iod convention 2009

Yesterday was the day and a fine old affair it was too… Beautiful weather, a comprehensive array of talented business professionals as the speakers, and a box of guests who were good fun to be with. Well you don’t really want to spend a day in a box with people you’d rather not be with, let’s face it.

The video showreel, in case you missed it up on the BIG screen at the Royal Albert Hall is here and the link to the IoD convention website is here for a more comprehensive overview of the day.

The best part for me, was seeing more than 2000 people drinking Aquapax in one place at one time and smilling while listening to the iconic c-l-i-i-c-c-k noise resounding around the wonderful Royal Albert Hall as the ‘celebrity’ guest speakers opened their Aquapax to refresh themselves on stage. That and listening to Sir Stuart Rose, who made a lot of sense to me! So much so, I’ve even written to him today to try and take his inspiration a little further…

Oh yes and the morning presentation from The King of Shaves Company (Tim Wright) was pretty good too. It’s a good speaker who engages with his audence and doesn’t need to constantly refer to his own notes and Tim is a good speaker.

I hope to put some photos of the IOD convention in the photos section of this blog soon, so do come back to see if you can identify yourself captured on camera…

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an earth day announcement…

As it’s officially earth day, and in consideration of a successful first ever VAT inspection, I figured 2 blogs might be forgiven at this (special to me) time. Besides the video going up on youtube (see the blog below) or check it out on the right – whatever – it’s a great time to talk about nitrates again.

Nitrates are the stuff that differentiates Aquapax from the majority of other bottled waters, mainly because Aquapax is virtually nitrate free (trace elements only) – why, because the water comes from under a nature reserve and there’s no commercial farming in the area! (you mean you haven’t read the package?)

Most of my other references to nitrates have been from very dry and gradually becoming outdated documents from the world health organisation (WHO) or the UK Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) – isn’t inspectorate an odd word?

Check this out for some easy to read self education from those clever folks at Colorado State University, on what nitrates are and why you should probably avoid them. OK there’s no cure for stupidity, but at least try to protect your kids if you have any…

Colorado State is historically an agricultural school, so it’s incumbent on them to be on top of things like this and make it relevant to the public. I do hope you can take the time to read this – and perhaps pass it on to any parents you know who buy bottled water without reading the ingredient list.

‘Think inside the box’ or just drink Aquapax still applies if this is all getting too technical… 🙂

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the video is on youtube…

OK, hardly a press announcement, but it is ‘earth day’ after all and this is our contribution…  Can only hope the site condron picks up on it and we get some ratings for our efforts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTH0GZLRo_M

stay happy – it is a beautiful earth after all and it’s down to you (and me) to keep it this way… 🙂

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a video and a vat inspection…

Not quite sure what’s going on when a relatively small business like ours attracts a call from a VAT inspector but that’s exactly what we’ve got booked in for 2pm tomorrow. I guess it’s because we asked for some money back last quarter (legitimately) but there’s still an anxious feeling about having to go through as much as someone  might care to see in order to satisfy them we’re legit. The worst fear is how long I might have to spend on the subject and what if they don’t have any sense of humour? I’m not sure I know how to be serious for much longer than 2 hours…

On the video front, my pal Al recommended a fantastically talented individual called Maximilian Mortimer to shoot the Aquapax video showreel for the imminent IOD Annual Convention at the Royal Albert Hall. The Institute of Directors conferences are always pretty excellent events and I do hope a certain ‘Sir Stuart’ in the audience ‘gets it’ this year, considering our response from last year’s sponsorship when ‘Sir Bob’ was there, was pretty uneventful.

It’s not so much that people don’t get it, it’s that they consciously choose to trade down to the lower cost plastic option which really gets me. I know it’s laboring the point a little, but it’s the same mentality that keeps sweat shops in business around the world; businesses who don’t care enough to read beyond their own immediate bottom line.

Back to Max, he’s been a pleasure to work with and I’m chuffed with his production which I hope you can link to from here soon. I’ll also pop a link across on the ‘blog-roll’ on the right, in case you might care to help share the video around society. Considering a lady from the valleys has had a hundred million hits with her apparently excellent singing voice, It’s going to be hard to impress anyone unless Aquapax can get a video viewing hit rate at least above a thousand – not counting the 2,000 who will see it at the Albert Hall…

Keep smiling – Friday’s just around the corner… 🙂

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litter on the beaches… who cares anyway?

I found the pre-Easter story quoting statistical ‘evidence’ about litter on UK beaches doubling over the past 14 years pretty disturbing. A little more disturbing is how it made the news for about one whole day!

The worst problem is still cited as being plastic – something anyone living near a beach could have told the researchers for free, yet even with the background of having actually counted it all, I’m not sure who then does what with the information!?

There’s a distinct lack of joined up government thinking out there, with more apparent energy spent briefing mischief on other political parties than actually tackling the real issues. I can’t understand why this report wasn’t used to beat up the government – or might that be because too many politicians of seemingly every party persuasion don’t actually care about anything other than fiddling their own expenses, or trying to justify the same expenses to the media.

‘Come the revolution’, it will be interesting to see whether we the public change enough to begin a real call to account. That includes challenging journalists rather than allowing the media to control whatever they feel like reporting for as long as they feel like reporting it.

You ask why I’m an activist – I ask what’s the alternative?

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a fluttering twittering blog…

been to Holland on business x 2 days
been to NPE show in London x 2 days
been to Peterborough & back – took 7 hours
got lots of follow-up e-mails and calls to make
feet hurt a bit from so much walking but it’s a good hurt
life is still very good & happy Easter to you and yours

ps I saw this ‘mockumentary’ on twitter and thought it was worth sharing – made me smile 🙂

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