#Scotlandhour live from Glasgow

This evening, after the end of school term for one of the family, it was time for me to head to Glasgow. A while since I've been to the big city, and an opportunity to take the train as it's such an easy way to get there.

I'd volunteered to speak at the launch night of my friend Douglas Baird's new venture Baird's Travel which was being held at 29Studios in Glasgow.

Speaking at events is a challenge I've set myself this year as it's something I have managed to successfully avoid for years, and a skill I've admired in others.

Having been given an iPad for my birthday last year, I've discovered that it is a good way to practise speaking - just set it up somewhere high enough to be at eye level and use the recording facility to record your speech so that you can get it down to the required timing. I had 5 minutes to cover this evening, and the first attempt was nearly double that.

So, armed with my cue cards and with no need for a fancy PowerPoint presentation as there was to be a wall of Tweets behind me, I headed off.

The launch of Dougie's new business was also an evening when the mass TweetUp, #ScotlandHour takes place - the last Wednesday of every month between 9 and 10 pm. You can read more about it on the Scotland Hour website.

The photograph is of some of the attendees at the event getting involved in Tweeting once the hour had been reached. It was fun to be there, and the short speech seemed to make its point.