Google conference

Went to a great google conference called 'Survival of the Fastest' in London this month as part of my striving to keep up to date with what's what in new media! The speakers were really good - the sessions were focussing on adwords and Arjan Dijk of Google started with an overview of the marketplace and an explanation of how google can have a huge impact on trading within a recession. Two case studies from Chemist Direct www.chemistdirect.co.uk and from Big Red Book www.bigredbook.com were fascinating as was a fictitious case study presented by two googlers.

For me, the most valuable lesson was that Google exists and has a presence in the UK and Ireland - so many people cold call our office trying to sell us google related 'expertise' that it was refreshing to find that it's actually quite easy to talk to a real googler! I'll be putting my new found expertise into action very soon ...

What a great foodie week last week!

What a great foodie week it was last week. The Italian Chamber of Commerce had set up a cookery school at Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi's La Cuccina Caldesi on Marylebone Lane and Jane and I joined food journalists and enthusiasts for some lessons in making ravioli, a main course of chicken stuffed with pecorino cheese and wrapped in proscuitto and some melt in the mouth 'pudding'. All used protected status (PDO/PGI) foods from Tuscany and the quality of the ingredients really sang through. As a reward for our hard work cooking all afternoon, we were driven to Bray to Caldesi in Campagna for a mouthwatering meal with the food producers and journalists. (http://www.caldesi.com/)

The next day saw a seminar at the City Inn Hotel where food experts talked to us about the EU scheme of protected status foods and we got to sample the Tuscan PDO/PGI foods in particular. Helen joined Jane and I to welcome the journalists attending and we had a really interesting day, broadening our food industry experience still further.