Read about my preparations to speak and exhibit at the Mind Body Soul show at Olympia on the 15th/16th November.

Getting closer! This time a week ago I was having a minor panic about getting the graphics off to the printer. I am pleased to say that all that is now complete and the said banners are due to be dispatched to me on Wednesday. This achievement was not without its minor panics during the week: my designer discovered that the printer needed the files in an unusual format which caused his computer some grief and then it took two days for the printing company to confirm that they had received everything they needed. Fingers crossed for the rest of the work!

Postcards were also dispatched to the printer this week and I have received them already. On the front side is a picture of people made from plasticine playing a plastincine piano and cello. Given that I’m all about encouraging my clients to get creative I love this picture. However, on the finished product the placing of the picture is a touch low on the card leaving a little bit too much white space at the top. This is my fault because I did not check the proof properly; I was so concerned with getting the layout and wording right on the other side that I overlooked this detail. Still – it’s close enough. I’ve had 5000 printed and 8000 people go through the doors of the Mind Body Soul show so I’m hoping to offload as many as possible and for the next print run I’ll get everything better positioned. Never let perfection get in the way of success!

My task this week was to source promotional pens and magnetic Lead The Life badges for my helpers to wear. This proved very interesting. It is surprising how many companies you can come across that just don’t want your business. In order to find some recommended companies that other people had used I searched the Ecademy Blackstar forum to see if anyone else had asked for similar recommendations. The first one I found was from a company called Kufflink. Their website gave no product details but just had a form in which you could enter your enquiry and they would get back to you. Have I heard from them? No.

The second recommendation was Recognition Express. They have an excellent website and a lot of pens at various prices. I searched through, picked out the one I was interested in and performed an online quote where they promise to get back to you with a price. I also found a website called The Printed Pensite. That was also very good and I again requested a quote on-line.

The only problem with online quotes is that you don’t get an instant response. Now I’m a busy lady and I needed the information there and then. So I rang up Recognition Express, spoke to a very helpful man called Chris, emailed him my logo and he said he would get a quote back to me. Have I heard from him? No.

I also called up The Printed Pensite. I spoke to a lovely man called Phil who had received my online request and was just about to call me. We talked more about my requirement he sent me a couple of quotes and also reduced a couple of the charges when I told him I was waiting on another quote. I waited until the next day. I had got nothing back from Recognition Express so I phoned the lovely Phil, placed my order and the pens will be with me in a few days time. The lesson – if you don’t respond quickly then your competitor gets the order.

For some reason the graphics side of the exhibition prep had been the most difficult and a bit out of comfort zone for me to deal with. It is with great relief that I finished the week with it all completed and now awaiting delivery from various printers. On next week’s blog I hope to be enthusing about just how fabulous the banners are.