Malta – new business by the sea – at one time I was very fortunate to be posted to Malta where I was involved with the official opening of a new business in amazing offices overlooking the harbour.  Organising a television crew, writing a brief for the Minister and dealing with the needs of international guests were part of this fantastic experience.  This was one of several international events, the others were in the US, where I quickly learnt to deal with interesting and unusual requests from the guests – the answer is of course “yes we can” then with great support from local hoteliers and colleagues we made sure it did happen.

Cars – I may not be a petrol head but I can appreciate the sleek lines of a gleaming car and the excitement it can create. For one client my role was to ensure that our great ideas to help launch the new VW Golf and then a new Audi were practical and achievable; we also had to create interest with the media.  Lofty chilly showrooms become more inviting with live music in the background, a fantastic new product and some delicious easy to eat nibbles as well as a small drink; but it is the interaction of the showroom and support staff with customers that really makes the evening buzz and hopefully lead to test drives and sales.

Food – a great place to launch a new food product is the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham, but it is not enough to have a great stand with smiling faces and special offers we also needed to create interest with a wider circle of visitors and chefs.  Samples were left in the press office and we worked with the “chefs’ table” organisers so that a product was placed on each table at the brunch event for guests to sample.

A forgotten product attracted more attention – one of our favourite chefs demonstrated a special trifle with a jar of Tiptree Apricot Conserve on her tray of ingredients; with the directors beside me to enjoy our short moment of glory as chef used the product, the jar remained unopened.  I think it created as much interest by being forgotten, as members of the audience were ticking off every product being used and they must have been focusing on the unopened jar and wondered why it remained intact. Sometimes mistakes create more interest!