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It is impossible to spend much time in “Tech PR” without visiting Slough. After a decade or two of working for a London based technology PR agency, you know Paddington, Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Langley, Slough, Burnham, Taplow, Maidenhead, Twyford and Reading train stations like the back of your hand.

Training it up and down the UK’s M4 corridor (not quite such as sexy a moniker as “Silicon Valley”), you can’t help but get attached to places. Slough train station holds special affection, especially platform 5; the one back to London. It’s not just the platform cafe that makes the platform vending machine seem like a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, it’s Station Jim.

Slough, a place so bad that it didn’t even quite top a survey of the UK’s most crap towns, has on its train station platform back to London a dead dog. A dead dog, stuffed in a glass box. That’s entertainment in Slough.

There’s a plaque that recalls Jim’s life, in a very Slough type way. Highlights include:

“The first trick taught him was to get over the stairs of the footbridge.”

“He started his duties as Canine Collector for the Great Western Railway Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund when he was about four months old but, because he was in bad health, he was only actually collecting about two years or so.”

“Yet he managed to place about £40 to the account of the Fund.”

“He only once had a piece of gold put in his box — a half sovereign.”

“There were only about five pieces of silver.”

“The majority of the coins he collected were pennies and halfpennies.”

“After a time he was taught to bark whenever he received a coin.”

“His railway journeys were few in number.”

“On one occasion he went to Leamington; that was his longest ride.”

Now perhaps it’s the Slough of Despond that the station inflicts on its commuters, but it seems that Station Jim was a dog that collected very little money during just two years of working, the majority of which was in small denominations, and he once went on a train to Leamington. Some of his main achievements included walking across a footbridge and barking which, for a dog, is not really a USP.

The final paragraph of Station Jim’s entry in Wikipedia reads:

The story of the Slough “Station Jim” is mentioned in the historical background feature accompanying the BBC movie Station Jim (2001). Although the movie involves an orphanage, the movie dog and storyline are not based on the true story, and the movie is not set in Slough.

So, Station Jim isn’t even the Station Jim in Station Jim. The orphanage made it in, put the eponymous dog didn’t. And nor did Slough.

Slough.

The sophisticated discussion about how technology is changing the business landscape, and life itself, descended into general chaos. Damn the free bar that always seems to result in people talking nonsense at high volume.

The Dog & Duck in Soho was the venue for last night’s Wobbly Wednesday, the second month running that the real ale pub has played host. It’s not just the location, the range of beers, the function room, the staff and the outdoor space that makes it so scrumptious; it’s the deep fried food. There is a thing or two BP could learn from the Dog & Duck’s deep, deep, deep oil frying…

The cream of the UK tech and marketing journo scene had largely gone home by the time it seemed like a good idea to carry on elsewhere after the pub had closed.

The Crobar is very loud. The floor is sticky. Odours such as honest toil and Indian ink hang in the air. A strong magnet would pull the vast majority of punters across the mosh pit. There’s a dedication to black clothing of which Henry Ford would be proud. In short, it’s fabulous. At least, it is after a night of beer topped off with a few Jägerbombs.

Last Chameleon standing? Richard; respect.

Sir Terry Leahy, the man responsible for transforming Tesco into the world’s third-largest retailer with sales exceeding £60 billion, is set to retire early next year after fourteen years as chief executive. His replacement is fellow scouser Philip Clarke, Tesco’s current chief information officer (CIO), who is responsible for overseeing the supermarket chain’s IT and computer systems, amongst other things.

The appointment, which came as little surprise in the City, is only one example of a modern trend of businesses promoting CIOs to the role of chief executive officer. As companies become more reliant on technology to revamp their business, CIOs now have unprecedented visibility over the running of the company, giving them the platform needed for promotion. Indeed, dozens of former CIOs now fill the top corporate job as head of operations, including Peter McCann at Fidelity and Reliance Industries’ Ashish Chauhan, who will be familiar to cricket lovers as CEO of the Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians.

We are now in a world where the best CIOs do not stay as CIOs. As technology plays an ever-more important role in the development of business, expect the position of CEO to be filled by individuals coming from a CIO background. Philip Clarke is not the first to make the leap, and he certainly won’t be the last. The old joke that CIO stands for ‘Career Is Over’, simply no longer applies to modern business.