The Write Stuff

Someone (actually a lovely freelance writer called Jo Cantello, who has offered to try and help promote Junkk.com and RE:tie for no more than her own entertainment, another string to a rather humbling bow of support we are bringing to bear in our mission) asked me last night if I'd had a 'productive' week.

If she had used the word 'busy' I'd still be on the floor giggling.

The best I could do by way of reply was to hope that events were still 'promising'.

Thursday I was beeing shot for a few hours by a photographer here, holding the RE:tie, for a possible piece in a national daily (actually, their Sunday Business Section, so a fingers crossed trip to the newsagents tomorrow, even though it may be a tad premature). Then a draining 80 minute interview with the journalist yesterday. No stone was left unturned, nor weakness in strategy exposed, rather proving my point... again... that you can't bang a round peg into a square hole, and it really makes sense to devote more effort now to building a team than making me do stuff I am not very good at. I need Men (or Ladies) in Grey... suits! Who can talk numbers, and IP, etc.

For instance, UKTI has arranged for me to go to Total Packaging at the NEC next week. Assuming the big boss of anything - Tescos, Bottle Top Makers Ltd - is there, and identifiable rather than a face in the crowd, I'm not sure what I do. Rush up with my prototype and say 'Fancy buying this?' I'd get arrested.

But glimmers abound. I had a great chat with the official media editor for the event, Mike Hall of Retail Packaging, and he has offered to usher me around, as well as kindly making intros to people I'd have never found, doing things I didn't know existed, and offering advice and leads I can only dream about. One such is Robin Moorby of Clipper Containers and Closures, who has been more than helpful already. So, busy, yes, and productive... I think so.

Plus the encouraging signs continue. Having moaned about missing all these potentially useful conferences by them being silly money, I have been offered a guest ticket to one biggie by a speaker... via these pages! I just hope it will come off.

And as a further welcome sign that what we are trying to do... and share with a lite green public audience... is being respected and, better yet, valued, a book just plonked in my in-tray for review, totally unsolicited.

By noted enviro-author Leo Hickman, I am hoping to catch a moment to 'relax' this weekend and read it. But I am honour bound to read a few others in the queue first. Plus make a new Vac:Sac as my mobile billboard for next week's show as I'd donated Old Pinky to a Cumbria Recylcing Roadshow. Oh, and do the standby plug tests for my re:view on that. And the low energy bulbs. And the newsletter.....

I think my RSI is coming back.