The Development Company Limited is 25 years old now. A quarter of a century old!

It is a long time since we first started so I decided to take a little look at how we had to do things “back in the day”.

Life in Black and White?

We are not going back quite that far but a lot has certainly changed in 25 years. Let’s just go through a typical day in 1994.

Online Research?

I am designing a new course so I need to research some of the content but there are only 10,000 websites up and running throughout the World so the chances of finding what I want will be slim even if I have one of only 2 million computers which are capable of going online.

So it is off to a business library I must go to research my course from books. There was an excellent library in London run by an organisation called BACIE in a brand new redevelopment area called the Isle of Dogs. I just have to find it. Well I will need a book of road maps and a current London A to Z book to get me there. They may charge for parking so I had better take a selection of coins (no online payments or credit card machines).

Social Media?

I am sure some of my fellow freelance trainers can give me some ideas to work with so shall I chat to them on Whatsapp or use Facebook? No. Whatsapp only started in 2009 and Facebook in 2004.

Also I shall not take my laptop with me as it might be too bulky, especially if I have the latest Apple Mackintosh Powerbook which was launched in 1991. It weighed in at 16 pounds (7.25 kilograms)!

Strangely enough if I do drag my huge laptop with me and decide to get on the internet, which was called the World Wide Web and was invented in 1993, then I would have to be somewhere that has a landline socket so I can plug my modem into it and dial up my internet provider up.

Fancy a Coffee?

Never mind, I can also take a break and go for a Starbucks. Oops! They didn’t launch in the UK until 1998.

So whilst I am in London I shall take a few selfies on my iphone. Oh no! Not launched in the UK until 2007.

Meanwhile, in the Office

Back in the office/living room/kids play area (depends what time of day it is) I can run off my course on the latest colour printer producing an amazing 3 pages per minute (HP Deskjet 560c around £700).

You know what? I think I shall just stay at home and wait until they invent all the stuff I need. I can just lay back and watch my plasma TV (not invented until 1997 and priced around £15,000).

Doh!