Recently by Greig Cameron

The battle of the malls in Aberdeen is definitely being stepped up.

The opening of Hammerson owned Union Square last year was something of a landmark with several new brands such as Apple and Hollister coming to the city.

Footfall has been impressive and informal chats with some of the retailers trading in the centre suggest they are happy with their numbers.

However the Scottish Retail Property Limited Partnership (SRPLP) - a Land Securities and British Land joint venture - is not resting on its laurels.

It spent £2m in the refurbishment of the St Nicholas shopping centre in 2009 and has just announced a £6m upgrade of the neighbouring Bon Accord centre.

Hot on the heels of its link up with YouTube STV is once again going to the US market.

This time it's a format sharing partnership with Kinetic Content.

The deal means STV Productions will licence original Kinetic shows in the UK and vice versa.

Both companies also intend to work together to develop new formats for broadcast in Britain and the US.

There are already a couple of regular social media events in Scotland (such as the New Media Breakfast or Craig McGill's Scottish Social Media Dinners).

The latest to step out onto the landscape is Media140 Scotland which kicks off in Glasgow on Thursday.

Keynote speaker Trey Pennington has drafted up a guest blog piece for us ahead of his arrival in Scotland.

The American, who has 85,000 followers on Twitter, is recognised as a big hitter when it comes to social media uses for business.

So here's what he had to say.

I'm sure I am not the only person scratching my head in wonder at the punishment delivered to Johnny Cameron (no relation) by the Financial Services Authority.

The full details can be read here with the FSA statement here but basically the former head of Royal Bank of Scotland's investment banking operation has agreed not to work full-time in a bank or insurer ever again.

As a result the FSA is not going to pursue any further action against him. So basically he has been cleared of any wrong doing, did not admit any guilt and was not fined.

Oh and the independently wealthy 55-year-old can still work in lucrative part-time consultancy roles.

Like many men (and women) I am a sucker for a shiny new piece of technology.

Sleek cutting edge looks, functions I will never use (much less understand) and a fancy name all tick my consumer box.

So when the computer generated design for Aquamarine Power's updated Oyster wave device, pictured above, dropped in to my inbox I really had to share it.

Putting aside the name - Oyster 2 doesn't quite have the punch of Oyster 2.0, Oyster Plus or Oyster Evolution does it? - it is a lovely looking piece of industrial science fiction style kit.

There is a fascinating discussion going on at the Business7 and Insider Linkedin group.

The topic, proposed by Adam Gordon, is whether you or your employer should own the connections you make in Linkedin.

It has already provoked a good level of debate from the members of the group.

It has been a busy few weeks for the creative folks here at B7 and Insider towers.

Hopefully most of you will have seen the revamped paper (if not check out the e-zine version and compare it to the older issues in the archive).

We think it is a much brighter and bold design which makes it a nicer product to read.

Now we have updated the websites for Business7 and Insider to make things a bit better.

HSBC's Scottish chief executive John Rendall was in few different parts of the bank's Edinburgh office for this photo shoot.

Staff on the floor of the branch were happy to melt into the background when shot were being taken there.

Photographer Lesley Martin was also taken by the unusual lighting in the lift which gives a nice backdrop to some of these pictures.

The interview which goes with the piece is here.

The boss of Zonal was in good form for the photo shoot which accompanied this interview.

Stuart McLean smiled and joked his way through the set of pictures.

The shots were taken in the the hi-tech training room (complete with fancy electrical blinds) at the Edinburgh headquarters of the till system design firm.

Below are a selection of the pictures which weren't printed in Business7.

Thanks go to photographer Lesley Martin from the Daily Record.

First off a confession as this blog entry may be slightly skewed by my rose-tinted personal experience.

You see I was one of thousands of primary school children taught to ski at the Midlothian Snow Sports Centre - known as Hillend to everyone - in Midlothian so have some quite fond memories of it.

Learning to snowplow, trying to grab the button tow properly, hurtling down the main slope with carefree abandon and laughing hysterically as friends fell over and hit the mat are all part of my childhood.

I'm not alone in having fond memories as a Facebook campaign with more than 26,000 members is dedicated to saving the facility.

Hillend's future, or lack of, has been on the agenda for the past few months with Midlothian Council struggling to subsidise what is now a loss making venture.