are having an impact. The goal of WPP is to bring that all together for clients. So in India particularly, there's been a lot of movement across agencies because there's so much, so many digital agencies that have come up and digital has become the new way of streaming. So retaining talent has become a big challenge. So how at WPP you tackle that? Well, our goal has to be to have the best talent in the industry. We've got many of the best talents and I encourage other people, great talent to come and join us. A little bit is about developing people at the beginning of their careers. We're bringing in new crates of technologists to understand this, and this is how we develop them and help them adapt. I mean half the job in WPP did not exist 20 years ago. So we're going to have to both bring people into these new roles, but also train and equip people to make transitions as their career develops. I think people look at WPP both as a great place to work and a great place to develop their career, and some people leave and go on and develop great careers as clients or in other parts of the marketing ecosystem, which is fantastic for us as well. In addition to leading WPP, you're also one of the most experienced and influential leaders in the media industry. What according to you are some of the challenges this industry is facing right now? So I think that we do have to navigate our way around privacy and how we make sure with data collection that the consumer is protected. I think the brand safety challenge is a problem for many of the platforms that they have to navigate. You have to make sure our young people are safe when they use these platforms as a parent. I feel quite strongly. In any time of change, there's also a time of uncertainty. We have to understand how we're going to use technology to connect the various platforms together and deliver ROI to our clients who don't blindly leap into the new platforms. But I think that the role of advertising is substantial. If you look at your phone and think of all the apps and functionality that's enabled by the advertising industry, mapping, email, social media, search, that we are providing or funding great services to consumers that lower the price point, that provide a service to people that couldn't ordinarily afford it. I think that's something that our industry really contributes in a positive way to society. Before we close, what would you like to say for your Indian leadership team here? Any words for them? Well, I think since I've been here last, India has had a difficult time. Particularly that second phase of COVID hit the country particularly badly. I think Trini and our other leaders really stepped up extremely well. Our whole team here in India helped each other. Many clients helped us and we helped other clients. I think we should thank them for that. I think we have a great business here and have great potential. Our job is to support them. We're here for a week to really understand what's going on in the market and see the potential for India as India, but India on a global stage. In a way, that's what we saw at the G20 as well. So that's what is on the agenda for us at this week at WPP. By when do you think India will become one of, will be in the top three markets of WPP? The global forecast is India's top three global economy in 2028, I'd say, and maybe that's possible. And what's your forecast for WPP? Well, I think in the next five years. Thank you, Mark. Thank you for speaking to us. Thank you very much.


When I'd been out about six months, my mission president gave us this 30-day challenge to carry around the Book of Mormon with us for 30 days. I forgot what I said the first time. So anyway, we were challenged to carry around the Book of Mormon with us for 30 days, and that became such a great habit that blessed me for the rest of my mission. And all the other missionaries, too, were just, it was natural for us. And we had to have it in our hands whenever going into places. And it was a great conversation starter. People were saying, what is that? What's that Bible? And then we'd get to quickly explain, oh, the Book of Mormon. And a lot of people in the South know the Bible. And when I was receiving my setting apart blessing, I was told that, I mean, even preparing for my mission, I was like, I don't know the Bible. I know the Book of Mormon. And Heavenly Father knew that because in my setting apart blessing, I was told to not worry about the Bible, but to focus on my testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. And I'm grateful that I was told that because at times when I did stress about the Bible or anything later, I would refer back to that blessing and remember that it comes, the Book of Mormon is the real converting tool. And a lot of the people in the South do know the Bible. And we just have the other link for them to connect the two and to help them understand the full picture.


Flinging yogurt all over the place. So apparently obviously I was not prepared to go live But I just want to talk about something real quick We're not gonna be here long I'll wait for some of you guys to pop in those of you who pop in later I don't know what's going on with my hair. It's clean But it's it's it's got a life of its own Come on in say hi, I just want to talk about the zoom For those of us who go to meetings hi Rachel. I should get my glasses. I'm eating a yogurt. I have to eat it Hi, Esther After I've been thinking about you. I love my glasses over there You're not gonna be coming to town. Are you? To state hi Christine Let's see here. Say hi Janet Hi, Jill. I forgive me guys. I am eating a yogurt Because I was going about my business.   All right, so listen, I'm here to ask you if you have your water and I'm here to a Collective sigh of relief. I'm gonna see if we can't get the number up a little bit before because I don't I Don't have a lot of information, but I think I have enough to calm some of your guys's thoughts or fears is too big of a word When it comes to WWE and Weight Watchers and them having to cancel our meetings I have some thoughts Uh, like I said my my buddy and her daughter are members actually two of her daughters are all three of her daughters are members and I've been reading around and listening while I was folding laundry and I think some of these concerns Okay, I might be a little harsh here. So please don't take me personally Jill lost four pounds during recovery Well, congratulations on the loss I'm glad you were covering you guys. Are you cold? Do you want some of the fire in the picture? You want to give me a thumbs up? You don't have to it's not that important I feel silly asking for thumbs up because I was watching a video the other day and it was somebody that I don't normally watch Because I'm trying to branch out and watch other things and I thought wow She's spending a lot of time asking people for likes. It seemed weird All right, Karen said I downloaded it to I'm doing the next meeting on Zoom. All right That's what I want to talk about All right, first of all, I think I had to do this without Well, you guys don't know her she doesn't have a YouTube channel One of the first things my friend's daughter said was I Pay big money for those meetings We should have meetings. Okay, this all just happened at this whole thing. Whatever it is Everybody take a collective breath and let WW do what they need to do, okay? I think it's a little selfish to be thinking about money when Three-fourths of my meetings are elderly people who could be seriously affected by this Okay, so let's just think about that for a minute Also, wait watchers The whole world are Just finding out what they are allowed to do and not allowed to do and go we're not to go I think that we should just relax give them time. They're gonna do it through zoom People are what zoom they're hesitant. Um, who was it who said they went on? Hi, Carrie, honey Hi, everybody. I'll be in to say but when I get When I get passionate about something I have to talk about it while it's You know what I'm saying and I'm gonna come back and say hi to everybody Let's think about what's important here. We cannot get our elderly sick. Okay? We can't do it that's more important than our money and I can guarantee you that once The big heads of the home chose figure it out We will be compensated. I firmly believe they will be compensated. Let's think about what's important first I just found that to be so selfish Maybe I'm alone in my thoughts and if I am that's okay. Um, I Think that's the bigger picture. My parents are 83 and 85 years old If they still had wait watcher meetings and my mom went to a wait watcher meeting and got sick Do you know how pissed off I'd be I'd be pissed at her for going because she's the nurse and would know better Anyways, but nurses are the worst patients Um, let's think about what's important here you guys we do need our meetings We your buds on YouTube are gonna try to be on here as much as possible So we can have our own meetings talk about whatever we need to talk about when it comes to our wait watchers But most importantly wait watchers is going to supply virtual meetings for us on zoom Okay, you haven't heard of zoom just because you haven't heard of it. I'm getting rough right now And I'm not normally that way when I applied I for those of you who don't know I Applied for work at wait watchers and My whole interview with the lady who was in charge of hiring me was through zoom Uh There was nothing hard about it. There was I Can't sit here and describe it to you how it's gonna be with a whole bunch of us because it was just she and I It was a very pleasant easy experience and I just am asking you guys I'm asking anybody who tunes into this later. That's why I put zoom in the title You guys give them a chance Before everybody starts poo poo in it. No, this isn't good enough think of the importantness The importantness because there is some good grammar Come on now. Um, you know what? We're all adults If you're not an adult and you're watching me shame on you get off you're not supposed to be watching my channel Let's take some responsibility for ourselves as adults. Hey, there's a an idea Let's take some responsibility for when we walk in our kitchen. Oh, but I want I want to eat that cookie. Neena I want I do too you guys But let's take some responsibility for ourselves and quit laying it at the feet of Everybody else and everything else and oh, I can't do it. Yeah, you can and you will and don't let this thwart all your progress It's super important you you may be young and in great health I'm I I you know I'm bummed about my meetings because my meetings are my social gathering you guys know how much I love my meetings That's where my homies are But even I shouldn't be with people because of my auto immune disease Christine is right. Christine you're with me It's wellness and it's important and oh my gosh, I just got worked over hearing about but the money I'm paying big money indeed. I do not have 45 dollars to flush down the toilet as Neither do you guys I'm sure Give them some time to work out the kinks And if you want to get upset about stuff pick the really important stuff to get upset about like Do you have what you need in your home as far as food? Do you have what you need as far as sundries? Does your family have what you need?  Give them some time as a company Zoom was delightful. I think everybody from all ages is going to be able to do it I have full Full in white watchers that they are gonna take their time. They're all doing the training right now To teach them how to do it and I think you all will be pleasantly surprised All I'm asking is for you to hang on Give them some time to do it. Don't worry about your buck. I'm sure that we will be Compensated I shouldn't say I'm positive because I don't work for them But I have had zoom experience and it's good for everybody. Okay, let's just give them a chance you guys Oh my gosh, this all just happened and everybody's already in a tizzy, you know I was on the the over 50s page and it's like people come on I mean really what's important and what's not important? Okay. Hope's worried about overeating Okay, hope a lot of people are worried about overeating and it's a truly valid fear I Was sitting here. Am I super-duper hungry? I'm not I'm gonna be honest, but I wanted something so I went for a two point yogurt no accountability hope Find an accountability partner Find somebody who you watch YouTube with maybe that you watch on YouTube somebody that you can text You guys can text each other what you're eating right now. They can text you what they're eating if you're tempted Yesterday, I don't know if I told you guys this thing up. I ate three cookies I never knew that I ate one and then I just I thought screw it that kept going and that's when I said to myself I'm accountable for me. There's nobody to blame because I chose to eat those cookies I regretted it later and I still regret it But we're adults and we we need to have some accountability for ourselves Let's start here at home with ourselves before everybody starts getting pissed off at ww All right now.  It's the quite the opposite For anybody is concerned about the meetings. Just hang on take a breath Hang out with us on YouTube and let's talk about whatever anybody wants to talk about Rachel signed up for zoom Hi Karen. Hello again him. I'm very talkative today because I'm lonely Esther says. Oh, I talked to Esther We Rachel we do need our meetings now more than ever and we're gonna get them Yeah, I get home Esther. You're better off there Carrie has her water and her beautiful new bottle that her daughter got her for her birthday She's downloaded the zoom app. Look at you guys are ahead of the game Hello from North Dakota so far. I've got you guys are agreeing with me. That's a good sign Because I don't want any pitchforks coming my way Hi Cindy. Hi Sharon Don't hoard the food or toilet paper Yeah, hope let's give them a chance just like if something were to fall on us, right? One of us had a business Wouldn't we want to be given a chance Thank you, Carrie Darling you always say the right thing. Hi Janet Hope says but we need to stay home because this virus could kill us So stay home. I've signed up for zoom. Okay. Oh Hope Paul Sanchez. Hi Tracy Hey got your water. Hey, I sure do sue So, yeah, let's so let's think about it the track If you don't like tracking on your app get yourself a nice pad of paper a nice pen Lord knows we've got time, right? Maybe pre-track if you're worried about overeating sit down Take an inventory of what you have in your kitchen what you enjoy pre-track. I Think for people who are worried about over eating. That's one of the best solutions I'm just a lady who does white watchers and talks on YouTube. I don't I'm talking about it, too I know what I'm talking about because if it's pre-tracked. So let's see Track at the night before.  This is important, too There's that great food Nothing else is going on Go to where you pre-tracked if it's on paper check it off put the paper aside if it's in your app Put it aside Take your time and enjoy that food. You'll be more satiated Take your time.  Let's see county air points and working out at home gives you a healthy way to take control See Rachel and that's so true. And here's the other thing Did I keep repeating and I'm gonna repeat it and repeat it because there's gonna be somebody who hasn't heard it We may not have control over anything that's going on outside But we have full control of what goes in our mouth. We are in control people So why not take this control take it and be Take pride in your control feel so good about yourself. It's like, okay. Well, you know There's a lot of unhappy anxious scared People who aren't Maybe I won't follow in those footsteps. I'm not making friends aren't now because I'm watching people sign off You guys I'm just trying to to tell you not to worry Don't worry. We're here for each other All my other YouTube and buddies They're gonna be here for you too because we're all at home too and we like to talk So we'll come on here and talk with you guys if anybody has a concern Message or comment me or Amy or Mel or Sandy or anybody who you watch and say, hey, this is a problem. Can we talk about it? Speaking for myself, I can jump on anytime and I'm happy to help anybody talk about anything Any way that I can help I am more than happy to do so because that's what I'm here for and I and and I want to spread Spread the joy So download the zoom app be ready Watch your emails Have your water ready for whatever day that we all watch Tracy says, yep, I'm bored and I will overeat. Okay Another thing about overeating This is hard because those of us who have children in the house or our spouses have their ice cream that they eat or whatever So this is kind of If you don't have to have it in your house, and you think you're gonna overeat it don't have it in your house Now if you have family members Then you're just kind of gonna have to have some some restraint.  But we're all here for you you guys me and all my YouTube and buddies.  I woke up last night.  Is that something that would help would you guys like that? Because if so I'm down. I'll do it in a heartbeat. I'll do it all day long I'll have a 24-hour station for But I pissed some people off because there was like 25 of us in here and now there's only 17 people didn't like my message and it wasn't meant from a bad place Let's think about what's important Rachel says heavy and kids were eating too much junk When they saw I was continuing on with my WWE plan. They calmed down. This can help our families mental health Rachel you should have a channel friend Karen Thank you that makes me feel good because I just watched all these people leave my channel And I only come from a place of love and wanting to help and being fair fairness is so important to me and Yes, wait watchers is a big huge company and wait watchers makes money, but wait watchers guides us in our weight loss and Let's just be fair. Let's just be fair Let's let them get their footing even if it starts off a little shaky Let's just be fair. Oh, I just it's so much about being fair my life I Just think it's something people need to practice more often boy am I my soapbox today or what? I'm not usually like this, but I guess that conversation with my buddy just kind of teed me off a little everything isn't about the old almighty buck and When we get over this hump if somebody feels as if they were not Treated properly by WWE or you know, they're unhappy with something Let's let's leave that for then. Let's wait for it to happen before we start Getting upset over something that we do don't even know is gonna happen Right because isn't that a big old huge waste of energy I Know that I have to get in my car And I have to it's raining here And I have to drive over to Oliver's other grannies Okay, he's not feeling good. Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that.  For your birthday because that might be it That's why I didn't have that tell me's burger.   You just have to enjoy the roller coaster like the granny and parenthood said Remember she said that and enjoy the ride. Don't predict what you think will happen. Stay in the moment. God bless you sue. Yes. Oh No, I hope you get some help honey Hey, look at hope with all that positive. We don't have to get dressed away in but here for a personal thing I don't own a scale.  I'm sorry guys my nose itches It's dry, I can't read it because then I'll type in something I likely shouldn't type in and that's just not nice If you see anybody having those thoughts maybe try to spread Anita's message of let's just be fair let's give them some time and Let's get excited about this new fun virtual meeting. We're gonna have maybe we're gonna totally dig it Maybe it's gonna be like wow look at us Right, it's a 50-50 thing We don't have to get dressed either we can do it in our jammies Thank you Carrie because thank you honey. I appreciate your positivity on me trying to be positive even though I kind of sound negative, but I'm totally not trying to be I'm a very passionate person This all connects to things in my life were I don't know why But it's a theme in my life in the past where things have happened that I have taken the blame for different things Horrible horrible things and years later people found out that they were incorrect They they were wrong and luckily for me these people came forward and apologized But I went for many years being mistreated by people because I was accused of something that never happened and That's why it's so important to me to be fair So that's let's let's be good white watching fair girls ladies men Okay, there's only a couple of you guys in here today. If I did make anybody angry. Sorry. It totally wasn't my if my intent Thank you Carrie. Thank you ladies for popping in here with me I Appreciate all of you always and now I'm gonna go get my car and drive in the rain and get my grandson I haven't seen him in a couple days So let's see how long he's home until I'm ready to get rid of him again All right, Carrie feel better.  It's a new adventure. Oh, here. We all are talking about how bored we are, right? Everybody's bored. I'm bored and eat. I'm so bored. Well, uh We won't be bored when we're trying out the new zoom and checking it out and see what's happening, right? Something look forward to All right. I love you ladies and I'm gonna be here Right it's it's what has to be it's just I'm sorry keeps beating all over you guys I'm gonna be on here a lot because uh, if these things still keep coming up I want my voice to be heard if only by one person two. Hopefully more. All right kids Carrie feel better. Let us know how you're doing. If anybody has anything they want to discuss Let me know. I'll come on here live. I'll send the horn for live. Let's check with watching buddies