New website for enterprise educators UK

Delighted to see the new website for our clients Enterprise Educators UK is now online. This is a great resource for universities throughout the UK. Check it out at www.enterprise.ac.uk there are events, case studies, news and resources galore!

Opening of the Waterhouse Bridge

A lovely celebration for the opening of the restored Waterhouse Bridge today. It was great to see people there from Natural England, Severn Trent Water, Leicestershire County Council, Hoby with Rotherby Parish Council plus lots of others who've played a role in the restoration. Here's a photo in its newfound glory.

Taking time out

It's all too easy to get swallowed up in the day to day running of your company, I can't believe it's October already but I am very pleased that I've taken some time out over the last few weeks to attend a couple of events that are outside the 'day job'. The first was an Integra event held in Leicester at which the speaker was Deb Leary OBE, Founder and CEO of Forensic Pathways. Her refreshing account of her career path reminded me of my own and highlighted how sometimes being in the right place at the right time can transform the direction of your business and your life.

That event led nicely to one I attended yesterday at Nottingham University's conference centre, organised by UKTI, the subject matter was 'Sell British - using technology to go global'. There's no doubt that selling British goods and services abroad is vital to transforming the fortunes of our economy and I for one love the work that Nicky Stephen Marketing does for World Market Center Las Vegas. We were in the right place at the right time, recommended by a British journalist, we met the client in 2005 just before launch of Las Vegas Market and we now help them reach their international audience through PR, marketing and advertising in Asia, Australasia, Latin America, Canada and Europe. Technology has certainly been pivotal to the way we communicate worldwide.

Beautiful West Wales

A short weekend break in beautiful West Wales and we visited a wonderful gallery run by Suzi Park showing work in ceramics, textiles, glassware, jewellery and art as part of the Riverside Festival in Cardigan. The gallery is also online and features work from recent graduates as well as more established artists - take a look http://www.suzipark.co.uk/

It's Vegas baby!

Where else could I possibly be this week but at World Market Center Las Vegas?

A great turnout of buyers and press from around the world at the USA's favourite furniture and furnishings show. I've been thrilled to welcome international journalists on my client's behalf from Italy, Thailand, China, Germany, the UK, Brazil, Belgium and Canada and I think they're having a great time! Last night's highlight was a keynote speech and question and answer session with Bill Clinton - what an amazing evening.

Silver medal for LOROS Garden of Light and Reflection

What a week! It's certainly been a great one for the team behind the LOROS Garden of Light and Reflection which has been at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show all week - a silver medal for the show garden. Featured last night on BBC2, the garden is looking fabulous and I had the pleasure of being 'on duty' there on Tuesday, meeting the RHS members and explaining about the therapeutic planting and special features which will travel back to Leicester to their permanent home at the LOROS hospice in the Autumn. Have a look, it's all online at http://www.lorosgarden.org.uk/ - we're still fundraising, so all donations gratefully received, there's a link to the Virgin Money online donation facility on the website.

It may be June, but we're already thinking Christmas!

It may only be June, but for some of our clients we're preparing for Christmas. The Belmont Hotel in Leicester for example has just launched its Christmas party brochure, together with a teaser video.

The Bowie family which runs the hotel took over the business in 1934, so it's particularly fitting that they should choose a 1930s style Christmas this year. It'll be glamorous, sophisticated and fun - Christmas parties where you can elect to dress in costumes of the era or simply look lovely in your party frocks!

For a taste of what to expect, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2g7_j8x5Gg or if you'd like a laugh, have a look at the 'making of' video on our facebook page

LOROS Hospice Garden Appeal - event on 29th May

If you love inspiring gardens, then it's worth a trip to Wing in Rutland on Sunday to the preview of the Art Dejardin summer garden sculpture exhibition. A fund-raiser for the LOROS Garden Appeal, the garden which is at 5 Top Street in Wing will be open from 12-3.00 p.m. and entry is by donation of a minimum of £4.50 per person which is the normal ticket price. All proceeds will be going to the LOROS Hospice Garden Appeal. There will be wine, canapes and music and a fabulous six acre sculpture garden. Well worth a visit - http://www.artdejardin.co.uk/ and it's all in aid of http://www.lorosgarden.org.uk/

Cape Westerly's new summer collection

Fab new summer collection has just been launched by my client Cape Westerly. Some really cool colours for what I hope will be a hot summer! Polo shirts, short sleeved rugby shirts and an extremely robust sailing jacket - just what I need for my sailing holiday!

The model stopped for a coffee and seems to have caught a duck!

Great Pageantry

We Brits do know how to do pageantry don't we? I loved the Royal wedding last week and did all those girly things like comment on people's outfits and hats and sip champagne! But I also loved it because the bride and groom managed to make it feel like a very personal wedding, which of course is what's it's really all about. I haven't heard a single bad comment about it from anyone this week - everyone seemed to have enjoyed the additional time off work and got into the whole spirit of the event. Well done the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!

Social media strategy

Went to a great online conference on Monday this week - it's one of several online events we attend during the year, simply to ensure that we're up to date with what's new and what's happening online. The most interesting elements really were how vital 'social' is becoming for online strategy and also how mobile is becoming more and more important. Speaking as someone who has just about got to grips with my i-phone two years after buying it, I can see that for the younger generation mobile is the 'big thing', but I'm sure there will still be a few Luddites around for whom a mobile is about making and receiving telephone calls! I'll watch this space ...

LOROS Garden Appeal

The LOROS Garden Appeal launched last week - this is a great project which will see a beautiful LOROS garden installed at the RHS Hampton Court Show in July and then moved to its permanent home at LOROS (Leicestershire & Rutland hospice) in Leicester. It is widely acknowledged that time spent within or looking at a beautiful garden can help a patient come to terms with an incurable illness and can provide a restful retreat for visitors and staff. Three garden designers & landscapers have come together to provide their services free in order to raise the profile of LOROS and provide a lasting feature at the hospice. There are lots of sponsorship and donation opportunities but for any keen gardeners the team is also looking for volunteers to help plant the garden once it's back in Leicester.

I'd like to thank Rupal Rajani of BBC Radio Leicester who helped us get the appeal off to a great start with the feature on her programme last week! Find out more on www.lorosgarden.org.uk

Woodgate Chambers, Loughborough

I went to a lovely event this afternoon, the grand opening of the Glebe House Project's Woodgate Chambers which is the conversion of the old Magistrates Court in Loughborough. Woodgate Chambers is a wonderful historic building and now houses a cafe, fairtrade shop, e-bay shop and facilities for clients of Glebe House which provides services for children and adults with learning disabilities. The event was organised by Glebe House's excellent Project Co-ordinator Alyson Hunter and the official ribbon cutting was carried out by Nicky Morgan MP.

The most exciting part of the project is that clients of Glebe House have the opportunity to undertake work in the cafe, the shop and the e-bay shop and it opens doors for them that otherwise wouldn't have been there. So, if you're looking for somewhere to pop in for coffee in Loughborough, look no further than Woodgate Chambers in the town centre and have a browse around the fairtrade shop too.

Furniture and Furnishings galore!

It's furniture and furnishings galore next week, with both the Interiors Show here in the UK and Las Vegas Market in Sin City opening on Monday. I look forward to catching up with all my furniture buddies, but in Birmingham not Las Vegas this time, I'll be back in LV in August!

World Market Center Las Vegas promises some fantastic new products from around the world, with deluxe design in Building B on the second floor leading the way with 'Design & Living.' There are some great seminars and events and as usual amazing hospitality - enjoy!

Singing lifts the spirits!

As a Welsh woman I've always been fond of a song or two, often accompanied by watching a rugby match! Had a great time on Saturday afternoon on a 'Come and Sing' day with the Leicester Bach Choir. Remarkably, despite very limited rehearsal time, we managed to put on a pretty good performance of Puccini's Messa di Gloria. Enormous thanks to the conductor Richard Laing who somehow managed to pull many singers who were sight reading like me together with those who've performed it before, to great effect. The tenor soloist Roberto Garcia Lopez was fantastic and my friend and I left feeling that our spirits were lifted!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my clients! Hope you all have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011. Looking back at 2010, it wasn't all doom and gloom, although for many clients there was a fair share of that - but for all of them, there was an opportunity to revisit what they're doing, look closely at their core business and choose their preferred areas for growth. That's where we come in and 2011 is all about concentrating on growth and development and building brands, so cheers to that!