Tyler Blackett admits the chance to play under one of his childhood idols in Jaap Stam was a major part of his decision to join Reading.

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Defender Blackett, 22, moved to the Royals from Manchester United in August and has become a regular starter.
"I remember watching Jaap Stam from a young age," Blackett told BBC Radio Berkshire. "I grew up watching that treble-winning Manchester United team.
"I've seen the way he played and to work with him every day is great."
Blackett, who has predominantly played at left-back since his arrival, said ex-Manchester United and Netherlands defender Stam's attention to detail is keeping the squad focused in his first season in charge.
"There's lots of different things he helps me with every day in training," he continued.
"I try to implement them in training and in games as well, but he's the same with every player, be it a defender or an attacker."
Third-placed Reading head into a home match against Bristol City on Saturday on a run of four successive Championship wins, but Stam is still demanding more from his squad.
"We know as a team and as a club what we're collectively trying to achieve," Blackett added. "It's a process and a progression and we're trying to build on every performance in a bid to be better each time."


The drowned boy who washed up on a Turkish beach on Wednesday, whose picture cut through the refugee debate in an instant, was two-year-old Alan Kurdi from Kobane in Syria.

Alan set out before dawn that morning from his home in Turkey with his father Abdullah, mother Rehanna, and five-year-old brother Ghalib. The Kurdis were trying to reach Canada to reunite with Abdullah's sister Tima, a hairdresser in Vancouver.
The family joined with a small group of refugees at the coast to attempt the 4km (2.5 mile) crossing to the Greek island of Kos. Abdullah texted Tima from the beach to say they were leaving. "I passed the message to my dad in Syria," she said, "Abdullah is leaving now, pray for his safety."
But her prayers went unanswered. Minutes after they set off, the small boat carrying the family was hit by high waves and the captain fled. Abdullah Kurdi found himself fighting to save his two young boys. Of the 23 people in the group, 14 are believed to have died, including Abdullah's wife and sons.
It was, tragically, not a high number in a summer scarred by mass deaths in the Mediterranean, but the images that emerged set the incident apart. Having floated back to Turkish shores, Alan was pictured lying face down in the sand, his body terribly small, dressed in a red shirt, blue shorts and velcro shoes. In another picture he is seen cradled in the arms of the guard who carried him away.
His name has been spelt 'Aylan' by much of the media, including the BBC, but his aunt Tima told us today that this was a Turkish version of the name given by Turkish officials - his Kurdish name was Alan.
As Syrian Kurds, the Kurdis' chances of being granted asylum in Canada were hampered from the moment they set out for Turkey. For many years, Syria denied its Kurdish population citizenship and Kurds were regarded as stateless by the authorities. A decree in 2011 allowed some to apply for citizenship but others were ineligible and many were forced to flee before they could apply.
The Kurdis had been living in Damascus until the early stages of the Syrian conflict in late 2011. When the violence in the city escalated, they relocated back to Makharij village, 25km outside the northern town of Kobane.
When Kobane became a flashpoint in the conflict between Kurdish fighters and Islamic State militants in late 2014, the family fled along with tens of thousands of others for Turkey. But while crossing Turkey's open border gave them refuge, it did not give them status.
Turkey was the first of Syria's neighbours to respond formally to the refugee crisis, declaring a temporary protection policy in October 2011 that guaranteed no Syrian refugees would be sent home.
Under the policy, those with passports are given a year-long residence permit and are free to move. But those without documents are obliged to register at a refugee camp and stay there, or they are "irregular" - living illegally outside of camps.
This is the situation the Kurdis found themselves in, staying in Istanbul but desperate to leave Turkey. Such people are in a kind of limbo - unable to obtain exit visas from Turkey because they lack passports and unable to win asylum elsewhere because they lack exit visas.
Tima Kurdi had sponsored a "G5" private asylum application for the family of her other brother, Mohammad. Financial constraints and the complexity of the process meant she had to tackle one family at a time - Mohammad was chosen first because he had school-age children.
But the application was rejected by Canadian immigration authorities. Canada's Department of Citizenship and Immigration told the BBC the application was "incomplete as it did not meet regulatory requirements for proof of refugee status recognition".
The reason for the rejection was simple, said Tima; the Kurdis had no passports and no Turkish work permits - documents they were unable to retain.
When the first asylum application was rejected in June, "there was no hope" of Abdullah and his family obtaining the correct paperwork for a successful application, she said. And so they headed for the coastline.
The Kurdis had made three previous attempts to leave Turkey before their fourth and final, family members told the BBC. On the fourth attempt, they worked with people in Izmir to get them to the coast and then on to Kos by boat. They are believed to have paid â‚¬4,000 (Â£2,900; $4,400) for the crossing - several times the cost of an airfare to Canada for the whole family.
Under darkness, the family's boat was pushed out into the waves. Within minutes they were in trouble. In heartbreaking detail, Abdullah described the moment his young family drowned.
"I tried to catch my children and wife but there was no hope. One by one they died," he said. "I tried to steer the boat but another high wave pushed the boat over. That is when it happened.
"My children were the most beautiful children in the world. Is there anybody in the world for whom their child is not the most precious thing?
"My kids were amazing. They woke me everyday to play with me. I would love to sit next to the grave of my family now and relieve the pain I feel."
He said he intends to fly his family to Istanbul and then home to Kobane, where he will bury them.
"It is too late to save Abdullah's family," said Tima. "Please let's use our collective voices to make change and demand that our world leaders take action now to pass emergency refugee measures. Let's put an end to this suffering. Our hearts have been broken."


Nottinghamshire have targeted Australia paceman James Pattinson to replace injured Peter Siddle as their overseas player, BBC Radio Nottingham reports.

Siddle joined Notts on a two-year deal ahead of last season, but did not play last summer because of a back injury.
And the 32-year-old has now withdrawn from playing in the 2017 county season.
Pattinson, 26, has taken 70 wickets in 17 Test matches for Australia, with his last appearance coming against New Zealand in February 2016.
He took his first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket since December 2015 in Victoria's Sheffield Shield win over Western Australia on Saturday, a result which secured the Bushrangers a place in the final.
"I feel for Peter in particular because he's had absolutely no luck in recent years when it comes to injuries," Nottinghamshire director of cricket Mick Newell said.
"We certainly didn't imagine, when we signed him on a two-year contract for 2016 and 2017, that he wouldn't play a single game for us during that time."
Nottinghamshire were relegated from Division One of the County Championship last season, having won just one of their 16 games.


There has been an armed robbery at a business premises in Londonderry.

A masked man was reported to have entered the premises on Elmwood Street armed with a knife at around 17:10 GMT on Thursday.
A member of staff was threatened during the incident, but was not harmed.
It is believed the man made off with a sum of money. He is described as being 5ft 3in tall, of slim build and was wearing a dark green balaclava.
He was also wearing a dark-coloured top and dark blue tracksuit bottoms with drops of white paint on them.
The police have appealed for information.


The body of a New Zealand hiker has been formally identified, more than 40 years after he disappeared.

David Erik Moen was 19 when he was caught in an avalanche on the Tasman Glacier, in South Island's Aoraki Mount Cook National Park, in 1973.
It was not until earlier this year that his remains were found, and his identity confirmed through DNA testing.
Mr Moen's family paid tribute to a "great outdoorsman" whose loss "was felt enormously by us and his friends".
"We cannot put into words what it feels like to have David returned to us after all this time but we are taken back to when he first went missing in 1973," they said in a statement.
"David's spirit still remains in the beautiful, peaceful environment which claimed the life of a wonderful and dearly loved young man in the prime of his life," they added.
David Moen had been out climbing with a friend in September 1973 when they were swept away by a wall of snow.
The body of the friend was found, alongside David Moen's bag.
But Mr Moen's body remained undiscovered for 42 years until it was found, in what local media described as a "well-preserved" state, by two climbers in February this year.
Another set of human remains was found at the nearby Hochstetter Glacier in March, but police have yet to make an identification.


Greater financial incentives are needed to overcome difficulties in recruiting headteachers in Scottish schools, a union has claimed.

Greg Dempster of the Association of Head Teachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS) believed change was needed.
His plea came as as figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives showed there were 51 primary school headteacher vacancies in June.
In comparison there were only seven secondary school vacancies.
There are about 2,050 primary schools and 360 secondary schools in Scotland.
The Scottish government said it was increasing its investments in tackling teacher shortages.
The statistics obtained by the Conservatives showed there were more than 850 teaching vacancies across primary and secondary schools.
Of the 51 primary school headteacher vacancies, 16 were in Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen - nearly a third of the national total.
Mr Dempster said there was not enough of a financial incentive for people to become head teachers.
He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "I would say there are three reasons why people go for a particular job: The work itself appeals, the rewards on offer are adequate and they have the skills and abilities to take on the role. We're falling down on the first two of these.
"Head teachers are spending a lot of time in the classroom covering vacant teaching posts and the way that salaries are arrived at doesn't give adequate financial incentive for people to take on the job."
The practice of data journalism - more than anything - requires not only a double-checking of your arithmetic but, above all, context.
The Scottish Conservatives research on the number of headteacher vacancies in the country's schools is a case in point.
They say: "Many Scottish primary schools are struggling to recruit heads." But, what is meant by "many"?
Well, let's take a closer look.
The Conservatives' figures reveal 51 primary schools in Scotland are without a headteacher. Granted, while this situation is far from ideal, bear in mind there are 2,056 primary schools in Scotland.
So, does 2.5% of Scotland's primary schools count as "many"?
Let's dig a little deeper.
The Conservatives include statistics from the local authorities of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire where the 16 leaderless primary schools account for nearly one third of the national total.
Aberdeen City Council is listed as having the most head teacher vacancies (10) which, when divided by the number of primary schools in the area, equates to 21% of primary schools.
That's a fifth of schools, which is not an insubstantial number.
Read more from Marc....
His comments echoed research commissioned by the Scottish government in 2009 which showed that few teachers actually wanted to become headteachers.
The authors of the research cited problems with the application and interview process, lack of support and "negative perceptions" of the job and called for action to tackle the problems which deter applicants.
Earlier this year Moray Council said some vacant teaching posts posts attracted "no suitable candidates at all".
The Conservatives said that in 2005 the then SNP education secretary Fiona Hyslop "hit out at the Labour-led Scottish government for its failure to recruit more teachers and headteachers".
But it said the pupil to teacher ratio had increased under the SNP government from 13% in 2007 to 13.6% in 2014.
Scottish Conservative young people spokeswoman Liz Smith said the SNP had "continually made bold promises" about education over the past eight years, whether on class sizes, pupil to teacher ratios, teacher numbers and ensuring there were sufficient headteachers.
She said they were "failing on all counts" and said the statistics "lay bare the extent of the problem with recruitment of primary school heads."
The Scottish government's minister for learning, Alasdair Allan, said Scotland would not replicate the English education system and employ non-qualified teachers in a bid to fill the posts that are currently vacant.
Mr Allan told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland: "I accept that the government needs to work with local authorities to ensure they are recruiting teachers and head teachers. Good school leadership makes a big difference to a school and its attainment.
"What I cannot offer to do is to reduce the standards for those that apply for the teaching profession in Scotland and we wouldn't go down the route of England where non-qualified teachers are in the classroom."


There are fears hundreds of tax office jobs around Wales could be at risk.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is to give staff details about its sites in Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Porthmadog on Thursday.
Plaid Cymru's economy spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth wants urgent clarification over speculation that the service will be centralised in Cardiff.
He says the Wrexham office employs about 350 staff with 300 in Swansea and 20 in Porthmadog.
A HMRC spokesman said: "We have been clear for some time that this will mean fewer, but larger and more modern offices that will help us to deliver better services to our customers and bring in more tax revenue for public services.
"These changes are part of an ongoing modernisation programme begun several years ago and will take place over the next 10 years."
Mr ap Iorwerth said the closure of offices would be "a major blow to Wales' economy".
He added: "The UK government must give urgent clarification if these rumoured closures are to take place.
"Successive UK governments over the past decade have been intent on closing tax offices and these latest closures would show the complete failure of this current government to understand Wales.
"Hundreds of people work in the offices in Wrexham, Porthmadog and Swansea and it would be unrealistic and unsustainable to expect all of them to relocate to Cardiff - this would be a very severe blow to the economies of these areas and of Wales as a whole."


BBC Sport presenter Dan Walker says he won't be able to get to the wedding of a Brazilian woman whose hen party gatecrashed his live Olympics broadcast in Rio.

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Instead, the Breakfast and Football Focus presenter has sent a video message to Maria de Cezar before her wedding.
Dan was memorably joined by Maria - who was out on her hen night - live on BBC Four while presenting the Rio 2016 Olympics from Copacabana beach.
The clip of her on-screen debut has been watched more than 15 million times by people around the world.
Her friends chanted "Maria, Maria" and "BBC, BBC" after she ducked under a barrier, sat down to camera and described her fiance as "my love love love, my crush".
Her mum, Hercilia de Cezar, later invited Dan to the wedding on 17 September, but despite his best efforts the Football Focus and Breakfast presenter cannot make the nuptials.
In the video message he thanked De Cezar and her family and wished her "a wonderful life" for the future.
"I have lost count of the number of people who have asked me about you wandering into our lives on that Saturday night," said Dan, who is married with three children.
"I knew I was taking a bit of a risk inviting you over but I am incredibly glad that I did.
"You were warm, kind, engaging, funny and full of enthusiasm and you really did change a lot of people's perceptions about Brazil," added Dan, who appeared at a Brazil Day event attended by 50,000 people in Trafalgar Square, London, on Saturday.
"You became a global star watched millions of times all over the world."
WATCH MORE: Hen do gatecrashes BBC Four
READ MORE: Four proposals and a wedding invite


Computer security companies have been accused of "massively" exaggerating the abilities of malicious hackers.

Dr Ian Levy, technical director of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, made the accusation in a speech.
He said the firms played up hackers' abilities to help them sell security hardware and services.
Overplaying hackers' skills let the firms claim only they could defeat attackers, a practice he likened to "witchcraft".
In a keynote speech at the Usenix Enigma security conference, Dr Levy said it was dangerous to listen only to firms that made a living from cybersecurity.
"We are allowing massively incentivised companies to define the public perception of the problem," he is reported as saying.
He criticised security companies' marketing materials for depicting hackers as hugely skilled masterminds and for the hyperbolic language they used to describe cyberthreats.
Playing up the threats let security firms establish themselves as the only ones that could defeat hackers with hardware that he likened to a "magic amulet".
"It's medieval witchcraft - it's genuinely medieval witchcraft," said Dr Levy.
Often, he added, the attacks aimed at firms were not very sophisticated. As an example, he quoted an attack last year on a UK telecommunications firm that used a technique older than the teenager believed to be responsible for the incident.
Dr Levy pointed to work the NCSC had done to protect one UK government department from spam, phishing and other web-borne attacks. The system cut the number of potential threats reaching staff and had proved so successful that it was now being rolled out to other departments.
He urged other businesses to take a look at what the NCSC was doing and to read through its cyber security advice because the measures it recommended were "not completely crap".
The NCSC was set up in October to help protect the UK from cyber-attacks.
Dr Levy's comments came shortly before the Commons Public Accounts Committee issued a report that questioned the effectiveness of the UK's digital defences.


Tube passengers had to walk through tunnels in the early hours after a Halloween hat was thrown on to the track, London Underground (LU) said.

A passenger apparently threw a witch's hat containing metal on to the line at Chalk Farm, in north London, causing a power failure which stopped four trains.
Hundreds of passengers were stuck on the trains for more than an hour before they were walked along tunnels to the nearest stations.
LU has apologised to passengers.
"We apologise to passengers who were inconvenienced as a result of this incident, and would urge customers to exercise care and not to discard items on the railway," a LU spokesman said.
The four trains - three northbound between Camden and Belsize Park, and one northbound between Camden and Kentish Town - were stalled at 0040 BST.
"The metal part of a hat thrown on to the rails at Chalk Farm caused power interruption," LU said.
There were about 70 to 90 passengers on each train trapped for between an hour and an hour-and-a-half.
The London Ambulance Service were called out but no passengers required medical attention.
A number of Tube trains have broken down in recent weeks leading to passengers being walked though tunnels.


BBC Four is currently showing a series called The Story of British Pathé which chronicles the history of the famous newsreel makers.

Long before 24-hour news channels started, British Pathé brought the historic events of the 20th Century to local cinemas.
Reams of Pathé newsreels, including clips from Staffordshire, are now available online.
There is the usual footage of royal visits to the county but also a number of quirky features including early shots of the PG Tips chimps and a coalmen's sack race.
One of the more unusual stories involves a group of students from Stafford College of Technology who get together to form a football pools syndicate in 1964.
The football pools is a betting game which challenges people to predict the results of football matches. By the mid 1960s, it had 14 million weekly players.
Many of the students in the betting syndicate lived in the county town's oldest building, the Ancient High House.
This 16th Century structure in Stafford had seen its fair share of ghostly sightings and stories of things going bump in the night.
The students were convinced that the haunted building was the perfect setting for a seance, and contacting the spirit world would give them a distinct advantage in the betting stakes.
George was the name of the ghost who helped them predict the results of the football matches.
The numbers were chosen using a ouija board, with George guiding the students' fingers gently resting on an upturned glass.
Steve Dodgeon, who was part of the syndicate and lived on the first floor, said that the group scooped £30 and £2 in consecutive weeks.
But George was unable to match his early successes and the syndicate soon gave up.
In a recent interview, Mr Dodgeon admitted: "We didn't use the ouija board for that long.
"In fact the only spirits we used were in the pub across the road."
The popularity of the football pools waned after the National Lottery started in 1994.
Mr Dudgeon confirmed that he never does the pools nowadays.
The final episode of The Story of British Pathé is being shown on BBC at 21:00 on Thursday. The first three episodes can be seen on BBC iPlayer.


Hillary Clinton's quest for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 was supposed to be a coronation, not a conflagration.

Now, however, the former secretary of state finds herself in Iowa just days before the first-in-the nation caucuses, trying to extinguish an insurgent campaign by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders that seems to be spreading like wildfire.
While Mrs Clinton has spent the past year building a campaign infrastructure that she hopes will carry her to success in Iowa and beyond, Mr Sanders has become a fundraising powerhouse, thanks to passionate grass-roots support.
The Clinton camp may have had a head start on organising Iowans to support her in Monday's caucuses, but the Sanders campaign is pouring its newfound resources into the state in hopes that a win here - and in New Hampshire next week - will vault him into a national lead and position him to prevail in a fight for the nomination that could drag on for months.
The pitched battle between the two candidates was on full display on Friday night, as they held rallies mere blocks from each other in Davenport, Iowa.
Although they drew similarly sized crowds of about 1,000 people in this modest-sized city on the banks of the Mississippi River, it was a clear contrast in styles.
Outside an old-fashioned dance hall, Sanders loyalists lined the street, waving homemade signs, posing with a life-sized cutout of their candidate and cheering as passing cars honked their support.
"I'm so excited to change the world," said Selina Vickers, a social worker who drove 11 hours from Fayette County, West Virginia, to help with the get-out-the-vote effort. "I've never been inspired like this."
Mrs Clinton's backers - a relatively older crowd - were more restrained as they waited to enter their auditorium a few hours later. No car horns, no cheering - just a long line to get through a door guarded by Secret Service officers.
Inside the venues, the Sanders fans chatted and chanted, as John Lennon's Power to the People blasted over the loudspeakers. Mrs Clinton had a live country band, which closed with Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA - a patriotic ballad that was a staple of Republican Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns.
"I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free ..." the cowboy-hat-adorned singer belted.
Mr Sanders was introduced by Cornel West, the fiery author and black rights activist. He shouted, clapped and practically pirouetted, telling audience that the Vermont senator was at the centre of a political movement, a "moral and spiritual transformation" in the nation.
"We're trying to remake and recast American democracy, and Bernie Sanders is the select one," he said.
A hoarse former President Bill Clinton was his wife's warm-up act.
"We need someone who is strong and smart, who can make things happen," he said. "You can talk about change, but somebody's got to make it."
Those two introductions illustrated the difference between the two candidates. One is a veteran political insider with a famous last name. The other is a hero of the progressive movement, who - as a self-professed "democratic socialist" - until last fall wasn't even a registered member of the Democratic Party.
On the stage in Davenport, Mr Sanders promised sweeping changes: that his election will herald a revolutionary development in US politics, when those who are struggling in the modern economy will wrest power away from what he derides as the "billionaire class".
He called for free college education for all Americans, breaking up "too-big-to-fail" banks, a government-managed healthcare system and raising the minimum wage.
Critics, he said, insist "it's too hard, it can't be done, we have to think much, much smaller. And I say the hell with that!"
The day before, at an appearance before high school students in Des Moines, Mr Sanders' college proposal received an enthusiastic audience - more confirmation of polls that show the candidate doing much better than Mrs Clinton among younger voters.
"My parents are divorced, so it's not that easy to save up for college," said Keith McClure, a senior at Roosevelt High. "It'd just be nice to know that I would be able to go to college and not come out with a lot of debt and just be able to live comfortably."
Ms Clinton, on the other hand, preached practicality during her Davenport speech. Politics, the saying goes, is the art of the possible - and Mrs Clinton frames herself as the candidate who knows how to work within the system.
She said she would build on the healthcare reforms President Barack Obama has already put in place, use existing law to rein in Wall Street excesses, and make college more affordable without giving free tuition to the wealthy.
"We've got to be smart, and we've got to run an election about the real issues and what we can get done," she said. "I'd rather under-promise and over-deliver than the opposite."
The former secretary of state's speech came at the end of a long day of campaigning across Iowa, and if her pledge to "under-promise" and grind out results isn't the stuff of political revolutions, it was a theme cited again and again by her supporters.
"I like Bernie's ideas, but I really just think Hillary can take on the Republicans," Lindsey Cowherd, a dentist who brought her young daughter to Mrs Clinton's first event of the day, a rally at a college gymnasium in Des Moines. "She has the qualifications from day one to do a great job."
Derry O'Connor, a retiree from Des Moines, said that she was afraid Mr Sanders wouldn't hold up against Republican attacks if he were the Democratic nominee.
"Hillary's been through those battles before," she said. "I'm just afraid they could use more scare words with Bernie than they could with Hillary."
Republican pollster and political speech expert Frank Luntz was on hand to watch Mrs Clinton's rally in Des Moines. He said Mrs Clinton has become a more skilled candidate over the course of the campaign.
"Her message is sharper now than it was six months ago," he said. "Her delivery is clearly much better."
He added, however, that the dynamic in Iowa reminds him of 2008, when Mrs Clinton ran against the then-untested Senator Obama. In that race she finished third in Iowa, the first defeat in what would be a long, unsuccessful battle for the Democratic nomination.
"I think Bernie Sanders wins the caucuses," Luntz said. "It's energy, passion, motivation. They want to change America, and they think they can change the world."
If Luntz has his suspicions that Mrs Clinton is in trouble - both here and in New Hampshire, which will hold its primaries a week after Iowa - that may be confirmed by increasingly sharp criticism Mr Sanders is taking, not just from Mrs Clinton and her supporters, but from other gatekeepers in the Democratic establishment.
On Saturday the New York Times said Mr Sanders' proposals "aren't realistic" and endorsed Mrs Clinton for the nomination, writing that she would be the "most broadly and deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history".
On Thursday the Washington Post editorial board called Mr Sanders "a politician selling his own brand of fiction to a slice of the country that eagerly wants to buy it".
"Mr Sanders's success so far does not show that the country is ready for a political revolution," the paper wrote, citing the lack of details behind his healthcare, education and tax plans. "It merely proves that many progressives like being told everything they want to hear."
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives, called the Sanders healthcare plan politically untenable.
"It's no use having a conversation about something that's not going to happen," she said.
In Davenport Mr Sanders appeared to acknowledge the wave of criticism that has started coming his way.
"We've got the establishment just a little bit nervous," he said. "We're not playing by their old rules."
According to Matt Sinovic, executive director of the liberal group Progress Iowa, the Iowa contest between Mr Sanders and Mrs Clinton is too close to call just days before the caucuses.
He said Mr Sanders has the benefit of being a fresh, new face for Iowa voters, which may explain the enthusiasm of his crowds, but Mrs Clinton has broad support across the state.
He added that the race is noteworthy, however, because the arguments are over process, not policies.
"What it shows is there's an appetite on the Democratic side for a substantive debate," he said. "They're talking about regulating Wall Street, they're talking about expanding healthcare rights, they're talking about raising the minimum wage, and about creating equal pay and paid family leave - you know, really good economic policy."
"The question," he continued, "is over how you do it. Can you go incrementally, or should we just try to go all in?"
What does Bernie Sanders believe?
While Hillary Clinton is an established political figure, less is known about Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Here are five things to know about him:
He is a socialist. Sanders is running as a "Democratic socialist", but in his long political career he became comfortable with just "socialist" ("I am a socialist and everyone knows it," he once said.)
Climate change is real. After the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marked 2015 as the hottest year on record, Sanders tweeted: "The debate is over. Climate change is real and caused by human activity."
College should be free. "A college degree is the new high school diploma," Sanders wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece.
Gun ownership is a "lifestyle that should not be condemned". Sanders' record on gun control has been mixed which he says is due to the fact that his constituents in Vermont are pro-gun and "99 percent of the people in my state who hunt are law abiding people".
Read more here.
Mrs Clinton is hoping that after eight years of Mr Obama's presidency, where his earlier idealism often has been tempered by the reality of modern American politics, Democratic voters are willing to be practical.
Mr Sanders, on the other hand, argues that Democrats need to think much, much bigger.
It's a debate that won't be resolved when Iowans head to the caucuses on Monday. For Democrats, this is just getting started.


Alex Blake hit an unbeaten 66 off 62 balls as Kent overcame a mid-innings collapse to beat Surrey by one wicket in a One-Day Cup thriller at Beckenham.

Kumar Sangakkara top-scored with 58 as Surrey, who reached the final in 2015, posted a total of 255-8.
Daniel Bell-Drummond made 56 in reply, but Kent then slumped from 111-1 to 115-5 in the space of four overs.
Sam Northeast helped add 72 with Blake, who hit the penultimate ball of the game for six to see Kent home.
The result was in the balance when James Tredwell was run out from the fourth ball of the final over, bowled by Tom Curran.
But Blake, who recently ended a Championship game with three successive sixes, kept his nerve to clear the rope again and seal victory.
It was rough luck on Sangakkara who, as well as his half-century, also took three crucial catches during Kent's innings, including both Joe Denly (38) and Bell-Drummond following a stand of 95.
Blake, however, had other ideas as the game followed the trend of the last three limited-overs meetings between Kent and Surrey, when the side which won the toss went on to lose.
Surrey head coach Michael di Venuto told BBC Radio London:
"I think the bowlers did a good job, especially when they were one for 100, to peg it back and give us a sniff, but a couple of guys played well at the end to get them over the line.
"We were short with the bat, there's no doubt about that. Guys looked good, but unfortunately didn't kick on.
"To play poorly and get 255 is an encouraging sign, but we should have been 280, 300 easily on that wicket."


The mother of a man who was stabbed to death in a car park has backed a campaign for a national memorial for victims of knife crime.

Trainee accountant Danny Jones, 21, from Chirk near Wrexham, died from a single stab wound from a replica sword.
A sculpture is being created from seized weapons in Oswestry, Shropshire, the town where he died in 2013.
Meanwhile, a north Wales judge said there was huge concern about the number of serious injuries caused by knives.
The British Ironworks Centre is creating the sculpture - Knife Angel - using 30,000 weapons seized from the scenes of crime around the UK.
Mr Jones died in hospital from a single stab wound from an ornamental short sword during an argument with a friend after a night out in Oswestry, Shropshire in April 2013.
His killer was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter.
Mr Jones's mother Lisa McNeill said: "We don't want anyone to go through what we've gone through and what we'll always go through because it's never ending."
Sculptor Alfie Bradley said: "I'm using different contrasting blades and welding them sideways to create the contrast between big Samurai swords, machetes and normal kitchen knives.
"When it's lit up at night time it will have a diamond effect."
Police forces in England and Wales recorded 26,370 violent knife crimes in 2014-15, up from 25,974 the previous year - breaking a downward trend since 2010-11.
Meanwhile, a judge at Mold Crown Court on Thursday warned about the consequences of knife crime.
Judge Niclas Parry was jailing a Llandudno man for affray and possessing a knife, after a motorist was threatened when he stopped to intervene in a fight outside a pub.
He said it was a volatile incident which could have had catastrophic consequences.
"The public of north Wales are hugely concerned about the number of serious injuries caused by knife crime," he added.


A patient in a learning disability unit in a Scottish hospital has waited nine years to be discharged despite no longer needing care, a health watchdog has claimed.

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland said 32% of patients in such units were ready to be discharged.
However, some are waiting months or years to be released from hospital.
The Scottish government said it was committed to moving patients to "more appropriate settings".
The commission said the situation varied across health boards, with those having the largest number of beds also having the highest number of people waiting to leave hospital.
In NHS Lothian, 46% of patients - amounting to 17 people - are in hospital when they no longer need hospital care.
According to the report, 58 people with learning disabilities are awaiting discharge across Scotland, out of a total of 180 in-patients.
The commission visited all hospital units in Scotland for people with a learning disability, excluding forensic services.
Researchers examined the records of 104 people, met 46 patients individually and heard from 47 carers and relatives.
The report also examined patients' quality of life and found that most care and treatment plans for people with learning disabilities in hospital were good, with families and carers generally "very complimentary" about the service.
But the study also found there was often a lack of space for facilities like therapeutic kitchens, with some units poorly maintained.
Colin McKay, chief executive of the Mental Welfare Commission, said: "The main reasons for delays in discharge were lack of funding, lack of accommodation, lack of an appropriate care provider, or a combination of these issues.
"We understand that some people need complex care and support, which can take time to put in place. But a hospital is not designed to be a home, and having people stay for years in a hospital environment, often without all the facilities they should have, is not acceptable."
Mr McKay said the commission was calling on the Scottish government "as a matter of urgency" to end the delays to discharge and improve learning disability units.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: "The Scottish government is committed to significantly reducing the number of people in Scotland who are waiting to move from hospital to more appropriate settings.
"This includes patients with a learning disability and those who have complex care needs. This is why we are working to transform health and social care through the integration of services, which comes into full force in April 2016."
Ms Robison said the number of days patients spent in hospital due to delayed discharge was falling, but she welcomed the commission's work in identifying areas where more work was needed.


Manchester City have signed Brazil international right-back Maicon from Inter Milan for an undisclosed fee.

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"Maicon was a member of Inter's treble-winning side in 2010. He has struggled with injury in recent seasons and there's a suspicion that his best days are behind him but when fit he remains one of the top right-backs in the world."
City boss Roberto Mancini managed the 31-year-old for two seasons between 2006 and 2008 when in charge of Inter.
The Brazilian began his career at Cruziero and had a spell at Monaco, before moving to Inter and making 235 appearances for the Serie A side.
Maicon will join up with his City team-mates after the forthcoming international break.
A right-back renowned for his attacking instincts, he scored 20 goals for Inter and has nearly 70 caps for Brazil.
The new arrival at the Etihad will join winger  and goalkeeper Richard Wright, while deals for  are expected before the end of the day.


It feels good to be going into this weekend's second race of the season in Malaysia with a win already under my belt and in the lead of the championship.

Of course, sport is all about taking things one step at a time, focusing on the event you're in at that moment, but winning in Australia two weeks ago was a great first step.
It's such a difference from last year, when I had to retire from the first race of the season and was 25 points down in the championship before I had even got going.
Last year, I left Melbourne pretty much as low as you could be from a sporting point of view and came back strongly here in Malaysia.
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This year, it has started with the most positive weekend possible, but I am going to approach this weekend with the same attitude as I did last year and try to repeat the result, which was one of my best races of the year.
I have stayed over in Asia since Melbourne, which I have done every season since I started in Formula 1.
On one level, it's a good idea - you stay on the time zone and you can get acclimatised to the heat and humidity for what is possibly the toughest race of the year.
But I'm not sure I will do it again if there is a two-week gap between the two races next year because it has felt like a very long stay.
You lose so much time that you could put to better use, whether that is at the factory, with friends and family or just being comfortable in your own bed.
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My Mercedes team obviously had a strong weekend in Australia, and we have picked up pretty much where we left off last year.
That has led some people to call for the engines to be equalised in F1 to create closer competition, but you won't be surprised to hear that I think that is a bad idea and would be very unfair.
F1 is about the best drivers competing against each other for the best teams producing the best cars they can.
Equalising performance between teams runs completely counter to the idea of F1 and would be very unfair for us.
After years of trying, we have finally got ourselves into a position where we have the best car and have done the best job with the same rules as everyone else.
It's not like Red Bull or Ferrari have less money or fewer resources than Mercedes. We have just done a better, more efficient job.
That's what happens from time to time in F1.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Ferrari were dominating and won five championships in a row. They were not equalised with everyone else - the others had to catch up, which they eventually did. And the same goes for Red Bull at the beginning of this decade.
Now it's our turn.
I understand that there might be a desire to improve the spectacle, but that sort of thing needs careful thought and planning, not knee-jerk reactions.
In any case, we are only one race into the season. We don't know how it will develop, and I expect this year to be very close again between me and my team-mate Nico Rosberg, just as it was last year - just as it has been many times between team-mates competing for the title before.
I'm pleased to see that Fernando Alonso is back racing this weekend and that he is well again after the accident in pre-season testing that forced him to miss the first race of the year.
An accident such as Fernando's reminds you that F1 remains a dangerous sport. But there is a never a moment when I get in the car when I think something like that could not potentially happen.
Of course no-one wants to get injured, and we are all still very sad about Jules Bianchi's accident last year in Japan.
With Fernando, I think it's still unclear exactly what happened to him and I will be interested to hear what the FIA, F1's governing body, says about it.
It's great for F1 that he is back out on track, but it is going to be a hard year for him.
He left Ferrari, who had been very loyal to him for a long time, on what I don't think was a particularly good note, and that team are looking pretty awesome this year. They have done a great job to become the second fastest team and have a lot of potential to keep improving. And he has gone to McLaren, who are having a tough time.
I would much rather he was at the front racing with me. You want to be competing against the best of the best, and he is certainly that.
You might have seen in the news that my brother Nic is to race this year in the British Touring Car Championship.
As you can probably imagine, it has not been easy for Nic being the sibling of someone who is successful at something, and the fact that he has a disability has made things 10 times harder for him in life than it was for me.
But he is a massively determined and motivated young man and he has worked really hard against all odds to get to where he is.
Nic has cerebral palsy, and when he was born my dad and step-mum were told he would not walk.
To go from being in a wheelchair, through having a big surgery when he was five years old to be now racing cars against and beating people who have no disability is hugely inspiring.
I am excited for him.
Naturally, being the older brother, I worry for him and always want him to be seen in the best light and for things to go his way, because he is such a nice kid.
It's going to be hard for him, though - he only has five days of testing at the moment before the season starts.
But he always wants to do things on his own. That's the Hamilton stubborn streak coming out and I can tell you, he is so much more stubborn than me!
Obviously, I hope it goes well for him, but it's ultimately not just about winning, it's about going out and competing as an equal despite having a disability.
What he can do in a car, despite everything he has against him, is pretty special.
Because I've been away for some time, I haven't really been following what's been going on with Jeremy Clarkson.
All I can say is that Top Gear is a great show, people love it all around the world and I have very much enjoyed being on it and driving the reasonably priced car.
Wherever I am in the world, people are always saying: "Hey, when are you going on Top Gear again?"
Jeremy has that really cool voice, a great passion for cars and his laid-back, classy on-screen attitude was really cool.
I hope the show continues, but it's hard to think of it without him because, really, Jeremy is Top Gear.


When electronic music producer Flume takes to the stage at Australia's Aria Music Awards on Wednesday night, he stands to win 11 trophies.

In fact, he's already trousered three of them - best producer, best engineer and best cover art - but the big ones, including best album and best male, are still up for grabs.
The 25-year-old says he has speeches ready in case he beats the likes of Sia and Troye Sivan, but he doesn't relish the idea of walking to the winners' podium.
"Award ceremonies," he cringes, "I'm not built for them".
Even if he wins the best album prize for Skin, a genre-bending collection of leftfield pop songs and incendiary instrumentals, the star says it might be his last.
"I'm sick of doing albums," he tells the BBC. "I'm excited just to do lots of little projects with people and see where it takes me. Maybe a soundtrack for a movie, or music for a video game. I feel liberated now."
It's the perfect solution for a musician who finds the glare of the limelight uncomfortable.
When he attends the Aria ceremony in Sydney, he won't be hanging off the arm of a supermodel but treating his parents and sister to a family night out.
Afterwards, he's even going to give guest vocalists Tove Lo and Kai a guided tour of the city.
"I'm definitely going to take them around to Manly Beach and show them a koala or something," he laughs.
With any luck, their escapades will be filmed for Flume's YouTube series, which documents his first ever world tour - or rather, the things you get to do on tour if you're a hugely successful, in-demand artist.
Recent episodes have seen him visit Nasa and go surfing at Kelly Slater's Wave Company, where scientists have created the "perfect" eight foot-high artificial wave.
"It was the most exciting thing I've done in years," says the star. "I had the same feeling I used to have as a kid when Christmas was around the corner."
Ahead of the Arias, Flume - whose real name is Harley Edward Streten - explained why he's disillusioned with albums, and how he wants to create sounds no-one has heard before.
Most artists say touring is mind-numbingly boring, so why make a series about it?
That was exactly why we did it. A lot of touring is just getting from A to B, so by committing to this thing, we were forced into making sure the tour was fun.
Like a lot of musicians, you play a lot of ping pong backstage. Why is it so popular compared to, say, football?
Because with football you need stamina and you need to be fit!
Who's the most famous person you've challenged?
I had a ping pong battle with Howard from Disclosure at a festival not so long ago. I absolutely crushed him, by the way. Make sure you put that in.
In the surfing episode, when you're riding the waves, the music cuts to the film so perfectly that I assume you wrote it specially.
It actually wasn't written to the pictures. It's a song from a new EP that's about to come out. It just seemed to fit the video.
Is this new music, or tracks that didn't make it onto the album?
Skin took me three years and I wrote a lot of music that didn't fit the sound of the album. But I didn't want those songs to sit on a hard drive forever, so we're doing a couple of companion EPs for the album.
Are the EPs a stop-gap while you build up material for the third record?
You know what? I'm kind of sick of doing albums.
The first one came naturally. The second one, I felt like I needed to make a statement. Now that I've done the two records, I feel comfortable and free to do whatever I want.
I like being creative and putting music out a couple of months after it's been made, rather than sitting on things for years and coming up with a big, grand plan.
You're not the first person to say this: Calvin Harris and The Chainsmokers have both suggested they're abandoning albums. Is it because dance artists make more money from streaming individual tracks and playing festivals?
If I didn't have two albums out, I wouldn't be saying this.
A lot of my stuff doesn't really make sense unless it's in context, because it's quite broad-ranging. Some of my songs are really quite pop heavy and some are  leftfield and experimental. It's important that they come out in a package rather than just a single, so I'm keen on doing EPs.
It's convenient for me that, in this day and age, putting music out like that makes more sense from a business standpoint but that's not the reason I'm doing it. The reason I'm doing it is that's how I feel creatively.
Maybe in the future, when I'm ready, I'll do a third album.
How do you go about finding vocalists to collaborate with? I'd never heard of Kai, who sings on Never Be Like You, until the song came out.
I hadn't heard about her either. I wanted to work with vocalists and my manager came back to me with some of her music.
We sent her some ideas online, she came back with some of her own and we ended up meeting up in New York. That's how that song came about.
I heard you had your tarot cards read during the recording sessions.
We did, yes. Apparently I've got three kids on the horizon.
With Kai?
No! Haha! Who knows? Anything could happen.
Did the tarot reader mention that you'd be getting 11 Aria nominations?
Oh, definitely not. They didn't see that one coming.
Were you surprised to get so many?
I figured I might be up for something, but not 11. So, yeah, I've got to get my speeches ready in case I win.
You're performing with Tove Lo and Kai at the show. Will you take them out to see the sights of Sydney afterwards?
Yes, if I have time. I am definitely going to take them around to Manly Beach and show them a koala or something.
You have to be careful with koalas. Aren't they riddled with chlamydia?
Yeah, koalas are really messed-up creatures. They're also really high all the time. The eucalyptus gets them high. So they are stoned, they have chlamydia and they're technically not bears.
The singles you've released with Kai and Tove, Never Be Like You and Say It, are more emotionally mature than your typical dance track. What was the thinking behind that?
Those were two stabs at working with talented vocalists and creating proper songs, not just tracks. So I'm really glad and surprised at how well they've been received because they've been the driving force behind a lot of this record.
But you pepper those songs with strange sounds. They're very atypical pop songs.
Definitely. I love pop music but I feel like so much of it has boring-ass production. I want to change that. I feel like there's a place for that in the world right now.
I get a lot of satisfaction out of being a mad scientist in the studio. I'll spend a lot of time not even making music, just trying to create weird sounds, then I'll use them as ammunition when I feel inspired to write a song.
I get the impression you're as interested in sound design as you are in the music.
I'm constantly inspired by it. The amount of different textures and tones you can create on a computerâ€¦ Mankind has never had access to that before. I find that so exciting.
Flume's album, Skin, is out now. His tour travelogue, Flume Adventures, is available on his YouTube channel.
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The number of people dying within a month of admission to hospital has fallen by 15.9% in the past seven years, according to NHS statistics.

The Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios (HSMR) were calculated over the period between October - December 2007 and April - June 2014.
The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP) aims to reduce hospital mortality by 20% by December 2015.
Seven hospitals have already shown a reduction in excess of 20%.
The NHS National Services Scotland report said these include Crosshouse Hospital near Kilmarnock, Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Queen Margaret Victoria Hospital in Dunfermline and Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Also showing good improvements were The Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, Wishaw General Hospital and Western Isles Hospital.
Health Secretary Alex Neil said: "It is very welcome news that the number of people who are dying in hospital has fallen so dramatically - especially at a time when our NHS is treating more people than ever before.
"The drop in mortality rates across Scotland's hospitals is one area where Scotland is particularly forging ahead and it means that lives have and are being saved every day.
"Frontline staff should be rightly proud of what they have enabled our NHS to achieve."
Since 2007, there has been a reduction in HSMR in 30 of the 31 hospitals participating in the SPSP.
Only one hospital in Scotland exhibited an increasing trend in HSMR over time - the Golden Jubilee National Hospital.
The report said this was because it provides specialist services with a mixture of patients that differs substantially from the majority of other hospitals in Scotland.
The HSMR is based on all acute inpatient and day case patients and takes account of those who died within 30 days from admission.
This includes deaths that occurred in the community as well as those occurring in-hospital.
Deaths that occur in hospital may be inevitable because of the patient's condition.
However, there are some deaths that can be prevented by improving care and treatment or by avoiding harm.


The bitter feud at the top of India's giant Tata industrial empire is continuing in full spate.

Tata Sons, the holding company, is now trying to force out its former chairman, Cyrus Mistry, from all parts of its vast business.
It is trying to remove him from the boards of several subsidiaries such as Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals, and Tata Steel.
Mr Mistry was sacked as overall chairman last month, out of the blue.
The surprising move soon exposed a saga of bitter disagreement at board level, with claim and counterclaim thrown around to the general astonishment of onlookers.
Among the latest developments - which have been compared to the plot of a Bollywood drama - Mr Mistry has rejected claims that he mishandled an allegation of harassment at the group's hotel business.
The allegation has gained widespread traction in the Indian media as one of the reasons for his sacking, though that claim itself has not formed part of the group's public explanation for Mr Mistry's sudden sacking.
A nine-page counterblast to Mr Mistry was published on Thursday which finally detailed some of the company's complaints against its former chairman.
It spoke of low profits, rising debts and poor management of key business projects, such as the sale of its UK steel businesses.
Mr Mistry was also removed from his post as chairman of one key subsidiary, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), on Thursday.
But a source close to him accused TCS of acting beyond its powers and in a "cloak and dagger" fashion.
The source claimed that no board meeting of TCS was called to discuss the proposal from Tata Sons to oust him, nor was there a formal discussion of the matter.
"In pre-mediated haste, by a letter of the same date, TCS has directly gone on to announce that Mistry stands replaced," said the source.
"The hasty actions appear to have been done at night.
"Cloak and dagger machinations with little regard to due process of law has come to define the angry strategy of the Ratan Tata camp."
Now, as part of further efforts to oust him from the wider empire, Tata Sons has called an extraordinary shareholder meeting at Tata Motors - which owns among others Jaguar land Rover - to remove him from the board there.
A similar meeting has now also been called at Tata Chemicals, Tata Steel and Indian Hotels.
Despite these moves, Mr Mistry retains support from some senior colleagues.
Some board members at Indian Hotels and Tata Chemicals have said he should stay in post as their chairman.
It has not yet been announced when the special shareholder meetings will be held.


Dundee FC's managing director has revealed the club's intention to move from Dens Park to a new custom-built facility in the city.

John Nelms said the Scottish Premiership side was currently trying to give a "21st Century entertainment product in a 19th Century building".
Mr Nelms and business partner Tim Keyes recently bought 29 acres of land near the ice rink at Camperdown Park.
He said a land-use application would be submitted "shortly".
Mr Nelms told the club's DeeTV: "We're quite excited by it, it's early doors.
"We've got a lot of hoops to jump through and a lot of politics to get through.
"But I can tell you we've been working on this for the last year, even before we purchased the property.
"We have been trying to future-proof as much as possible any facility we put on that site and work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and be a jewel for the City of Discovery and Dundee.
"Moving forward, we think we're going to have exciting times ahead where we're potentially playing games overseas, we're playing games potentially in a new facility, training in potentially a new facility.
"That's where we're headed."
Accounts published for the financial year ending 31 May 2016 showed an operating loss of £530,000 at the club.
Mr Nelms said the ground's maintenance bill rose by £50,000 in the last financial year.
He said: "The biggest issue we have is with the stadium itself.
"We've put over £200,000 into the ground and that's not enhancing the ground, that's just keeping the ground going.
"We assume that those issues are going to continue to get worse and worse as time goes on.
"We're trying to give a 21st Century entertainment product in a 19th Century building."


UK retail sales rose by more than expected in June, rebounding from May's decline, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The quantity of goods bought rose by 0.6% in June from May, which was stronger growth than economists had been expecting.
The rise was driven by strong sales of household goods, clothing and shoes.
That compensated for falling sales at supermarkets and other sellers of food and drinks.
"A particularly warm June seems to have prompted strong sales in clothing, which has compensated for a decline in food and fuel sales this month," ONS statistician Kate Davies said.
Retail sales rose by 1.5% in the three months to the end of June, which wipes out the 1.4% slide in sales over the first three months of the year.
Economists prefer to look at figures over three months, which smooth out volatile moves from month to month.
"We shouldn't get too carried away by these figures. After all, the retail sales figures are very volatile on a month-by-month basis. And the heatwave in June provided a boost to clothing sales that may not be sustained," said Paul Hollingsworth, UK economist at Capital Economics.
Other economists argue the figures should have been even stronger.
"Last month was the fifth warmest June since 1910, and food and clothing sales usually surge when the temperature is unusually high in the summer," said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
"The increase in retail sales in June was relatively modest, given the temporary support to demand from the unusually warm weather."
Economists are keeping a close eye on spending by UK shoppers as it has been supporting the overall economy.
But with inflation now running ahead of wage growth, there have been concerns of a slowdown in spending.
"The outlook of falling real wages and tightening credit conditions suggest that retail sales will struggle to retain Q2's vigour in the second half of this year," Mr Tombs said.
Next week, figures will be released on second quarter growth in the UK. Growth could "perk-up" from the first quarter figure of 0.2% according to Chris Williamson from IHS Markit.
However, Mr Tombs from Capital Economics doubts there will be much improvement, given other weak economic data.


Rochdale dropped out of the League One play-off places after a goalless draw against Bristol Rovers.

The soft playing surface did neither side any favours and goalmouth incidents - let alone chances - were few and far between.
Reuben Noble-Lazarus had the first effort on target when he met Harrison McGahey's cross from the right with a downward header at the back post 18 minutes in, Rovers keeper Joe Lumley diving to his right to block the attempt.
As it turned out, that was the best chance of the opening period, although Rovers midfielder Ollie Clarke should have done better with a shot from the edge of the area that he scuffed towards the Rochdale goal.
The second half followed in similar vein. The best move of the game arrived in the 72nd minute, a Rovers breakaway which started with an interception from Clarke, breaking up play between Peter Vincenti and Mark Kitching.
Clarke's run forward ended with the ball being worked to the left and Stuart Sinclair playing a delicious pass into the path of Lee Brown, racing forward from deep down the left flank.
The full-back provided Dale's debutant goalkeeper Ben Wilson with his first real test of the day, a rising drive from an angle which the goalkeeper beat away.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Rochdale 0, Bristol Rovers 0.
Second Half ends, Rochdale 0, Bristol Rovers 0.
Jamie Allen (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Chris Lines (Bristol Rovers).
Substitution, Bristol Rovers. Cristian Montaño replaces Billy Bodin.
Hand ball by Rory Gaffney (Bristol Rovers).
Stuart Sinclair (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Harrison McGahey (Rochdale).
Attempt saved. Luke James (Bristol Rovers) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Substitution, Bristol Rovers. Rory Gaffney replaces Ellis Harrison.
Luke James (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Mark Kitching (Rochdale).
Foul by Ian Henderson (Rochdale).
Joe Lumley (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Substitution, Rochdale. Jamie Allen replaces Oliver Rathbone.
Oliver Rathbone (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Ellis Harrison (Bristol Rovers).
Attempt blocked. Stuart Sinclair (Bristol Rovers) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Callum Camps (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Ollie Clarke (Bristol Rovers).
Attempt missed. Ollie Clarke (Bristol Rovers) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
Foul by Joseph Rafferty (Rochdale).
Chris Lines (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Corner,  Bristol Rovers. Conceded by Ben Wilson.
Attempt saved. Lee Brown (Bristol Rovers) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Donal McDermott (Rochdale) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Stuart Sinclair (Bristol Rovers).
Corner,  Bristol Rovers. Conceded by Keith Keane.
Substitution, Rochdale. Donal McDermott replaces Reuben Noble-Lazarus.
Attempt missed. Ian Henderson (Rochdale) header from the centre of the box misses to the left.
Hand ball by Ollie Clarke (Bristol Rovers).
(Rochdale) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Ellis Harrison (Bristol Rovers).
Callum Camps (Rochdale) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Chris Lines (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Callum Camps (Rochdale).
Jimmy McNulty (Rochdale) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Luke James (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Jimmy McNulty (Rochdale).
Attempt blocked. Mark Kitching (Rochdale) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.


A former leader of Dorset County Council has become the first person to be prosecuted under a new law aimed at giving communities more power.

Spencer Flower claimed his involvement with a social housing company was not relevant to a debate in 2013 over the future of housing in east Dorset.
But he was found guilty of voting illegally as the firm could have benefitted from the plan being passed.
The Conservative councillor, 72, will be allowed to remain in public office.
Flower, of Verwood, Dorset, was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay Â£930 costs.
A district judge at Bournemouth Magistrates' Court ruled he had broken laws under the Localism Act 2011.
Speaking outside court, Flower refused to comment on his political future.
He said: "I am surprised and disappointed that the court has found for the prosecution this morning on a technicality.
"The decision was a conditional discharge for six months - the lowest possible penalty.
"The court emphasised the total lack of any personal gain or intent on my part."
Flower, who is also an East Dorset councillor, voted in February 2013 on East Dorset's core strategy while non-executive director of charitable social housing company Synergy Housing Ltd, for which he received an annual allowance of about Â£5,000.
The vote concerned whether the strategy for the area should be referred to the secretary of state for approval.
He declared his interest in the charity prior to the meeting, but was found guilty of taking part in the vote "without reasonable excuse" despite his pecuniary interest.
The core strategy included plans for redevelopment in Wimborne and, although no planning permission had been submitted, it was thought some of Synergy's social housing could be improved by developers Wyatt.
Flower was charged in November and stood aside as leader of Dorset County Council to fight the charges.
Two other charges of failing to disclose an interest in Zebra Property Solutions Ltd to East Dorset Council and to Dorset County Council between 1 July 2012 and 6 March 2013, had previously been dropped.
A spokesman for Christchurch Borough Council and East Dorset District Council said Flower continues to remain a member of East Dorset District Council.
"Nominations for the forthcoming local elections are still open, therefore we do not yet know whether Councillor Flower intends to stand again."


A BBC service that let people buy and "keep" BBC shows is to close less than two years on from its 2015 launch.

A spokesman for BBC Store said demand had not been as strong as had been hoped and that it did not "make sense" to invest in the service further.
BBC Store was intended as an extension of the BBC iPlayer, where content expires 30 days after broadcast.
A message on its website said the BBC would "continue to find new ways of making BBC archive content available".
"We do hope you enjoyed discovering some wonderful programmes, old and new," the message added.
More than 7,000 hours of TV was initially made available through the BBC Store, with shows typically costing Â£1.89 an episode.
Offerings included Early to Bed, a rarely seen Alan Bleasdale work from 1975, and The Power of the Daleks, a "lost" Doctor Who adventure from 1966 that was reconstructed in animated form.
With hit programmes such as Sherlock and Doctor Who available on subscription sites Netflix and Amazon Prime, though, the BBC Store found there was less demand to download programmes to keep.
Viewers will be able to watch their purchases via the BBC Store website or through the BBC Store app until 1 November, after which they will no longer be available.
Customers will be refunded for the shows they have purchased, either in cash or with Amazon Video vouchers.
Those who opt for the latter will receive 10% more than they are owed, as a goodwill gesture.
A BBC representative would not reveal how many people would be affected but said the service had been part of the corporation's attempts to generate income outside the licence fee.
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Southampton midfielder James Ward-Prowse has been sidelined for 10 weeks with a fractured foot.

The 19-year-old suffered the injury during the second half of Saturday's win at Swansea.
"We're very disappointed, but that's football and that can happen," Koeman said. "It's unlucky but OK.
"The boy has to keep going and it's difficult because he had a great start to the season, but it's part of the football and he will come back."
Up until the injury, Ward-Prowse had played for Southampton in every fixture this season.
Meanwhile, Koeman said that another young English player, Nathaniel Clyne, should be called up by the national side.
The 23-year-old scored Southampton's second in their 2-1 win at Arsenal in the League Cup, with a brilliant 35-yard strike.
"I think he's ready [to play for England]," Koeman said of Clyne, who has played at under-19 and under-21 level.
"He has a lot of experience, he is playing very well from the beginning of the season.
"He scored a great goal. I think his performance was very good and I think it's an option for the national coach and I'm very happy to have Clyney in our team because he brings a lot of experience.
"He brings a lot of spirit and I like to have and play with offensive full-backs. He shows that quality and it's very important for the team."


Three fishermen have been rescued off the coast of Malin Head in County Donegal.

The alarm was raised at about midnight on Thursday when the men became stranded after their boat lost engine power.
Three lifeboats and a rescue helicopter went to the scene. It has been described as a "major recue operation".
Mark Barnett from the Lough Swilly lifeboat described it as a community effort.
"The fishermen had gone out in their boat around Malin pier and then decided to head a little east," he said.
"The fishermen are fine but had a lucky escape.
"They had been out for half an hour when the engine broke down and they started to drift.
"They had no mobile phone signal to raise the alarm."


The open-air Yorkshire Sculpture Park attracted more than 400,000 visitors in 2014 the highest number in its history, it said.

Based near Wakefield it has 500 acres of parkland and five indoor galleries.
The attraction was worth more than Â£10m annually to the local economy, according to the organisation.
Peter Murray, the park's executive director, said he was delighted and it was "a rare and unparalleled experience" for visitors.
The sculpture park has held exhibitions for Eduardo Paolozzi, Lynn Chadwick and Ai Weiwei. Its collection of works by Castleford-born Henry Moore is one of the largest open-air displays of his bronzes in Europe.
Works by Wakefield-born Barbara Hepworth are also on display.
Last year, the park was awarded the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year.
The sculpture park, the first of its kind in the UK and the biggest in Europe, opened in 1977.


Only £4,000 out of £104,000 of public money the assembly paid into a fraudulent bank account was recovered, a committee of AMs has heard.

Assembly chief executive Claire Clancy said a contractor agreed to return £4,000 because the firm was previously warned "there could be  a problem".
She called the sum "disappointing".
In August, a woman admitted receiving £100,000 from the assembly, after officials were duped into believing they were paying for cleaning services.
Six payments were made to Tracey Baker, 44, between October 2013 and June 2014.
Ms Clancy told the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday that legal advice had been taken to see whether the loss should be shared with the contractor Total Support Services "because of the steps we had taken to notify the contractor that there could be a problem and their failure to use the proper control processes".
"We came to a negotiated settlement with the contractor," she said.
"It was only £4,000 of the £104,000 that they agreed to meet, which we found disappointing."


Reading manager Jaap Stam has confirmed the club cancelled a move for Asamoah Gyan after the Ghana striker failed a medical.

The 30-year-old former Sunderland striker was poised to join the Royals from Chinese side Shanghai SIPG.
But Gyan joined United Arab Emirates club Al Ahli on loan after the Championship club pulled out of a move for the striker.
Asked if he failed a medical, Stam said: "Yes, he wasn't in very good shape."
"They did a very good medical on him and it was very important because he has been injured in the past and has not been playing a lot of games over there [in China].
"He did not think that him not being in good shape was the thing but that was the case," the 44-year-old told BBC Radio Berkshire.
"Our medical people are not going to lying about that. That's why we made the decision not to sign him."
Reading have scored just five league goals but could move third in the Championship with victory against Ipswich Town on Friday.
"We've got two good strikers. We've got Joseph [Mendes] and Yann [Kermorgant] who I think can perform for us," Stam added.
"We were still looking for another striker but we didn't succeed to get one in."
Forwards Deniss Rakels and Yakou Meite remain sidelined while midfielder John Swift has returned to training after sitting out the 1-0 win at Cardiff City.


Double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee says he may not return to triathlon for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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The World Triathlon Series starts in Abu Dhabi on Friday but Brownlee, 28, is not racing as he prepares to step up to the longer half-Ironman distance.
The Yorkshireman claimed triathlon gold at Rio 2016, defending his title from London 2012.
"There's a chance I could never be at an Olympic Games again but to say I'll never do it is impossible," he said.
"The Olympic Games are just fantastic and I'd definitely love to be there but the course in Tokyo is going to play a big part in terms of whether I feel I can go there and win.
"It's going to be a case of sitting down at the end of 2018 and weighing it up - am I enjoying the long distance stuff? Am I still able to be competitive enough to win a medal in Tokyo?"
Brownlee will defend his World Series title in Leeds on 11 June, but that is his only confirmed race so far this season, while brother and Rio silver medallist Jonny begins his campaign from the second race in the Gold Coast on 8 April.
For the rest of the year, Alistair Brownlee will combine standard Olympic length events - 1.5km swim, 40km on the bike and 10km run - with half Ironman distance competitions, also referred to as Ironman 70.3 in reference to the total number of miles covered.
He added that the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in September is an "obvious" target as he builds up to the full Ironman distance, which he says has always been on his "bucket list".
"Ironman has got to be one of those things you always want to do - it's like the London or Boston marathon of triathlon," he added.
The two-time gold medallist added that his Rio 2016 win was slightly marred by the absence of long-term rival and London 2012 silver medallist Javier Gomez, who withdrew from the Games after breaking his elbow in a cycling accident.
"It definitely took a bit away from my gold in Rio that Gomez wasn't there," said Brownlee.
"You want to be there in your best shape and race the best athletes in their best shape - we were fortunate to have that in London and it would have been fantastic to have had that in Rio as well but what happened happened.
"But on that day, on that course, I'm fairly confident I'd have had him anyway."
With Gomez, 33, back from that injury, Brownlee expects the Spaniard to challenge for the World Series title, alongside compatriot and current champion Mario Mola, 27.
And the older Brownlee expects Jonny, 26, to complete the podium and says his brother could claim the title with "a bit of luck and a fair wind behind him".
Alistair Brownlee says he may have been "bored" returning to World Series racing, having experienced the "same kind of racing against basically the same people for the last 10 years".
However, he adds that he is motivated by his new goals, which could include competing in 10,000m running races and the marathon.
"I now have an opportunity to try these other things without hurting my chances if I do decide I want to compete in four years in Tokyo," he said.
"I thought about a lot of things after Rio. I definitely want to run a marathon and that might be in the not too distant future.
"The other obvious thing is cycling and trying to make a wholehearted jump into being a professional cyclist but although that's possible, I'm very aware that in that arena and in running, I can be good and get to a level where I could be professional, but never to a level where I can win stuff.
"I still feel like I want to be the best at what I'm doing so that's why I'm choosing things I feel like I can win."


Two-time British and Irish Lion Keith Wood believes leaving out Ulster hooker Rory Best from this year's squad is a short-sighted move.

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Best, capped 67 times by Ireland, was omitted in favour of Richard Hibbard, Dylan Hartley and Tom Youngs.
"He struggled a bit in the Six Nations with his line-out throwing and lost confidence," Wood told BBC 5 live.
"If that was the reason for him not being picked, I think it's a bit short-sighted."
Wales (15) - Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert, George North, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Mike Phillips, Gethin Jenkins, Adam Jones, Richard Hibbard, Ian Evans, Alun-Wyn Jones, Toby Faletau, Dan Lydiate, Justin Tipuric, Sam Warburton
England (10) - Manu Tuilagi, Owen Farrell, Ben Youngs, Dan Cole, Matt Stevens, Mako Vunipola, Dylan Hartley, Tom Youngs, Geoff Parling, Tom Croft.
Ireland (9) - Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Brian O'Driscoll, Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray, Cian Healy, Paul O'Connell, Jamie Heaslip, Sean O'Brien
Scotland (3) - Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland, Richie Gray
Wood believes 30-year-old Best, who has captained Ulster and also Ireland, would have thrived in the Lions environment.
"I am a big Rory Best fan," said Wood, who won 58 caps for Ireland and toured with the Lions in 1997 and 2001. "He is a very good thrower, and his skills and ability are permanent. I think he has it in his leadership and in his all-round play. He is a really good quality guy and I think all he wants is the Lions - this is the thing that is missing in him.
"There is something vital about him and the way he leads from the front. Ireland suffered a bit this year and I think he has suffered because of the team, not because of himself.
"Being hooker is the loneliest place in the world throwing the ball into a line-out when you don't have confidence. Some of Ireland's calling and lifting in the Six Nations wasn't as sharp as it should be, and as the matches were going on you could see his confidence coming down.
"He lost the certainty of where his jumpers were going to be, where his lifters were, where he was going to have to put the ball. You could just see it unravelling a little bit."
Lions forwards coach Graham Rowntree revealed that in tight selection calls such as hooker, the management team resorted to individual player statistics to help inform their decisions.
Wood believes Hartley, who lost his starting spot with England to Youngs during the Six Nations, is fortunate to make the Lions squad.
"I would have left out Dylan Hartley," he added. "I don't know that he has done enough. When Northampton played Ulster in the Heineken Cup this season, Rory Best came out on top on both occasions."


The Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney has outlined his budget plan for 2015-16 - and he's shaking up the housing market.

With a new property transaction tax replacing stamp duty, Mr Swinney claims 90% of taxpayers will be "better or no worse off" under the new regime.
To provide context to that 90% claim, the average house price in Scotland is £162,122.
So, here we look at who will be the winners and losers once the system changes.....
Currently any property up to £125,000 does not involve any stamp duty payment.
Stamp duty being a lump-sum tax that anyone buying a property costing more than a certain amount is required to pay.
As of April 2015, that tax-free figure will rise to £135,000 for homebuyers in Scotland.
If you were to buy a house today between those two figures, you would need to pay 1% stamp duty.
So, a £130,000 purchase now, for example, would require a duty payment of £1,300.
However, a £130,000 purchase next April won't require any tax payment.
Mr Swinney says this means "5,000 more transactions will be taken out of tax, supporting first-time buyers and those buying properties in the affordable market."
Verdict: Winners
A marginal tax of 2% will apply to properties within this price bracket.
Therefore, for example, a house bought at £200,000 when these new tax rates arrive, would require a payment of £1,300 - that's 2% of £65,000 (Basically the difference between £200,000 and £135,000).
Buy a house now at £200,000 and you're needing to pay 1% stamp duty, which would be £2,000.
So, a house bought at £136,000 in April 2015 would require a one-off payment of £20.
A house bought at £136,000 now would require a one-off payment of £1,360.
Verdict: Winners
This is where it starts to get tricky. There's a marginal tax of 10% across this entire price range, and there's a tipping point for when it doesn't work in your favour.
That tipping point is £324,300.
A property bought at £300,000 in 2015 would mean a £7,300 charge [0% of £135,000; 2% of £115,000 and 10% of £50,000]. With stamp duty for a house at this price currently at 3%, the stamp duty payment would be £9,000.
At £325,000, that's £9,800 to be paid in 2015, whereas now you'd pay £9,750.
£700,000 would require a tax payment of £47,300, whereas stamp duty would be £21,000.
Verdict: Winner up until £325,000. Loser for anything above.
If you're in the fortunate position that you can purchase a property costing more than £1m, you're also in the unfortunate position of having to pay more tax than you would pay stamp duty.
The stamp duty for a £1m to £2m house is at 5%, with anything above £2m at 7%.
For any purchase over £1m from April 2015, there will be an additional 12% tax rate.
So, for example, a £1.5m property bought next spring would cost £137,300 in tax. Bought now, stamp duty would be at £75,000.
A £3m mansion bought in April 2015 would bring a tax charge of £317,300. Purchase that now and you'd be paying £210,000.
Verdict: Losers


The Brexit Secretary David Davis has clarified the government's view on Northern Ireland's status within the European Union, in the event of a future border poll in favour of a united Ireland.

He said that should the people of Northern Ireland vote to leave the UK, they would "be in a position of becoming part of an existing EU member state, rather than seeking to join the EU as a new independent state".
Mr Davis made the remarks in a letter to the SDLP MP Mark Durkan.
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is an Irish nationalist party that campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU in last year's referendum.
Mr Durkan had asked the Brexit secretary about Northern Ireland's ability to become part of the EU, under the consent provisions of the 1998 Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Davis replied that the Westminster government was "committed to the principle of consent enshrined in the Belfast Agreement, which makes clear that Northern Ireland's constitutional position is a matter for the people of Northern Ireland to determine".
He added: "If a majority of the people of Northern Ireland were ever to vote to become part of a united Ireland, the UK government will honour its commitment in the Belfast Agreement to enable that to happen.
"In that event, Northern Ireland would be in a position of becoming part of an existing EU member state, rather than seeking to join the EU as a new independent state."
The Brexit secretary added it would then be up to the EU Commission "to respond to any specific questions about the procedural requirements for that to happen".
However, Mr Davis told Mr Durkan that the government's "clear position is to support Northern Ireland's current constitutional status: as part of the UK, but with strong links to Ireland".
Previously, Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Enda Kenny suggested that any overall deal on Brexit should clarify the right of Northern Ireland to automatically join the EU in the event of a vote for Irish unity.
An example often cited has been that of East Germany, which became a member of the EU after reuniting with West Germany.
During last year's EU referendum, Northern Ireland voted to remain by a majority of 56% to 44%, but the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48%.


Events organising is "the biggest industry you've never heard of", says Reggie Aggarwal, chief executive of US technology company Cvent.

From music festivals to corporate expos, trade fairs to charity auctions, we spend about £375bn a year on events worldwide - £40bn of that in the UK.
It seems we gregarious humans still love to press the flesh, chat in person and see things for ourselves, despite the availability of online collaboration tools, teleconferencing and email.
And technology is "transforming the meetings and events space," says Mr Aggarwal. "It's a market ripe for automation."
Going digital has enabled organisers to send out invitations via social media, email and mobile, and provide attendees with a more integrated registration, travel and hotel booking experience.
"We've seen two major changes in the space since we started [in 2006]," says Renaud Visage, co-founder of San Francisco-based Eventbrite, a tech firm that offers an events organising platform.
"Social media, which is very important for marketing, and mobile, which can be used for event apps and for checking-in attendees."
The company has grown fast, processing about $3bn (£2bn) worth of tickets and powering a million events last year, says Mr Visage.
Innovations include dynamic pricing for online seat reservations, depending on where they are in the venue, and the ability to sell merchandise around the event as well.
One company benefiting from event technology is Children's Inn, a charity providing accommodation for kids suffering from the rarest forms of disease.
Lauren Stabart, assistant director of corporate giving and special events, told the BBC: "Our service costs millions of dollars a year to run, so raising money from sponsors and ticketed events is essential for our survival.
"Cvent helped set up our webpage event management platform, where people can purchase tickets and we can offer special promotions, discounts and so on.
"Moving from paper-based registration to digital - checking people into events on tablets - was just so seamless and easy," she says.
Organisers' guest lists are updated automatically so everyone has access to the same information on their hand-held devices.
Technology is also helping to make the events more interactive, she says, with features like "social wall", which projects live tweets onto a wall for guests to read during the event.
Since it was founded in 1990, the charity, based in Bethesda, Maryland, has given a temporary home to about 13,000 seriously ill children and their families.
Now when you go to a big conference the prospectus and schedule is likely to be included in a dedicated app, perhaps incorporating video content of the presentations and an interactive map of the venue.
A company like Eventbase, which developed apps for the 2012 London Olympics and the US South by South West (SXSW) music, film and technology festival, specialises in creating these bespoke apps.
At this year's SXSW more than 1,000 iBeacons were installed around the venue. These small devices communicated with Eventbase's smartphone app to establish visitors' exact locations.
This enabled anyone who opted in to the service be found by other visitors - useful for networking and socialising.
If you missed a speech because you were too busy networking or sampling the refreshments, a well-run event will upload it to the app soon after.
"If I hear a great speaker I want to be able to share the recording five minutes later, not two weeks later," says Mr Aggarwal, whose company services 13,000 clients worldwide, including companies like Roche, Rolls-Royce and Yale University.
"With easy access to all the presentations, the event extends beyond the weekend and the content lives longer."
Event apps and location technology also make it easier for brands to showcase their wares online as well as in the venue, and to target certain visitors with specific messages as they move around.
This targeting is helped by visitors detailing their preferences and areas of interest when they register online for the event.
With about 20 million events happening each year, but only 50,000 currently offering attendees an in-conference app, according to industry estimates, this a rich area for growth for tech companies.
Within the venue, internet-connected devices, such as tablets and smartphones, can make for a more interactive relationship with visitors.
Live polling can enliven a presentation, say, and interactive bidding at charity events using technology from the likes of iBid, can help raise more money.
Bidders can see the latest bids on a large digital screen, adding to the excitement and the spirit of competition.
Nowadays events also encourage tweets and social media updates from visitors which are then projected onto "social walls" around the venue. Mr Aggarwal envisages quadcopter drones buzzing round fulfilling this function in future.
And more often, attendee passes and wristbands have RFID (radio frequency identification) and NFC (near field communication) technology built in, so you can log in to interactive displays or register for offers with a simple wave or tap of your device.
Mr Visage believes connected wristbands will also act as digital wallets, allowing festival goers to pay for food, drink and merchandise so they don't have to worry about losing payment cards and cash.
Technology is also playing an increasingly important role in brand marketing at events, where competition for visitors' attention is fierce.
Product displays are integrating voice, face and gesture activation technologies to make them more fun and interactive, says Nick Thompson, founding partner of Knit, a UK technology design company.
His firm has developed Twitter-activated jukeboxes, LED light displays activated by sound and gesture, and social media integration with NFC-enabled wrist bands, amongst other digital delights.
Virtual reality (VR) headsets will be the next trend at events, he believes.
"At some automotive shows this year there have been more VR headsets than cars," he says.
"Immersive content is going to play a huge role in how brands engage consumers in brand experiences."
Some thought digital technology would kill the live event. Instead, it seems to have given it a new lease of life.
You can follow Matthew on Twitter here: @matthew_wall


Take a good look at the latest picture of Pluto because it shows the face of the dwarf planet that will not be seen during next week's historic flyby.

The US space agency's New Horizons probe was less than 2.5 million km from the diminutive world on Saturday and closing in fast.
Come Tuesday, it will be grabbing shots from an altitude of just 12,500km.
But the newly published image, showing Pluto's "spots", is of the hemisphere that will soon rotate out of view.
It will not be seen again until after New Horizons has gone behind the 2,300km-wide dwarf, and then only in the faint light reflected off the little planet's biggest moon, Charon.
That in itself should make for some fascinating science, however, because it will tell researchers what happens on Pluto's dark side.
Some models predict that its nitrogen-rich atmosphere snows out in the deep cold of night.
The mission team will be able to determine if this is so by studying changes in the patterns of reflectivity.
Pluto's four dark spots first came into focus at the end of June.
The intrigue is their regular spacing and size, with each being about 480km across.
Alan Stern, the principal investigator on New Horizons, spoke to the BBC on Saturday to convey the mood inside his team ahead of the flyby.
"It's electric; it's truly electric," the Southwest Research Institute professor said.
"People are just thrilled and they have big smiles on their faces, and the data that's coming down - even though it's only a small amount of what the spacecraft's taking - is so beautiful.
"Pluto is not disappointing. Pluto is spectacular."
New Horizons is travelling at almost 14km/s towards its target.
At that speed it cannot go into orbit, and must simply barrel past, acquiring as many images and other types of data as it can.
The hemisphere it will characterise in most detail is centred on a region between a very dark equatorial band that has come to be known as "the whale" and a remarkably bright expanse of terrain shaped like a heart.
New Horizons' long-range camera, Lorri, will carpet map two 80km-wide strips across this hemisphere, revealing surface features down to a best resolution of 80m per pixel.
All of the probe's information will come back very slowly, however.
The vast distance to Pluto - some 4.7bn km - means bit rates are extremely low, and it will take a full 16 months for everything seen in the next few days to trickle back to Earth.
Closest approach to Pluto on Tuesday is set for exactly 11:49:59 GMT (12:49:59 BST; 07:49:59 EDT).
A successful rendezvous will complete the reconnaissance of the "classical nine planets", with every one then having been visited by a probe at least once.
The last major world to get this treatment was Neptune, which was passed by Voyager-2 in 1989 on its way out into deep space.
The BBC will be screening a special Sky At Night programme called Pluto Revealed on Monday 20 July, which will recap all the big moments from the New Horizons flyby.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos