Building Blocks

I've never been quite sure of the actual value of memberships of business bodies. The benefits have always seemed a little less than those promised, especially when weighed against the costs of participation, which can run from free to a few hundred £ a year. There is also the small matter of time commitments (getting to events, etc), but you can get out a lot if you put in some well-directed efforts.

Being part of the Chamber of Commerce certainly didn't hurt in our being helped by Business Link to initiate Junkk.com. But I have to say I have ceased to go to many of their breakfast meetings any more, as there are only so many life coaches, bank managers and teenage web developers I can face paying £15 and getting up at 6am to drive 20 miles to meet.

But there is no subsitute at our stage for networking (and what could be a more tangible example than our fortcoming exhibitions stands). And one organisation that is bearing fruit is by our being a member of the FPB. And as what goes around comes around, I happily promote them here.

Making it happen took a lot of persistence and work on both sides, but it has resulted in the following feature. Not bad, even if we do say so ourselves.

And it has kinda of snowballed, bringing in many other stands. For instance, we were immediately contacted by another member, Melanie Murrell of Innotec, and as a result a truly delightful and ever-evolving synergy has developed.

Her company have a product which essentially enables the repair of pretty much any plastics. And with a vast number of items made from plastic being discarded unnecessarily due to relatively minor, repairable damage, you can imagine how excited we were simply to feature them as a re:source on Junkk.com.

And now it has already developed much further. For the one month duration of the show we have been keen to 'feature' Junkk.com diRE:ctory clients, and we're pleased that Melanie is keen to come on board and arrange some demos.

The show organisers are very keen on our message of re:pair and re:use (even higher up the re:tree than re:cycling), and have already expressed an interest in our 'product' range for some PR events, including their Green Catwalk show on press day.

Hence Melanie is teaming up with us to try and make a gob-smacking demo model of one of my latest ideas, the Vac:Sac, which is a clamshell rucksack made out of an an old vacuum.

I'm pleased to say we are also getting many other businesses keen to be a part of our roadshow. Hopefully we'll hear from more like Melanie via the FPB. 

It's just what we'd hoped for; acting as a matchmaker between those with ways to re-something away from the landfill, and those who are looking for ideas to help the environment ... and their pockets. Better yet if we can come up with ways via the site to link complementary enterprises together.