If there’s one takeaway from the massive success of the tech industry, it’s that change happens at lightning pace and skills that were the window to the future a year ago are now as obsolete as transistor radios.<br />
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Driverless electric cars, virtual reality headsets, and robot surgeons are the talk of town. But there are two simple questions that can cut through the chatter: What tech skills are companies hiring for, and what kind of tech firms are people starting up? Here is a list of the ‘hottest’ tech skills you might want to equip yourself with to be a part of the digital bandwagon.<br />
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1. Big Data<br />
<br /> According to <keyword id="2888545" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Computerworld">Computerworld</keyword>’s 2016 Forecast report, the hype around Big Data is not hype at all, but a true phenomenon. Big Data was the number 1 skill that companies were hiring for. Robert Half Technology, the IT staffing firm, has said that companies want professionals with two distinct skills - the ability to interpret vast amounts of data, and a knack for bringing data to life, visually.<br />
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The latter is as important as the former, as the insights gained from data have to be clearly communicated to everyone in the company ecosystem. Currently, good Big Data certification training to gain project experience remains the best way to break into the $40 billion dollar industry.<br />
<br /> 2. <keyword id="618493" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-marketing">Digital Marketing</keyword><br />
<br /> You might joke about that one friend who signed up for Digital Marketing classes so he could learn how to get likes on his <keyword id="819905" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Instagram">Instagram</keyword> posts, but Digital Marketing is the future of work. Slowly but surely, the line between work and leisure is getting blurred, and the ability to maintain a favorable online presence for yourself and your firm will be an important factor that companies will consider while hiring.<br />
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Do you know how digital lead generation works? What digital tools can you use to reach out to particular demographics?<br />
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This comprehensive Digital Marketing training course might be the most useful suggestion on this list, because it Digital skills are applicable to every profession and will add a feather to the cap of every professional.<br />
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So if you’re looking to become a digital marketing expert, make sure to add skills in social media, PPC, digital analytics, mobile marketing, conversion optimization, content marketing and more to your toolkit. Getting an accredited credential in these popular skills will distinguish you from your peers, and make your profile that much more attractive to potential recruiters.<br />
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3. Mobile App development<br />
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Trends come and go, but your smartphone is here to stay. Well, maybe not exactly. Wearables are taking off, from sunglasses-type headsets to smartwatches. Each of these devices comes with its own platforms and APIs, and knowing how to design to the specifications of a device is a top skill of 2016.<br />
<br /> According to market research portal Statista, global spending on mobile apps is set to cross $35 billion by the end of 2016. Users want crisp, fluid experiences across all their products and companies want to win the attention of consumers. If you’re interested in creating mobile apps, the most useful skills are <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword> OS and UI knowledge, as well as fluency with Javascript and MySQL.<br />
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It’s clear that Steve Ballmer’s infamous ‘developers, developers!’ chant is only getting louder. Add app development skills to your skillset with industry-oriented training in Android development.<br />
<br /> 4. <keyword id="6373689" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cloud-computing">Cloud Computing</keyword> and Salesforce<br />
<br /> You’ve probably noticed that you store less and less data on your hard disk drive, and more and more on the cloud. This is also true for most companies, from up-and-coming startups to midsized firms. Software-as-a-services like <keyword id="285445" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dropbox">Dropbox</keyword>, Amazon Web Services and Salesforce have made it more convenient than ever before to store large amounts of information in the cloud.<br />
<br /> But organizations need in-house cloud specialists to handle all their accounts and derive the maximum impact from their systems. Spending on cloud services will grow to more than $127 billion by 2018, according to an <keyword id="6377157" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="IDC">IDC</keyword> forecast report. Facility with Salesforce, <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> Azure, and AWS are the most sought-after skills in this space, but the overall ecosystem is also booming. Accredited training packages in Salesforce development and app building will get you ready for this sector in no time.<br />
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5. DevOps<br />
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The industry joke is that programmers either think that DevOps combines the worst aspects of both software development and tech support, or the best. Companies, however, are massively in favor, and this is reflected in the pay packages for those proficient in the skill. A survey from Puppet Labs found that DevOps engineers make $100,000 a year or more.<br />
<br /> The DevOps methodology requires a mindset of finding the fastest ways to automate an organization’s processes. At every product launch, it’s the DevOps specialists who are the heroes. Robert Byron, principal consultant at <keyword id="3881300" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="winterwyman-search">WinterWyman Search</keyword> for information technology, has said that he would like to clone DevOps professionals because of how important they are to every IT project. A specialized certification course in DevOps is the best substitute for experience to those looking to make it big in this field.<br />
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6. Project Management<br />
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Tech is booming, and so it’s no surprise that project management is among the skills to own. More spending in the information tech industry = bigger, more complex projects, which means better qualified project managers to manage those projects. CIOs like Ken Grady of IDEXX Laboratories have said that while project management in not a new skill, it’s changed a lot over the years, and it’s extremely valuable because people who’ve mastered it are able to handle fast iteration. It involves coordination between teams and precise expectation management.<br />
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The ability to optimize business success in markets that require companies to launch new products and quickly pivot is one that every company will need to have. A certificate program in PMP, the world’s foremost project management methodology, is one of the quickest ways to achieve success with this skill.<br />
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The Bottom Line<br />
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Technology seems to be a change agent for transforming various aspects of life. Learning continuously will be the most effective medium of gaining knowledge.<br />
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Corporates appreciate employees who are willing to learn and lead the way ahead. Gone are those days where professionals stay with an organization for more than a decade. Even in one company, one cannot expect to stay on with the same skill sets for more than a couple of years. Improvisation has been the buzz word amongst corporates. Today's world seem to value knowledge over experience. Certification is the only desired way to gather knowledge and prove ones efficiency.<br />
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(The article has been contributed by <a href="https://www.simplilearn.com/?utm_source=Social&amp;utm_campaign=Brand_Social_BI_241116&amp;utm_medium=BI">www.simplilearn.com</a>)

The 6 most sought after tech skills in the marketplace

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>YouTube/Coca-Cola</span></p><p class="caption">Straw bans alone won't solve anything. But maybe they're a start.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-seattles-ban-on-plastic-straws-and-utensil-now-in-effect-2018-7">Seattle</a> became the first major US city to ban single-use plastic straws and utensils.</strong></li><li><strong>Corporate plastic bans are also quickly gaining momentum: companies like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-replaces-straws-with-sippy-cup-lid-2018-7">Starbucks,</a> Aramark and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-american-airlines-says-its-getting-rid-of-plastic-straws-2018-7">American Airlines</a> are vowing to stop offering plastic straws.</strong></li><li><strong>Plastic straw bans alone won't change much. </strong><strong>Less than 9% of all of the plastic we use every day gets recycled. Instead, most ends up in landfills or floating out in the ocean.</strong></li><li><strong>That problem won't be fixed by forgoing a straw, but environmentalists say letting go of a single piece of plastic could be a first step in a much-needed larger behavior change.</strong></li></ul><p> </p><p>Plastic straws are quickly becoming a takeout taboo. </p><p>Starbucks has vowed to get its iconic green sippers completely off store shelves by 2020, while Seattle banned all plastic utensils, including straws, from bars and businesses city-wide earlier this month, in a first-of-its kind rule. <a href="http://www.sfweekly.com/news/s-f-stirs-up-plastic-straw-ban/">San Francisco is</a> expected to be next.</p><p>But the truth is that straws are just the tip of the trash heap when it comes to plastic waste.</p><p>In 2015, plastic consumption worldwide totaled <a href="https://blog.euromonitor.com/2018/04/ethical-living-megatrend-briefing-plastic-lose-re-use.html">300 million metric</a> tonnes. That essentially means that for each one of the world's 7.6 billion humans, we're making <em>25.3 tonnes</em> of plastic a year. The packaging industry is still growing, according to Euromonitor, with <a href="https://blog.euromonitor.com/2017/07/packaging-market-2017.html">flexible plastics</a> leading the pack. </p><p>It may seem as though the quarter-of-an-inch diameter drinking straw is the least of our worries. But environmentalists say the fight's got to start somewhere. </p><p>"W<span>e look at straws as one of the gateway issues </span><span>to help people start thinking about the global plastic </span><span>pollution problem," <a href="http://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/">Plastic Pollution Coalition</a> CEO Dianna Cohen told Business Insider. </span>"T<span>hey've been designed to be used for a very short amount of time, </span><span>and then be tossed </span><span>away." </span></p><p><span>Simply put: we have a plastic problem. And it doesn't end with straws. Cohen is one of many in the environmental crowd that are on a crusade to get people using less plastic, immediately. So if people can't ditch all of their plastic habits, then maybe it's time to start smaller, and forget the straws, right now.</span></p><p>People in the US now <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-avoid-gaining-weight-2018-5">spend more money eating out than eating in</a> - often with food coming in plastic or throw-away containers.</p><p>It's not just food. Most plastic turns to trash after a single use. If you think you're doing Mother Earth a solid by slinging your used plastics into the recycling, think again. More than <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5517107/">79% of all plastic waste ends up in landfills, or gets stuck in the natural world</a>, regardless of which sorting bin you put it in. Another 12% gets burned up in incinerators, adding to particulate matter to the atmosphere. Only a remaining 9% is actually recycled, according to a 2017 report published in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5517107/">Science Advances</a>. </p><p><span>"It's wonderful if Starbucks is going to phase out straws, </span><span>that's a great start," Cohen said. But she says it's clear that the effort can't end there: "L</span><span>ook at how much other single use plastic is at Starbucks. I</span><span>t's a joke." </span></p><p><span>Other companies aren't just cutting back on straws. On Tuesday, food service giant Aramark, a company that operates in schools, prisons, hospitals, and businesses in 19 countries around the world, <a href="https://www.aramark.com/about-us/news/aramark-general/single-use-plastics-announcement-2018">vowed to reduce its straw use 60% by 2020</a>, while still making some straws available to people with disabilities who need an assist getting liquids from cup to mouth. The company also says it'll cut back on plastic cutlery, plastic bags, and "various packaging materials." </span></p><h2><span>The plastic problem</span></h2><p>Every piece of plastic that's produced in the world <a href="https://plastics.americanchemistry.com/How-Plastics-Are-Made/">started out as the product</a> of a piece of coal, a slick of oil, or natural gas. There were naturally-derived polymers around long before that, including materials like animal horn and rubber, but the kind of plastic that we package things in today didn't show up until 1907, with the invention of the <a href="https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/bakelite.html">first synthetic plastic</a> made from fossil fuels: Bakelite.</p><p>Because of the way these new, manufactured polymers are heated up and cured, many plastics can't ever truly be recycled. That robust quality once made them a wonderfully remarkable, nearly unbreakable replacement for older, more fragile products like porcelain or glass. But it also means that "p<span>lastic might sit in a landfill, or litter a street, for thousands of years without decomposing," <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27442625">as the BBC</a> put it. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>The Ocean Cleanup</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>The plastics that our straws are made from (usually one like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/GEN-STRAWWFLX-Wrapped-Straws-Polypropylene/dp/B01BHXS8IE/ref=sr_1_10_s_it?s=hpc&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1532378858&amp;sr=1-10&amp;refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_four_browse-bin%3A6146461011">polypropelyne</a>) might be recyclable, at least in theory, but most aren't. They're dumped into landfills or hauled off o</span><span>n <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/recycling-system-is-breaking-down-2018-5">big boats over to China</a> - a plastic trade that's in decline.</span></p><p><span>S</span>ome straws drift out to sea, becoming just one more piece of the 79 thousand-ton colossal floating iceberg of trash called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Scientists who've studied the patch, a trash heap wider than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch-view-study-plastic-2018-3">two whole Texases</a> that bobs somewhere between Hawaii and California, have discovered it's essentially a watery pit of litter and illegal dumps that's trapped in the ocean currents, and it is basically all plastic. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w">A 2018 report</a> based on aerial and water surveys of the patch found that "more than 99.9%" of it is plastic, and it's not just straws in there. Plastic objects identified in the patch included containers, bottles, lids, bottle caps, packaging straps, ropes, and fishing nets. </p><h2>So why pick on straws?</h2><p>The anti-straw movement may have first picked up steam because of a viral video that started going around in 2015. Texas A&amp;M graduate student <span>Christine Figgener</span> happened to be out tagging some sea turtles as part of her research in Costa Rica, when she noticed something encrusted in the nose of one of the male turtles.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>nicolas.voisin44/Shutterstock</span></p><p class="caption">Sea creatures are often at the mercy of our plastic trash.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"We thought it might be another parasite, or something living on or in him," <span>Figgener <a href="https://today.tamu.edu/2015/11/18/the-turtle-with-a-straw-in-its-nose-the-story-behind-the-viral-video/">said in a video</a>. The team soon figured out it was actually a "plastic straw stuck in his nose," and removed it, hoping the extraction might help give him some more breathing time on Earth. </span></p><p><span>"I</span><span>n a way, that turtle became a poster child," Cohen, who in addition to heading up the PPC also creates <a href="https://news.psu.edu/story/504767/2018/02/12/sustainability/artist-dianna-cohen-present-lecture-feb-15-palmer-museum">plastic art</a> to raise awareness about the problem, said. "W</span><span>ell, a poster turtle."</span></p><p><span>But there's debate as to whether ditching straws will really lead to more measurable actions. It's possible that people will feel content that they've done their part for Mother Earth, simply by forgoing a single straw, without changing other behaviors. </span><span>Researchers who've studied these questions have come up with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378014001599">mixed results</a>. Sometimes, doing one good thing for the environment can kickstart people into other Earth-friendly behaviors, but other studies suggest that people might give themselves a pass on changing other behaviors once they've done one good deed - what's called a "single action bias."</span></p><h2><span>It's time to ditch all kinds of plastic</span></h2><p>What it really comes down to is living with less plastic, and changing old behaviors. Other countries are aggressively regulating plastics already. Morocco, once a land laden with fields full of drifting plastic bags, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/green-morocco-bans-plastic-bags-160701141919913.html">banned the production, sale, and import of plastic bags completely in 2016</a>. Rwanda <a href="https://plasticoceans.org/rwanda-plastic-bag-ban/">was one of the first places in the world to ban plastic bags</a>, in 2008, and in the US, both <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-will-be-the-first-state-to-ban-plastic-bags-2014-9">California</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hawaii-plastic-bag-ban-2015-7">Hawaii</a> followed suit, while other states (like Michigan) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/30/yes-this-is-real-michigan-just-banned-banning-plastic-bags/?utm_term=.15830d70a877">rose up against</a> the idea of ever weaning themselves off plastics and banned bans. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/india-vows-to-ban-all-single-use-plastics-by-2022-world-environment-day-un-environment/">India says</a> all single-use plastic will be banned there by 2022. In England, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/queen-bans-plastic-straws-after-david-attenborough-documentary-2018-2">Queen Elizabeth now insists</a> that no plastic straws or bottles appear on the royal estates. </p><p><span>But there is historical evidence that Americans can change their ways, improving the environment while growing the economy. I</span>n the 1960s, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-america-before-epa-documerica-2017-10">unregulated pollution was causing all kinds of problems to crop up across the US,</a> from rivers bursting into flames, to offshore oil spills and asthma-inducing car exhaust. We haven't gotten rid of any of these things completely, but after the US started the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970, we began regulating their use, and the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/progress-cleaning-air-and-improving-peoples-health">economy grew</a> as the health of the entire country improved. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Dick Swanson/Documerica</span></p><p class="caption">The Walt Whitman bridge, which connects Philadelphia and New Jersey, was a smoggy sight in August 1973.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The EPA has also <a href="https://www.epa.gov/recycle">helped promote</a> the simple "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra. Cohen hopes people can add one more word into the mix in 2018: "refuse." As in, refusing plastic containers wherever they're offered, whether it be at a coffee shop, an ice cream stand, or the grocery store. </p><p><span>Behavioral scientists know this kind of habit change is hard, b</span>ut as social psychologist <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-quit-drinking-stop-bad-habits-psychologist-simple-trick-2018-1">John Bargh previously told Business Insider</a>, "the more you practice doing something, the less effort it takes."</p><p>Make reuse a habit, and it becomes a lot easier for your brain to handle. Start carrying around your own containers, Cohen said.</p><p>"I<span>t's going to sound like something exciting and new," Cohen said. "</span><span>Really, it's what our parents and our great grandparents </span><span>did."</span></p><p>Cohen admits she loves straws, and now has a whole collection of alternative straws at home: paper, bendable steel, rye wheat, and glass.</p><p><span>"Plastics seem inexpensive because all of the cost to the environment and ocean and animals have been externalized," she said. "The thing about single-use plastic is it's actually really inconvenient for our health, for the health of the ocean, for the health of wildlife in the ocean, and on land." </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-reusable-straw-collapses-to-fit-on-your-keyring-finalstraw-plastic-pollution2018-5">This reusable straw collapses to fit on your keyring and 'will last a lifetime'</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

The real reason why so many cities and businesses are banning plastic straws

Sabrina Kay came to America from South Korea as a teenager, learned English as part of an 18-unit college load while working at her parents’ fashion retail stores and raising her daughter as a single mom. She started California Design College (now the Art Institute of California) in her 20s, sold it in her 30s with enough money to retire, founded a variety of new businesses, sold those and earned enough money to become a philanthropist. She joined the <keyword id="852310" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="YPO">YPO</keyword> Bel Air Chapter in 2000. Amidst all of her successes, she discovered that what she really wanted to do was teach.<br />
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After completing her doctorate degree in work-based learning leadership at the University of Pennsylvania, Kay developed a model of teaching based on Wharton’s elite professional education model, but with a different focus: undergraduates. By connecting employers’ needs with the classroom curriculum and focusing on pre-employment training, Kay’s plan was to enhance corporate training efficiency and students’ social mobility and career opportunities. She soon found her ideal laboratory in the form of Fremont College in Los Angeles.<br />
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“Fremont College is an evolving laboratory with the goal of implementing a new collaborative and experiential learning model delivered via blended learning and the latest technology and analytics. Most companies are not educational institutions. That’s not their business, but most companies need just-in-time education as the industry changes,” says Kay, who became its CEO in 2007.<br />
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Sabrina Kay YPO - Young Presidents Organization 2Kay’s biggest dream is pre-employment training for corporations. “Corporate America spends US$170 billion a year training its employees while our colleges and universities spend US$500 billion educating graduates,” she says.<br />
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By designing the curriculum according to employers’ needs, Kay strongly believes it’s possible to produce the most effective higher-education system in the world. Currently, the United States K-12 educational system is ranked 25 out of 30 among developed countries. In a recent survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, U.S. adults scored far below average and better than only two of 12 other developed comparison countries, Italy and Spain.<br />
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“For the past 20 years, these students who received the third-world education grew up, and they are now leading our economy,” says Kay. “Our institutions and corporate training programs must join forces to make an impact on learning.”<br />
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“The knowledge in human capital is the most important competitive edge in today’s marketplace. For instance, in our digital media strategy program, if Google releases a new version of AdWords, we can remove an outdated PPC course and launch an updated one in a matter of weeks, not years. As a result, we provide the most employer-relevant content for any industry at any given time. We have a team of instructional designers that can work with various corporate training programs for any sector and get the learning off the ground as long as the employer is willing to hire more than 500 graduates every year continuously.”<br />
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YPO members understand the importance of education and the excitement generated by learning and dedicate themselves to becoming better leaders through education and idea exchange. From Global EDGE to the Harvard Presidents’ Program to the plethora of engaging and adventurous events around the globe, members are on a perpetual quest to expand their minds and learn new ways to help create a better world. Fremont College provides this opportunity to YPO and WPO member-company employees and saves tremendous expenses by proposing it as pre-employment training.<br />
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“My mission in life is to teach the world. And the mission of Fremont College is to help students discover their passion and talent regardless of age, and to understand that giving back to the community and making this world a more beautiful place ought to be one of their goals in life.”<br />
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Fremont College Tiger Scholarship Sabrina Kay YPOKay founded the Sabrina Kay Charitable Foundation in 2002 and has been serving as chairman of After-School All-Stars Los Angeles, a youth organization founded by former California State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that gives middle-school students a place to go between the crucial hours of 3-6 p.m., when they are often tempted by the lure of the streets.<br />
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Kay also supports International Medical Corps as its leadership council member, an organization that has provided aid to more than 50 countries, led by Nancy Aossey, who joined the YPO Los Angeles Chapter in 1997. International Medical Corps was an important presence in the rebuilding of Indonesia after the tsunami, the distribution of food and water to victims of the earthquake in Haiti and the treating of cholera in Eastern Congo. For Kay, working with International Medical Corps has also helped satisfy a very personal quest to help the U.S. remain an icon of freedom and democracy.<br />
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Additionally, Kay serves on various charitable and civic organizations, such as Los Angeles Sports &amp; Entertainment Commission, The Kitchen Community, and California Fashion Association.<br />
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One would be hard-pressed to find a better-equipped person out there than Sabrina Kay, who has walked the walk and (learned to) talk the talk, to create a resilient, successful generation of young business leaders.<br />
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“Since I couldn’t speak English, I learned to listen more carefully. Because I was a poor single mom, fearful of not being able to provide for my daughter, I started a business and achieved success. Because I had to support my parents, they lived with me and became role models for my daughter. Adversity is just an opportunity that has not realized its full potential.”<br />
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(The author of this article is Deborah Stoll from Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).<br />
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YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) is a not-for-profit, global network of young chief executives connected through the shared mission of becoming Better Leaders Through Education and Idea Exchange™. For more information, visit www.ypo.org.<br />
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(Image: Thinkstock)<br />

Turning Adversity into Opportunity

The ultimate guide to going freelance - and making more than you did at a full-time gig

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Time Out Group<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/time-out-acquires-yplan-2016-10">&#xa0;announced it was acquiring&#xa0;London-based events app YPlan for £1.6 million ($1.95 million) in stock earlier on Friday</a>.<p>The price was a snip considering big name investors had pumped £31 million ($37.7 million) into the startup since it was founded in 2012.</p><p>The YPlan app and website lets users search by event, area, or venue to find tickets for events like&#xa0;theater, concerts, and food festivals.</p><p>Speaking to Business Insider, Time Out Group CEO Julio Bruno said the acquisition of YPlan immediately accelerates what the company had already been doing in the commerce space, allowing the publisher to make more money from the events it promotes and reviews.&#xa0;</p><p>As far as the&#xa0;nature of YPlan's exit was concerned, Bruno said the startup's team should be validated that a company the size of Time Out took notice and&#xa0;they can now expand their idea globally.</p><p><em>This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.</em></p><p><strong>Lara O'Reilly:</strong> What can you do with YPlan that you couldn't do before?</p><p><strong>Julio Bruno:</strong> It's not that we couldn't do this ourselves, what YPlan does for us is&#xa0;accelerate&#xa0;what we had&#xa0;already been doing.</p><p>At our IPO [in June] we were talking about our uses of the money [we had raised].&#xa0;&#xa0;What&#xa0;YPlan does and their technology in the same sector - event planning, discovery, and booking - is perfect for what we are working on.</p><p>We are bringing in fantastic talent in that space and&#xa0;bringing in technology that will allow us to accelerate on our own, rather than start from&#xa0;scratch.</p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>O'Reilly:&#xa0;</strong>What kind of technology, specifically?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> They have a very easy user interface that's very clean, very sharp, and very user friendly. &#xa0;By that I mean if you see an event you like, you tap once, and if you really want to buy it,&#xa0;you can book now - that is two clicks.</p><p>If you go to our existing commerce platform, primarily you will see that is a little bit more convoluted because&#xa0;we have third&#xa0;parties, white labels, different providers. That seamless approach YPlan has,&#xa0;they do it with much fewer events that Time Out. Time Out has thousands and thousands and thousands. But the&#xa0;simplicity of thought they have, the delivery of the product in a very nice user friendly way is&#xa0;important&#xa0;- you are&#xa0;showing me a lot of things, and when the time comes to choose a thing, either you cannot book it, or it becomes complicated.</p><p>The other thing they have is a very good data analytics&#xa0;and&#xa0;CRM (customer relationship management) system that we like. That is something we have been trying to develop, we have some but&#xa0;do not have all, and they have something that will help us with our existing data analytics.</p><p>Then&#xa0;the way their management, their leaders, and engineers think is what I&#xa0;was looking for in terms of our evolution.</p><p>They&#xa0;are looking at e-commerce as an end to itself so to speak. I know this is a great event, how am I going to maximize it? I know it's good, I want people to book fast and conversion is important.</p><p>Time Out has&#xa0;for so long been the harbinger for fantastic ideas and thoughts&#xa0;without&#xa0;thinking very much about how to book it. With them&#xa0;they think the other way around. They think how can I monetize? In their mind, monetization is completely aligned with the use case.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> If monetization was at the center, why didn't YPlan make more money? The company posted a pre-tax loss of £6.2 million last year.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> They are like any other consumer platform, consumer app, or on&#xa0;desktop. The difficulty they all have in general is trying to get the traffic, the audience, the eyeballs.</p><p>Normally - and I'm not just saying this about them, as I wasn't there before -&#xa0;normally I think a lot of companies in this space have to spend a lot of money on&#xa0;customer acquisition,&#xa0;PPC (pay-per-click), and they have to buy [search] terms. They spend a lot of money.</p><p>The tech is there, but they didn't have the whole that we have:&#xa0;137 million [users] in reach. That is a big difference between a company like that and&#xa0;Time Out.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>What&#xa0;Time Out has is the audience because we have been building that for&#xa0;48 years in&#xa0;London and 25 years in New York City. We have been building fantastic content, stories, reviews, critiques&#xa0;about so many things, and our content is so special that we get that audience. What we are doing is merging&#xa0;that audience with the possibility to buy.<p>In their case, they had the tech, spent&#xa0;a lot of money on research and algorithms, but if&#xa0;you do&#xa0;not have all the traffic you need, that takes time. That's probably why last year wasn't the best for them.</p><p>I see joining Time Out is perfect for them as a continuation of their strategy and what they want to do in the space, but with a bigger audience.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> The last I heard, YPlan had 1.5 million users. How many users does it&#xa0;have now?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> As a public company, I'm not sure if that's relevant to what we were doing now, we are&#xa0;merging [YPlan's audience]&#xa0;with an audience that is so much bigger.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> But it'd be interesting to know how big that chasm was, between YPlan's audience and Time Out's ...</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> They have built an audience. It takes a long time to build and a lot of money to build an audience. We didn't buy them because of their audience. We are going to give that [combined] audience a combination of Time Out content and event with YPlan's tech. You have to think about this all together.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> How long were you in discussions to buy YPlan?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> I don't know if I can disclose&#xa0;that. It has been quite fast. We had to take our time for due diligence&#xa0;and the time needed to do these things ... I would say that it was not a lot and not too little</p><p>As a public company we have to go through a lot of things to make sure board of directors are happy. To be honest, I&#xa0;have to say the board was very, very happy with this idea of accelerating our strategy and&#xa0;with our commerce side of plan. I would say it took the usual time it takes with these [acquisitions].</p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>O'Reilly:</strong> Many people have commented about the fact that investors put £31&#xa0;million into the company, yet it was sold for just £1.6 million in stock. Did you speak to the investors?</p><p><strong>Bruno: </strong>I&#xa0;cannot comment about those investors. For us, obviously the product was central to the deal. The board of directors and the company founder and CEO, those were the people we spoke to. We spoke to the actual representatives of the company authorized to do this deal.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> How do you think they feel about the deal?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> How would they feel? You should ask them. [YPlan]&#xa0;now has&#xa0;a home that will&#xa0;allow them to develop their strategy on much bigger, global scale. They were in London and [had an office] in Birmingham - with us now they are a global company. That's&#xa0;fantastic for YPlan.</p><p>For investors, I obviously don't know how they feel. It's good to have an exit, right? It's&#xa0;good to validate everything you have worked for - technology, people, the talent, the place, the home. We are so happy to have them on board, as they are talented people. We love them being with us and, from what we can see, they love being with us.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> An exit is good, but usually an exit is good when you exit for more money than was invested into the company ...&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:&#xa0;</strong>I don't know, I&#xa0;myself am an angel investor in companies and sometimes you make good, sometimes you&#xa0;make less good. You look at your whole portfolio, not just one investment.</p><p>There&#xa0;are so many companies out there that are great ideas that cannot get anywhere because they don't have momentum. YPlan had enough momentum for Time Out&#xa0;to be interested to put an offer in.</p><p>It's important because you have companies like Time Out, as a public company, being very careful about the types of investments we do. For&#xa0;them to be out there and for us to be interested, that says a lot of good about them. But&#xa0;we, like them,&#xa0;understand the challenges.</p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>O'Reilly:</strong> Is everyone from YPlan moving to Time Out?&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong>&#xa0;Everyone in the company is moving, including the two&#xa0;founders.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> Is the YPlan consumer-facing app staying, or is it being rebranded as a Time Out product?&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> I'm&#xa0;not completely 100% sure yet, we will decide while we do in the transition. As we go along we will see the value of the different brands. I don't want to confuse our consumers, clearly, so we will have to have a very defined strategy.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> What kind of impact does YPlan bring to the bottom line?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> That's a forward looking statement I cannot give you.&#xa0;</p><p>We have a plan and part of that plan was to use the&#xa0;proceeds of&#xa0;the IPO to&#xa0;develop products and tech platforms, but also to hire people and&#xa0;hire faster to start building all the things we want to build. We were going to build this in 2017/18, and now we can start to build in 2018.&#xa0;</p><p>The&#xa0;impact in terms of the company? You saw the announcement, all the numbers are there. But we are now bringing on board more people, faster than we could have. It would have been&#xa0;difficult to hire a couple of those engineers, that takes a lot of time. To&#xa0;bring them in one go, all that tech and commercial operations, that's fantastic for us and will have a material impact.</p><p>The&#xa0;impact is both economic and from the point of view&#xa0;of culture. It brings product and technology to the center of Time Out.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> If that's the strategy, then what else do you need? What other products can we expect you to build or acquisitions can we expect you to make?&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong>&#xa0;In the last two weeks we had two Time Out Markets open - one in Shoreditch and one in Porto, to match the one in Lisbon.</p><p>That's the other side:&#xa0;the entertainment, and physical representation of Time Out.</p><p><div></div></p><p>Time Out is the&#xa0;only global brand&#xa0;you can read, eat, drink. We enjoy having those together,&#xa0;not only talking about what is best in the city, but being part of what's best in the city.</p><p>In the&#xa0;first six months of this&#xa0;year, 1.3 million people visited in&#xa0;Lisbon. Those are the areas we will continue to grow in: ecommerce, then rolling [the market] out to new cities - Miami, New York City, we are working on that.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> What's it been like transitioning from being a private company to being a public company? What's good, what isn't? What's changed, what hasn't?&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> I was talking&#xa0;the other day with my team and said: "Have you noticed what we have done in less than a year? And we IPOd in the middle of all that."</p><p>To Time Out that has just been one more thing. I&#xa0;don't mean anything by that "one more thing" isn't very important. Going out there and doing a roadshow to a lot of investors and selling the company and the fantastic ideas we have that we are very passionate about has meant a lot to us and has placed even more&#xa0;urgency in what we have to do.</p><p>We&#xa0;have to reinvent ourselves to be the great brand we are and be today more than we were yesterday.</p><p>We&#xa0;are a global brand in the happiness business.&#xa0;What we sell is happiness.</p><p>When&#xa0;you think&#xa0;about Time Out,&#xa0;you're&#xa0;thinking&#xa0;about&#xa0;what to do after work with friends, or family - going to the&#xa0;market, for food, drink, to see an art gallery. Or&#xa0;just discovery in our app about what to do this weekend.</p><p>Everything&#xa0;we do is about happiness, that's who we are. We are peddling happiness,&#xa0;so we are happy.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lisa-brennan-jobs-steve-jobs-daughter-2016-10">The story of Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the daughter Steve Jobs claimed wasn't his</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RiZXk1eDosEkg3ZHQRbxeoPFcLvmNNoy" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Time Out's CEO says its £1.6 million YPlan acquisition is all about selling happiness

<p>The <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> Independence Party (UKIP) is hoping to build on its shock byelection victories in Clacton and Rochester &amp; Strood by stealing more seats from the mainstream Westminster parties at next year's General Election.</p>
<p>Current forecasts have them gaining between 9-14% of the national vote, although the distribution of those votes could see them pick up only three or four seats. Even then, doubling their current representation in Parliament would be seen as a major coup for UKIP leader Nigel Farage.</p>
<p>Given the collapse in Lib Dem support in the polls, Labour or the Tories may well require more than one coalition partner to secure a Commons majority. This could leave UKIP as a possible kingmaker - a <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/02/28/farage-i-want-to-be-kingmaker-in-2015">prospect that Farage relishes</a>.</p>
<p>These are UKIP's top targets for May <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1324855/ukip-poll-reveals-12-most-wanted-seats">as revealed by the party's own polling</a>.</p>
<h3>1. South Thanet</h3>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>Farage was selected by UKIP members to stand in the Conservative-held constituency in east Kent. Announcing his intention to stand in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/im-against-the-death-penalty-but-i-think-we-should-be-free-to-debate-it-9669991.html">a column for The Independent</a> Farage expressed his confidence in taking yet another seat from the Tories:</p>
<p>"Of course I think I stand a good chance of winning. I have fought the seat before and it is in my home county of Kent and an area I have represented in the European Parliament since 1999."</p>
<p>His confidence aside, it is unlikely to prove an easy ride for the bombastic UKIP leader. In 2010 the Conservatives won 48% of the vote, a 7.4% swing from second-place Labour, while UKIP garnered only 5.5%. However, Farage's party stormed home in last year's local elections and <a href="http://survation.com/new-constituency-polling-in-south-thanet/">a recent poll by Survation at the end of November</a> had UKIP at 30%, only 5 percentage points behind Labour with the incumbent Conservative candidate pushed into third place.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>Farage may still be trailing in the polls but his national profile may just be enough to overcome that deficit. Highly possible.</p>
<h3>2. North Thanet</h3>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>The neighbouring constituency of North Thanet is also high on the UKIP hit list. Back in 2010 it was also comfortably won by the Conservatives, with MP Roger Gale taking 52.7% of the vote - a margin of victory of over 30 percentage points from Labour. UKIP took a meagre 6.5%.</p>
<p>Time, however, has not been a friend of Mr Gale. In <a href="http://survation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/North-Thanet-Results.pdf">a local poll taken at the end of September</a> his lead had narrowed by under 2%, with UKIP surging to 31.5% against the Conservatives 33.4%.</p>
<p>With momentum looking to be with the party after its byelection victories UKIP's candidate, barrister Piers Wauchope, is confident that such a narrow lead can be overturned. Wauchope previously <a href="http://www.courier.co.uk/Ukip-Tunbridge-Wells-councillor-Piers-Wauchope/story-22971861-detail/story.html">lost out to Farage in a bid to become UKIP candidate for South Thanet</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>Right on the doorstep of Farage's campaign, Wauchope is likely to benefit from the media attention and popularity of his party leader. Highly possible.</p>
<h3>3. Boston and Skegness</h3>
<p>Since the constituency of Boston and Skegness, on northern shore of The Wash, was formed in 1997 it has been solidly Conservative. However, it is also the seat that saw one of the best UKIP performances at the 2010 election with the party taking 9.5% of the vote.</p>
<p>According to a S<a href="http://survation.com/ukip-won-in-8-westminster-constituencies-last-thursday/">urvation study that extrapolated from the May 2013 local election results</a>, if they were repeated next May it would also give UKIP it's largest margin of victory (11.18%). As <a href="http://www.conservativehome.com/localgovernment/2013/05/the-lesson-from-boston.html">a column from last year on Conservative Home</a> put it:</p>
<p>"Anyway I suppose if they are to get an MP at the next election then Boston and Skegness is their best bet."</p>
<p>However, the author swiftly dismissed these concerns adding that "personally I doubt we will get any UKIP MPs". Well, they already have two at least one of which (Clacton) they are all but certain to hold next May. So if a wise man today wouldn't bet against UKIP having at least one MP, what's to stop the party adding to its tally?</p>
<p>A <a href="https://twitter.com/lordashcroft/status/515910632831729664">Survation poll arranged by UKIP in September</a> gave the party a comfortable lead of 46% to 26% for the Tories. This race is certainly going to be an interesting one.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>This looks to be UKIP's best shot of adding to its seats. Highly possible.</p>
<h3>4. Thurrock</h3>
<p>The constituency of Thurrock was held by Labour at each General Election from 1945-2005 barring a single loss to the Conservatives in 1987. However, it was taken off them by a resurgent Tory party in 2010 as MP Jackie Doyle-Price managed to sneak over the line by a mere 82 votes.</p>
<p>It is among the must-win seats listed by the Labour leadership if the party is to have any chance of returning with a majority of seats next year. There's only one problem - UKIP is leading in the polls.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Lord Ashcroft" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/548721e3dd0895a56f8b45e6-960/ukip thurrock poll.png"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span><a href="http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Thurrock-July-2014-Full-tables.pdf">Lord Ashcroft</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>A <a href="http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Thurrock-July-2014-Full-tables.pdf">poll by Lord Ashcroft in June</a> showed UKIP on 37% compared to Labour's 29%. If this result is realised next May it would be a hammer blow to Labour leader Ed Miliband's dream of a majority and send some worrying messages to his party's strategists. As Jim Pickard put it <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1cbb17dc-1d90-11e4-8f0c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3LOVl7XWG">in the Financial Times</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It used to be a working assumption that a strong showing for Ukip would damage the Tories. But the party's anti-immigration, anti-EU message is rapidly picking up supporters in one-time Labour heartlands."</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>Verdict: </strong>Signs have been looking good for UKIP in Thurrock, although a win is far from guaranteed. What can certainly said is that this seat will be one to watch to gauge whether the party has been able to turn its surge in the polls into parliamentary gains. Highly possible.<br /></span></p>
<h3>5. Great Yarmouth</h3>
<p>Another Conservative-held coastal constituency that is very much the heartland of UKIP. The seat has bounced between Labour and the Conservatives with the latter losing out in the 1997 General Election before winning it back in 2010.</p>
<p>The result, however, was far from overwhelming with the Conservatives taking 43.1% to Labour's 33.2%. UKIP took 4.8%.</p>
<p>Even more worrying for MP Brandon Lewis, who is also the Minister of State for Planning &amp; Housing, is that UKIP's poll figures have taken huge chunks out of his lead. A <a href="http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Great-Yarmouth-July-2014-Full-tables.pdf">poll by Lord Ashcroft of the constituency in July</a> had UKIP on 32% to the Conservatives' 33% - and that was before the parties byelection victories over the past few months.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>Unfortunately, for UKIP to take advantage of its surging poll numbers it will have to avoid getting in its own way. And on this score things don't look so positive. In July <a href="http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/news/matthew_smith_steps_down_as_ukip_s_prospective_parliamentary_candidate_for_great_yarmouth_1_3700305">Matthew Smith, the party's parliamentary candidate for Great Yarmouth, stepped down</a> in order to fight charges of electoral fraud.</p>
<p>Last month Alan Grey, a local businessman and County Councillor for Breydon, was picked to replace Smith but clearly the party's progress in the local area has been set back by events of recent months. It remains to be seen how much damage it has inflicted on its chances.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>Great Yarmouth was looking a much better prospect for UKIP earlier in the year. If its support holds up this remains a winnable seat, but that's now a very big "if". Possible but unlikely.</p>
<h3>6. Eastleigh</h3>
<p>The <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9901730/Eastleigh-by-election-Ukip-inflicts-major-setback-on-David-Cameron.html">Eastleigh byelection last year</a> provided an early glimpse of the shock that UKIP was above to give the Westminster establishment with the party beating both the Conservatives and Labour into second place behind the Liberal Democrats.</p>
<p>UKIP's Diane James took 11,571 votes or a 27.8% share in a seat that the Tory leadership had earmarked as a key target for next May. This put her only marginally behind the victorious Lib Dem candidate Mike Thornton on 32.1%.</p>
<p>The Conservatives had hoped that Prime Minister David Cameron's pledge to hold and in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union would be sufficient to blunt UKIP's popularity. Eastleigh helped to demonstrate the folly of this strategy.</p>
<p>There was better news for Cameron from recent polls, however. A Lord Ashcroft poll from August had the Tories leading on 32% with UKIP still stuck behind the Lib Dems in third place.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>The byelection may have been UKIP's best hope of winning Eastleigh, at least for the time being. With the party currently sitting in third place this one looks set to remain just out of Farage's grasp. Unlikely.</p>
<h3>7. Forest of Dean</h3>
<p>Once again the Forest of Dean in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire was a comfortable Tory hold in 2010. Mark Harper held the seat for his party with a 9.2% swing from Labour to the Conservatives, delivering him 46.9% of the vote to UKIP's 5.2%.</p>
<p>Despite this, the <a href="http://survation.com/ukip-won-in-8-westminster-constituencies-last-thursday/">analysis of local election results in the constituency by Survation</a> suggested that were they to be replicated the seat could swing to UKIP, albeit by the narrowest of margins (0.9%). There are, however, good reason to doubt that local election results are a strong predictor of General Election performance as voter turnout tends to be significantly lower.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/stanburysteven">Steve Stanbury</a>,UKIP's candidate for Forest of Dean, is <a href="http://www.forestofdeanukip.org.uk/">calling for a public debate about the use of local taxpayer money to fund foreign aid</a>. He also joined his party's successful campaign for Rochester and Strood last month.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rochester?src=hash">#Rochester</a> with Steve Stanbury, PPC for Forest of Dean <a href="http://t.co/zGap4QS0mo">pic.twitter.com/zGap4QS0mo</a></p>
- Janice Atkinson MEP (@JaniceUKIP) <a href="https://twitter.com/JaniceUKIP/status/535421145127092225">November 20, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>The swing to UKIP in the local elections was significant but even if they come close to a repeat performance at the General Election, it still looks like the Conservative advantage would be difficult to overturn. Unlikely. </p>
<h3>8. Sittingbourne and Sheppey</h3>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>Sittingbourne and Sheppey is a coastal seat in the far north east of Kent that was created in 1997 out of a large part of the old Faversham constituency, which the Conservatives had held continuously since 1970. The Tories then failed to win the newly-created seat until 2010 having lost out by only 79 votes to Labour in 2005. </p>
<p>The 2005 performance was <a href="http://www.allthatsleft.co.uk/2013/08/ukip-targets-4-sittingbourne-and-sheppey/">widely attributed to the personal following of its local Labour MP and former England rugby player, Derek Wyatt</a>, who stood down in 2010. With his departure Labour were comfortably swept aside as the Conservative Gordon Henderson took 50% of the vote, a huge 12.7% swing, with UKIP garnering only 5.4%.</p>
<p>In January Richard Palmer was announced as the UKIP candidate for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. The <a href="http://www.sittingbourneandsheppeyukip.org/">official UKIP constituency website</a> quotes him as saying:</p>
<p>"As an ordinary working family man who has struggled with bringing up a young family whilst working in the NHS as a Paramedic, I feel I can identify with the various needs of people in this constituency."</p>
<p><a href="http://survation.com/ukip-won-in-8-westminster-constituencies-last-thursday/">Survation's extrapolation from local election results gives a majority of 5.7% for UKIP</a>, but such a result would require a huge swing from the Conservatives that current national polling does not support.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>The Conservative margin of victory in 2010 is a daunting challenge for UKIP. The party's impressive result in local elections suggests they are on track to take a significant proportion of the vote but will it be enough? Possible but unlikely.</p>
<h3>9. Aylesbury</h3>
<p>Aylesbury has been a Conservative seat since Sir Alan Hughes Burgoyne was elected as its representative in 1924. In fact the Tories have increased their share of the vote in every General Election from 2001 and even held up well in the party's disastrous 1997 election that saw a resurgent Labour romp home with a huge majority.</p>
<p>In other words, this one is something of a long shot.</p>
<p>However, UKIP did come top in the May 2013 local elections winning 33.4% versus 29.5% for the Conservatives. Support for the Tories is strong in the rural parts of the constituency but the party came fourth in Aylesbury itself, where UKIP polled strongly.</p>
<p>The key local issue is the new High Speed 2 train line route that is bitterly opposed by a number of local residents. An <a href="http://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/more-news/news-editor-s-comment-aylesbury-is-hs2-s-forgotten-victim-1-5919188">article in The Bucks Herald in March</a> described Aylesbury as "the forgotten victim of HS2" as it would bring "construction [that] will be hellish for everyone living and working in Aylesbury".</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>Stopping HS2 has been the major theme of the UKIP campaign and has paid dividends at the local level. Turnout in May's local elections, however, was 30% versus 68% in the 2010 General Election. If those voters come out again next May this seat will pose a huge challenge for Chris Adams, UKIP's candidate, to take for his party.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict:</strong>This one looks to be a long a shot for UKIP. Expect them to do much better than in 2010 but still fall some way short of a win. Highly unlikely.</p>
<h3>10. Worthing East and Shoreham</h3>
<p>The constituency was won comfortably by the Conservatives in 2010, as it has been since its creation in 1997. However, UKIP posted a creditable performance in the last election with 6.2% of the vote, up from 4.7% in 2005.</p>
<p>If the results of local elections were to be repeated, <a href="http://survation.com/ukip-won-in-8-westminster-constituencies-last-thursday/">Survation estimate that UKIP would win a 1.72% majority</a> but given the margin of the Conservatives' previous victories and the likelihood of much higher turnout next may that is unlikely to prove a safe prediction.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>UKIP have undoubtedly gained ground in Worthing but whether they can overturn almost two decades of comfortable Conservative margins of victory is another matter. Unlikely.</p>
<h3>11. Portsmouth South</h3>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>Portsmouth South looks set to be one of a number of Lib Dem casualties next May as the party's share of the vote looks set to collapse into the single digits. MP Mike Hancock held the seat from 1997 but he <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29265679">resigned from the Lib Dems in September over allegations that he had sexually assaulted a constituent</a>.</p>
<p>Recent polls put the Conservatives on course to benefit from the scandal with a Lord Ashcroft poll last month giving them 32% with Labour and UKIP neck-and-neck on 21%.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>With the party some way behind the Tories it will be hard to turn the tide sufficiently over the next five months. This one is also a long shot. Highly unlikely.</p>
<h3>12. Grimsby</h3>
<p>Grimsby is one of those rarest of things - a Labour seat targeted by UKIP. Unfortunately for Farage, its exceptional nature does not seem to have aided much in terms of the polling figures.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/LORD-ASHCROFT-POLLS-Marginals-report-May-2014.pdf">a Lord Ashcroft poll from May</a> UKIP are on course to gather some 25% of the vote in Great Grimsby constituency, ahead of the Conservatives on 23% but well behind Labour's 37%. What will be most concerning for Labour is not the likelihood of losing the seat but the finding by Survation that <a href="http://survation.com/new-constituency-polls-in-grimsby-dudley-north/">70% of UKIP voters in the seat did not vote Conservative in 2010</a>.</p>
<p>That is, what Grimsby could show is that the image of UKIP as the party of disaffected Conservatives is now well past its sell-by date.</p>
<p><strong>Verdict: </strong>Grimsby looks set to remain a solid Labour seat, and while UKIP's gains here have been notable they have mostly come at the cost of the Conservatives to date. It will be an interesting contest though. Highly unlikely.</p>

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