What will April bring?

March was an interesting month both on a professional and personal basis. On the professional side, lots of international work for my client Las Vegas Market whose August show is coming up fast and on the personal side my first ever rugby tour with my eight year old, with all that involves, like dressing up in strange outfits to follow the team's theme for the weekend. Along with that, despite a tough economy my hospitality industry clients like The Belmont Hotel, Whitwell Hotel & Conference Centre and Halstead House are working hard to ensure that they get more than their fair slice of any cake there might be out there. Vortice's launch of a new compact heat recovery system was well received by developers and contractors who are starting to see the new build and social housing sectors pick up a little and roll on the election so that UK business can stop holding its breath and get on with trading!

St David's Day and the start of Spring!

Somehow St David's Day is always the start of Spring for me. For several years someone I used to work with brought me a bunch of daffodils every March 1st - he's retired now, but I still remember those daffodils! My children are sent to school sporting leeks and I wear my daffodil with pride every St David's Day - a legacy of my childhood in Wales.

It's been a busy start to 2010, this week I've been at Eco-Build at Earls Court, where the best of today's eco friendly building materials have been on show as we strive for carbon neutral homes for the future. My client Vortice launched a new heat recovery system designed to extract the heat from stale air about to be expelled from the house and recirculate it in the fresh air being brought in from outside.

The evenings are getting lighter, snowdrops abound in the garden and somehow there seem to be more productive hours in the day. My next challenge is accompanying my 8 year old son on rugby tour to Torquay, will I ever learn the words to all those songs?

Happy Christmas!

Can it really be a month since I last blogged? I've linked this blog to my client The Belmont Hotel, Leicester, because they're looking particularly Christmassy at the moment as you can see from the photo! They're booked up with Christmas parties, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve activities so lots happening. There's something special about having snow at Christmas - children sledging, parents slithering and sliding along pavements. My colleague Jane and I took our children to Peter Pan at Curve theatre on Saturday - it had a slating from the critics, but we had a wonderful time - sets were great, acting and flying fun and music first class. Yesterday I went on an advanced search engine optimisation course, the third 'tecky' course I've been on recently - so important to keep up to date because everything moves so fast in the virtual world. I'd just like to wish all my clients and friends a very Merry Christmas and let's hope for a Happy and Prosperous 2010!

Juggling work, children and social life

I met Ben Jackson of BBC Radio Leicester yesterday at a business networking lunch and was interviewed for his breakfast show this morning on the topic of women combining a successful family life with a career and social life. The subject came up because it was reported at the weekend that a private school somewhere in the South of England has decided to teach girls of 10 that they can't have all three things. Two out of the three are possible, but not all three together ...

Ben interviewed three of us attending a BNI business lunch to see what our views are - it's hard to cover such a wide topic in a few minutes on radio, but for me the key has been first and foremost a hugely supportive husband, plus organisation and timing! I built my career during my twenties and early thirties and was lucky to have two wonderful children in my late thirties. It 's not always easy to balance everything and there have been times when I've wondered quite how it would all work out, but somehow it has.

These days after school clubs, breakfast and holiday clubs play a big role in helping working Mums to manage their time and we're very lucky that our children's school has a fantastic out of hours club. As far as social life is concerned, in our case much revolves around the children and the local community and whilst there are friends who we don't see as often as we'd like, we recognise that this is just for a short phase whilst our children are young.

So, should young girls be taught that they can't have all three things? No! At the age of 10 I believe that all children should be encouraged to aim high, believe in themselves and work hard towards whatever goals they aspire to. There's plenty of time for them to prioritise and decide what's important to them when they're older.

Well done Design Leicestershire member!

Just been reading today's Marketing magazine and fellow Design Leicestershire member Checkland Kindleysides has won the Marketing Design Excellence Award for 2009 for its fabulous retail design for Timberland at Westfield London. Well done!

For those who don't know, Leicestershire and Rutland are home to the largest design cluster outside London, with award winning retail, textile, product, graphic, architectural and web designers. The Design Leicestershire website is currently being updated and soon anyone looking for cutting edge design from an agency that happens to be based outside London can search the database within one click.http://www.designleicestershire.com

HOW TO BOOST THE COFFERS FOR CHRISTMAS!

After a few months of development, my client Eyewun has just relaunched its fabulous reverse auction website with lots of opportunities to win cash prizes between now and the end of January 2010. In these recession hit times what better to cheer you up than having a go at a fun reverse auction, it might even boost your coffers for Christmas - have a look! http://www.eyewun.co.uk

London Fashion Week

Well done to Mark Fast who caused a stir at London Fashion Week by using a few curvier models (size 12-14) to show his knitwear. There's been a lot of talk about body image, great to see some action and not only did this result in a brilliant PR coup for Mark Fast, but it's also a celebration for 'real women'!