Sunny Italy!

Been meaning to blog every since we all got back from sunny Italy! What a delightful two weeks, sunshine, sunshine, sunshine - great food, great wine and more sunshine! La Passione (http://www.lapassionevilla.co.uk/) really is the most wonderful place to rent - glorious house with pool, tennis court and olive grove, in the middle of nowhere in Le Marche where no-one speaks English - tested my pigeon Italian somewhat. Only when you get away do you realise the benefits of switch-off time, only two weeks later and I'm still sitting at my computer at 7.30 p.m. when I really should have a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, oops sorry Prosecco in my hand! My children are having a wonderful summer despite the UK's somewhat tricky weather - this week it's Rutland Water for sailing, windsurfing, kayaking and more high jinks - thank heavens for my husband for sorting it all out for them. Seems a lifetime ago when my summers used to involve lots of sailing, canooing, haymaking and harvesting - suppose it was decades ago - whoops.

Design Leicestershire

Went to the launch of the Design Leicestershire book last night at Athena in Leicester where I bumped into a fellow delegate from the original Microsoft course on blogging that I went on. He asked if I was still musing and I suddenly remembered that actually I haven't blogged for about a month, so it's about time I did!

The book, with its distinctive yellow and black logo, outlines Leicestershire's rich history in design and brings the reader up to date with the movers and shakers in the county's design community today. Why a book in today's internet age? Peter Hogarth, the International Trade Director for UKTI East Midlands got it in a nutshell - yes websites are important, but in his line of work there is still a place for a substantial printed directory with gravitas which international delegations can be shown when they visit the UK and which can be used overseas to generate new business. My copy's on the coffee table in my office and I will be showing it to my overseas clients whenever they visit me.

The design industry contributes a huge amount to the UK economy, as witnessed by the Cox Report. It doesn't just revolve around London, the wealth of great designers and marketers based here in Leicestershire is something we should be shouting about - so I am - consider this shouting!

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.

Love your food?

I'm having a great week, busy but fun - promoting Tuscan pdo/pgi status foods like pecorino cheese, Tuscan ham, honey and chestnuts among others. My client is a consortium of food producers in Tuscany who are introducing their products to the UK market and my job is to help them reach food journalists. There's a cookery school, seminar, in-store tasting and a special menu on offer at restaurants in London for a week of flavour at the end of this month. So if you, like me, enjoy good food and you happen to be in London, why not check out the special Tuscan menu on offer at Caffe Caldesi in Marylebone Lane and at the Metropolitan Group restaurants (Galileo Locanda Toscana in Haymarket, Getti on Marylebone High St and Jermyn St and Zia Teresa in Hans Rd Knightsbridge). It runs from 27th April 2009.

A beautiful Spring morning!

What a difference a bit of sun makes... everyone seems to have more of a spring in their step, including my Springer spaniel puppy. Despite the continuing doom and gloom headlines, most of my clients are looking positively at how to claim and build market share in 2009 and good on 'em. They're the ones who'll come out of this all the stronger.

On Friday night the Leicester Mercury kindly invited me to join them at the East Midlands Women of Achievement Awards in the Walker Stadium - lots of inspiring stories from women who've made a real difference to their communities or their businesses - a great evening. A particular 'well done' to Ellen Bianchini who single handedly set up the Spark Festival in Leicester, a wonderful way of bringing the arts and drama to the children of the region. I became aware of it through The Belmont Hotel which is one of the festival venues and look forward to taking my children to some of the 2009 events.