Getting to Know You

by Caroline Dobson - 12:01 on 22 September 2009

Continuing in the tradition of "job talks";on Sept 9th  a new member, David Noble , talked to the Club about his career. As Loch Ness is the fourth Rotary Club to which he has belonged this was not his first job talk but it was his first from the perspective of retirement. In fact each job talk has seen him in a different role. Having qualified in law and practiced as a solicitor in Glasgow David followed his interest in planning and development and entered Local Government in Argyll and then Inverness. Local government reorganisation saw him moving to Skye and Lochalsh as Chief Executive and then again back to Inverness where he worked with the new Highland Tourist Board. David reflected on the difficulties of a new organisation in gaining people’s trust and approval. During his time with the Highland Tourist Board the internet revolution began to impact on tourism strategy. David described “highlights” such as launching a web site about walking holidays just as foot and mouth hit the countryside and discovering that web site names need to very clear when ‘wannabethere’ was often read as’ want to bet here’ rather than describing a yearning for a country idyll! David’s next job change was the result of a merger /reorganisation and he ended his career as Director of Network Operations, Visit Scotland. This involved travelling the length and breadth of the land in the cause of promoting and protecting the industry which now sees 15 million visitors spending 4 billion pounds. Adverse publicity was a constant theme for the organisation and David became used to references to “red faced tourism bosses”, a description he hopes will take on different nuances now he is retired and means to spend more time practicing his trombone playing.

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