So if you’re interested in posts about PR, networking and how technology is changing our world, click through to http://phinesspr.co.uk/prblog/

If you’re interested in reading and sharing your mountain biking, walking and rock climbing experiences, stay where you are.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to wear a helmet.

However, as a PR professional, I was intrigued to see that this information was elicited via a Freedom of Information request by Lewis PR.

There were three companies quoted in the article: criticising the department and citing best practice on device encryption and remote locking and wiping of devices that are reported lost or stolen. Out of interest I Googled each company and each was a client of Lewis PR.

Rather than “issues highjacking” and providing clients’ responses to breaking news, this was a extremely carefully planned campaign that created an opportunity for 3 clients to comment on the same story.

This got me thinking. With the current “bonfire of the quangos” heralding the demise of  17 advisory bodies including BECTA;  the WEEE advisory body and Martha Lane Fox’s digital inclusion campaign (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/19/business-quangos-scrapped-coalition-cuts how much does it cost the UK government, and therefore the tax payer, to respond to FoI queries?

According to the Information Commissioner’s Office FAQs site, FoI requests will be answered free of charge, save the cost of printing, copying and postage, up to a limit of £600 per request for central government departments or up to £450 for other public authorities.

“Where the limit is not exceeded, the only charges that can be passed to you are those associated with providing the information, for example photocopying and postage. These are collectively known as disbursements.” – Information Commissioner’s Office, FAQs (http://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/faqs/freedom_of_information_act_for_the_public.aspx)

But how many people are employed to respond to these queries? And how is this cost recouped?

Journalists are always telling PRs that they need facts and figures to back up stories and clearly the FoI request service has provided a useful mechanism for bringing important data into the public domain.

However, while UK government departments’ budgets are being slashed to the bone, how long will this be available free of charge to PRs?

The lines between Search and PR are blurring

Last night Daryl addressed PRs at the CIPR’s Social Summer Series and shared with them the statistics from press releases posted to Features Exec’s press release distribution service. He cites 20 per cent of the press releases are now coming from search marketing agencies rather than pure PR players. Daryl concludes that only 67 per cent of press releases distributed via SourceWire in May 2010 contained embedding links, thus limiting the SEO of the content.

He reasons that this could be because of a disconnect between marketing staff, who are used to using SEO to lift sales by driving traffic to their Websites and PR staff who are in the business of cultivating relationships and managing reputations on behalf of their clients.

In summary, Willcox found that while 89 per cent of the press releases distributed via Sourcewire contained links to client websites, only  67 per cent contained embedded links, which help to provide journalists with additional information and drive traffic to clients’ sites. While the May tally represents a 50 per cent increase in the use of embedded links since 2007, Willcox questions what the other 33 per cent of Sourcewire users are doing.

One of his audience commented that because of the disconnect between the marketing and PR departments of larger companies,  the smaller companies will be the first to demonstrate integration and innovation in PR and search marketing, because marketing is often managed by a single person with responsibility for both.

From my own conversations with smaller businesses, it certainly would appear that the smaller the business the better their handle on social media, search and PR (in that order). A recent pitch to a small information security company (with big name clients) revealed that even though they claimed they’d “done no PR,” they were already using a search agency extremely successfully and seeing measurable increases in traffic to their website, as well as forging strong relationships with their core press contacts by providing timely comment on industry issues and breaking news. The key point is that their investment in search marketing preceded their formal search for PR.

They’re a small company, they understand search marketing and they blend this with their PR, without using a large agency. This is precisely the wake up call that Daryl Willcox, Seth Godin and Philip Sheldrake are talking about. What are you seeing? Are smaller companies leading the way in the integration of PR and search?

Last night we returned from our first mountain biking trip to Spain, guided by Martin Hills, founder of Singletrack Safari. In that week, I’ve cycled higher than I ever thought I was capable of, been followed by eagles, encircled by vultures, developed a wary attitude towards caterpillars and been treated to a close encounter with a family of wild boar as they thundered across the singletrack I was descending. In other words, it was a bloody brilliant holiday.

Martin has spent two years getting to know the areas that he guides in, walking alone up trails that scale heights above 1000m, with views over opal green lakes, gorges and olive groves and picking out the best singletrack descents, with accessible climbs on double track. The “Tapas” title accurately describes a week that provides you with the opportunity to sample a huge variety of riding terrain: rocky gorges; technical descents; Roman viaducts; fast flowing dusty singletrack, with rooty sections for added interest; flower filled meadows and (my personal favourite) a descent down the steps of a medieval town, Italian Job stylie. Each ride concludes with a stop in a superb restaurant, where Martin’s love of the country and command of the language has earned him and his clients a warm welcome and a cold cerveza, with delicious tapas.

Each ride is cleverly designed to finish at a bar

Singletrack Safari's Pimpmobile

The holiday began when Martin picked us up at Malaga airport in what I can only describe as a Pimp- Your-Ride-dream-come-true. His long wheelbase black VW transporter is emblazoned with pictures of Martin and other mountain bikers silhouetted against Alpine and Spanish lake views, just to wet your whistle.  Inside, there are three rows of seats and a flip down video screen and superb sound system to entertain you as he drives you North to the first stop in Cabra, near Cordoba, where he swiftly rebuilds your bike and points out any tweaks that might be required to ensure that you enjoy your riding to the max. The hotels have been carefully researched so that you have a comfortable place to relax at the end of each day’s riding, with Martin expertly guiding you through the Spanish menus, providing his own recommendations and teaching you enough of the language that you can make your own choices on the evenings when you venture out on your own.

One of the funniest moments on the trip was when we were pulled over by the Civil Guard for a routine stop and search on the motorway outside Cordoba. As we slowed to a stop, I noticed the “shiny kit” gleam in the policeman’s eye. Martin leaned across with an impish grin: “Te gustas?”      “Si me gusto”, laughed the policeman. After a quick admiration of the van and contents, we were back on our way.

As a mountain biker with two decades’ experience, Martin knows exactly what makes his clients tick. So he started the week with a 782m ascent of a mountain track up to a monastery, followed by a rocky step descent to the road then a ride across flower filled meadows with vultures circling high above us. This led to a gorge populated by huge caves on either side, with the rock walls forming a window onto the beautiful town of Zuheros, with its fort perched on a rock outcrop.

Zuheros peeping through the gorge

After negotiating a rocky descent with switch backs we made a sweaty climb back up to the church, where we were rewarded with the best lunch of the week at Los Palancos: a restaurant so popular, that professional footballers are helicoptered in to visit it. As a climber, I was intrigued to see that the locals had bolted handholds to the overhanging rock below the fort. They would certainly make a raid more entertaining.

After lunch, Martin led us back to the hotel via a disused railway track, passing the old station converted into a cafe and stopping on the viaduct to point out the monastery that had marked the highest point of our circular route. After a 44km ride in 35⁰C heat, we were glad to be able to have a hot shower and take a dip in the hotel pool before venturing out for our evening meal.

The next day was a shorter route in Cordoba, starting with a steady climb up to woodland and a fast flowing descent on dusty tracks, which my husband dubbed his favourite ride. Throughout the rides, Martin fills you in on the information that you need for the next section: “this bit is quite technical, there’s a boulder about the size of a car bonnet in the path after you pass a cave on your right, so hold down your speed before the corner.” He seems to have a photographic memory of the trails and knows exactly where to stop to brief you on the tricky sections, which is why I have returned with even fewer scrapes and bruises than I do after my local rides.

One of Martin’s ambitions was to be a cameraman and he puts that to good use during the trip, taking photos at strategic spots so that he captures the essence of each trail. This is really an excellent service, as it’s often hard to capture the best parts of each route without impeding the flow of your riding. He spends hours editing videos of his clients’ epic descents so that they have a memento of the trails, as well as providing feedback on body positioning so that clients can improve their technique where necessary.

An important snippet of information Martin imparted, as we took a rest stop and munched chocolate doughnuts, was that Andelucian pine trees play host to a species of caterpillar that build a cobwebby nest in the branches and then at the appointed time in gestation, march nose to tail across the paths. If they are ridden over, or landed on, their blood is necrotising: “I saw a dog with half a jaw that had eaten one of these caterpillars” said Martin. Point taken.

Revenge of the killer caterpillars

Day 3 and Martin’s itinerary skills came to the fore. We packed up and left the Cabra hotel and travelled to Grenada, en route to our next hotel stop in Fatima on the outskirts of Castril. Granada offered up an absolutely stunning trail, that started in the town, took in a winding ascent up red dusty single track, with tantalising views of the snow capped Sierra Nevada. Towards the top we crossed two Roman aquaducts and saw a hole in the trail with brick work inside, reminiscent of school trips to Vindolanda fort on Hadrian’s wall. After a lunch stop at the top we were treated to the best singletrack I have ever ridden, snaking round the back of the mountain, with a huge monastery across the valley, the Alahambra fort just ahead and the hill side sloping away to our right covered in meadow flowers.

Monastery in Granada. Could this be the best singletrack in the world?

Round the back of Alahambra is a paved street which gave a fun descent down the steps and then a climb back up to the old Moorish town on the opposite side of the valley, where we could take in the full glory of Alahambra and the Sierra Nevada while tucking into ice cream. Another staircase descent led to a leafy street, where the best beer and tapas of the week was served up while we had a competition to take the most “arty” shots of our bikes through the beer glasses. Then it was back down to the Pimpmobile for the short drive to our next hotel and a welcome rest day, spent walking above the Castril gorge on a cantilevered boardwalk.

Castril, recognisable by the statue of Jesus on the pinnacle above the gorge, is surrounded by mountains. Martin led us up two on our final days of the trip, both covering around 35km with climbs above 1,000m. My favourite took in a long ascent through a gorgeous wooded valley, offering shade and pine scents and topping out at meadow filled with purple flowers, followed by a technical but very enjoyable descent through rocky singletrack with views of the opal green reservoir, which my husband again dubbed his favourite ride of the week. http://www.singletracksafari.com/photo-gallery/spanish-trail-tapas/on-the-trails

Opal green lake provides the backdrop to glorious descents

Our final day took in another mountain above Castril, with an hour long descent with 21 switch backs, which my husband also dubbed his favourite ride of the week. As I turned out of one of the bends I was treated to the sight of a family of wild boar hurtling down across the path into the undergrowth. They are hunted by Andelucians so they are naturally timid and it’s rare to get a glimpse of them in the wild. As I was told by Richard at Cyclewise as he battled to teach me how to ride berms, “mountain biking is just skiing on a bike.” Martin Hills has put together routes that admirably prove that point.

All too soon, it was time to fold our clothes and pack the bikes back into their boxes. Martin gives a step by step guide to doing this safely, not to say lovingly on his website: http://www.singletracksafari.com/video-gallery . After a final café con leche and a hug and kiss from the super friendly hotelier, it was time to trek back to catch our flight to Malaga – a journey made much more pleasurable by the Pimpmobile and sound system.

Six hours later as we pushed against a stack of mail to open our front door, we were pleased to see that the latest issue of MBR had arrived. After a hastily prepared supper, we sat down to read it and were delighted to see that Singletrack Safari has been reviewed on page 28. It’s a great piece of coverage, but doesn’t do Martin’s carefully prepared itinerary justice. Over the course of 5 rides we were guided around 103 miles of trails, 3 miles of which were spent cycling uphill, all for under £500 each, including 7 nights’ accommodation and hotel transfers. If you want to get away from the crowds while still staying in good hotels; improve your riding style and stamina; get a lesson in Spanish language, geology and history; eat the best tapas of your life and ride in parts of Andelucia, Cordoba and Granada that even the locals don’t see very often, then I can’t recommend SingleTrack Safari highly enough.

Update: you can read Martin’s side of the story here http://www.singletracksafari.com/2010-06/our-spring-in-spain-draws-to-a-close#more-1376

Alhambra, Granada, with snow capped Sierra Nevada in the background

Four weeks, four shows, four press rooms. First it was SelfBuild and Renovation, then InfoSec, then it was Grand Designs Live, then it was IFSEC.  Yes it’s been a busy month.

What struck me this year was that in spite of the exponential increase in storage capacity on ever smaller devices, we’re still stuck in the groove of printing off press packs and sticking them on racks in a room ten minutes’ walk from the main exhibition space. Perhaps it’s a comfort factor: maybe clients need to see their professionally printed press releases side by side with their competitors’ news to feel that they’re fully participating in the event. However, this year I really got the feeling that this practice has to stop.  How many emails do you see with this appended?

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

And yet, we’re still firing off urgent emails to KallKwik requesting a quarter of our body weight in paper, so that we can courier 50 press packs up to Earls Court, Olympia, Excel Centre or the NEC and place them lovingly on a crowded rack in the press room. From experience, the rack is the only thing that is crowded.  I’ve been to all of these venues in the past month and the press offices were the same:  empty of journalists, but full of employees of the event management company and on the last day of the show still sadly displaying reams of uncollected press packs. Okay, InfoSec was the exception: there were plenty of journalists in the press office throughout the show, but I didn’t see any of them studying the printed press packs. They were all busily networking with colleagues, conducting interviews or reading press releases on their mobile devices.

I think today’s blog from Andy Clutton, editor of Risk UK, sums up the way forward:

“The award for the most useful innovation of IFSEC 2010 goes to the event organisers for making the decision to switch from a paper-based Press Office to a single USB pen. No more walking around the show looking like an overzealous postman for me this year; just one handy USB device, containing 189 press packs.” http://www.risk-uk.com/newsletterdetail.php?newsID=240

What do you think, should the PR industry collectively abandon the press pack in favour of email and social media alerts ahead of shows and portable storage devices on the day?

As a Goldsmiths alumnus I was really interested to watch this and compare it with the fine art tutorials I had heard my friends relay as they struggled to find their voice in this competitive and confusing market. What was surprising was how much the Goldsmiths style has endured.

I vividly remember a debate in the Goldsmiths bar, at the start of the 1990s, about whether projecting images onto a canvas and painting the outline constituted fine art.  Here we were in 2010 watching former police armour designer, Thomas Leahy, projecting images onto canvas and painting the outline.

It was painful to witness Leahy’s confusion as he tried to understand what was required of him by his tutors and switched from sculpture which was deemed “too literal,” to blasting a camouflage patterned canvas with a paint gun. This was followed by the complete change in degree show exhibition induced in painter, Ian Gonczarow, by director of postgraduate studies, Gerard Hemsworth.

After watching the programme, one could argue that the Goldsmiths style is created by a process of extrusion, following acerbic tutorials with Gerard and the mounting pressure of one of the most famous student exhibitions in the UK.

Last week’s episode ended with Ian Gonczarow living the dream and selling two of his paintings at the private view and landing a job as a tutor at a foundation course in Russia.

What did interest me was how neatly Gonczarow’s case study fitted the 5 P’s marketing model.

Product- Gonczarow had produced two very strong paintings that fitted the West’s current malaise over the Chinese regime

Place – Goldsmiths is no longer just a university: boasting alumni including Damien Hurst, Sarah Lucas, Tracy Emin, Rachel Howard, Graham Coxon and Alex James, Goldsmiths is a brand. What better place to launch your product to the art market?

Promotion – A BBC 4 documentary crew and one of the most well publicised art exhibitions in the country, attracting buyers and curators

People – As Hemsworth comments, much of the successful promotion of work comes down to the interpersonal skills of the artist. Gonczarow has an attractive personality; is able to articulate his work effectively and comes across well on camera.

Price – This is perhaps where the curriculum could benefit from some business input. Gonczarow made £3,000 selling his degree show paintings, with a little help from Hemsworth. But when the buyer initially approached him he had no idea what his work was worth.

So watch the programme at 9pm tonight and decide for yourself: is it art? Or is it marketing?

The last twelve months have brought the passing of the beloved wife of my former boss; the sudden death of a longstanding client and news of mobile tech editor, Lynd Morley’s death, but I really wasn’t prepared for this week’s loss.

On Thursday morning, I was really saddened to learn that Guy Kewney, editor of Newswireless.net had died.

Guy was one of the very first journalists I met during my Whiteoaks days, when we were representing Extended Systems. In spite of his 20 years’ experience in the computing and electronics arena, he sat and patiently listened as I pitched him about this new mobile synchronisation middleware. Had I had any inkling of the ocean of knowledge that Guy possessed on all things mobile, I would have been hard pressed to pick up the phone. But call I did, and to my relief and delight, he agreed to meet my client. It was the beginning of many meetings, the most memorable being the day that Guy doggedly criss crossed the road between the Hilton and Olympia’s exhibition hall, on his way to interview no fewer than 6 of eclat Marketing’s mobile tech clients.

In fact, I have Guy to thank for “coming out” as a grey haired old lady.

My mother died from bowel and liver cancer when I was in my early twenties. Two weeks before she died, I sprouted two distinct sections of white hair. During one of my final visits, I showed her, exclaiming, “Look Mam, I’ve got horns”. After years of painful parenting, a big grin spread across her face. As they say, Karma knows where you live.

For years, I dyed over the top of my white mop, until I met Guy.

After a particularly hectic fortnight of press tours, I had not had time to cover the regrowth.  I sat across the table from Guy in Carluccios, with the sun streaming through the window on a beautiful summer’s day and attempted to get an interview started. But Guy had other ideas. An impish look had come across his face and he looked away from my client mid question and exclaimed: “How curious. I’ve never seen a brunette go blonde before”. I said quietly, “It’s grey Guy”. He carried on with his questions, then stopped again, cocked his head on one side and said, “That’s really curious”. He was clearly enjoying watching me squirm, so I said a bit louder, “It’s grey, I haven’t been a natural brunette since I was 21”. He was greatly amused and went back to interviewing my client, then had a chuckle with me about it afterwards.

That evening I went home, binned the L’Oreal and went back to my roots. The game was up.

In spite of his towering reputation and huge understanding of his subject(s), Guy was always patient with my pitches on the phone and kindly in person. It was never stated, but he seemed to take the view that if you were doing your best to get your head around the information and present him with the most pertinent parts of the story, then that was good enough for him, even if that fell far short of his own encyclopaedic knowledge. I’m not alone in receiving this kindness. The many tributes I’ve read from journalists and PRs are testament to Guy’s support during their early careers.

Last year another journalist told me that Guy had cancer. To my lasting regret, I didn’t call him because I didn’t want to intrude when he was likely to be feeling sapped by his treatment and I didn’t want encroach on his family’s time with him: Mary had fielded enough of my calls when Guy was well. Reading his blog yesterday, I felt truly ashamed that I had not read it months ago and at least sent an email last year, or got in touch in January when he found out that his treatment was no longer working.  I’m sorry Guy. It was a great privilege to meet you and I wish my sincere condolences to your family and many friends.

On Wednesday The Telegraph reported on a new personalised advertising technology being trialled by Japanese technology company NEC http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7411249/Minority-Report-digital-billboard-watches-consumers-shop.htmlThe writer, Andrew Hough, compares it to the futuristic advertising featured in “The Minority Report,” starring Tom Cruise, because the technology uses cameras within billboards that recognise the age and gender of shoppers as they pass and flashes up advertisements targeted at that demographic.

Hough reports that privacy campaigners are against the idea of advertisers tailoring adverts according to a person’s age and gender, in spite of NEC’s reassurances that all facial recognition files will be instantly erased. We all saw what happened with Phorm: (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/06/btgroup-privacy-and-the-net)

On the subject of privacy, Maggie Shiels, the BBC’s Silicon Valley Correspondent reports that Dr Hugh Thompson, a computer security professor at Columbia university, has warned that our anonymity can no longer be guaranteed in the digital age as we scatter digital crumbs, Hansel and Gretel- like through the internet and social media sites. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/03/the_end_of_anonymity.html The professor conducted a privacy experiment with his students: setting them a homework assignment to “pseudo stalk” someone, by piecing together the snippets of digital information that they have given away about themselves online. One student started with someone’s Tweet about redundancies and went on find out that person’s  company, home address and their telephone number as well as uncovering potentially sensitive information about his company’s client.

At the same time, the BBC reports that the UK Cards Association reported that phishing attacks and online banking fraud, using social engineering and spyware, increased by 16 per cent last yearhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8558535.stm.

In the “noughties” the biggest irritation was irrelevant email advertising, or “spam”, leading to the double opt in legislation introduced in the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003 (http://www.out-law.com/page-5657). Advertisers have striven ever since to create adverts that are more tailored to their recipients, using community-based advertising, mobile and location -based information, in an effort to persuade customers to opt to receive their messages.

Advertisers strive to learn more about consumers so that messages can be personalised, but this information is just as valuable to cyber thieves

It’s a double edged sword: on one side we have advertisers desperate to personalise their messages to recipients in an effort to move from “interruption marketing” to “permission marketing” (a term coined by Seth Godin in 1999). Then we have cyber criminals looking for every crumb of information we expose online.

As these two trends collide, we could have a very dangerous concoction of a cyber criminal who knows exactly who you are, where you shop, your gender, age, what you look like, even your medical conditions. Armed with that level of knowledge, it  would be much easier to craft a social engineering attack that catches you completely unaware and lures you into entering your password and login details into a bogus site. The recent Twitter exploit was a perfect example. Twitterers received a message supposedly from a follower, stating: “Lol, is this you?” with a link to a malicious site that prompted them to enter their Twitter user name and password. Web and email security firm, M86 Security, has long warned of the threat posed by these “blended threats”: messages that appear to be relevant and come from a legitimate source, but which contain links to Websites infected with malware and spyware (http://www.m86security.com/blended_threats/index.asp).

Time and again security professionals point to the need for user education, but if a message is so well targeted that it looks like it’s genuinely written just for you, the chances are that you will open it. By tinkering with permission marketing, and tailoring  messages to individuals, have we opened up our lives up to the cyber spies?

No, I have been charmed and disarmed by Aldershot, the military town where I have lived this past decade.

Looking towards Aldershot from Caesar's Camp at sunrise

It all began with a residents’ meeting, where I listened to town centre manager, David Phillips, outlining his plans to improve the presentation and perception of the town centre. David pointed out that, culturally, Aldershot is very well endowed. We are blessed with two live performance venues; a lido; a gymnastics academy; a museum; library and lovely parks.

Of course I knew this already. I’ve been living here for ten years after moving from Alton in Hampshire. I cherish the fact that I have great neighbours, friendly shop keepers and a real sense that people are looking out for each other. But, a bit like when a friend points out your partner’s attributes, listening to David made me look at the town with fresh eyes and to resolve to spend a bit more time enjoying the facilities that Aldershot has to offer. Here’s a run down of the past week when I did precisely that:

On Sunday 7^th Feb I accompanied my husband on my mountain bike as he set off to sample the delights of Tweseldown in the 24 hour respite between snow and rain. The local kids have been hard at work building new jumps ramps and trails and we still can’t believe how lucky we are to be able to cycle up on top of Caesar’s camp and look across to Guildford cathedral and the North Downs, knowing that we’re only two miles from our front door. In fact we once got up before dawn just to watch the sunrise over Tweseldown.

Tweseldown overlooks Aldershot and provides a treasure trove of mountain bike trails

We cycled out as far as Hawley Lake without having to cycle more that 200 metres on tarmac and then came back via the Basingstoke canal, popping out by the striking Wellington monument. According to the Military Museum, this originally graced the corner of Hyde Park, but was moved to Aldershot on the wishes of Queen Victoria.

Aldershot’s links with Waterloo are not limited to statues: hopping on the 8.04am train will see you alighting in central London 40 miles away by 9am. Until EuroStar moved to St Pancras, you could have crossed the platform and been in Paris within a few hours of leaving the town.

On Monday evening I went to watch “Coco before Chanel” at the excellent Prince’s Hall (http://www.princeshall.com). This is a treasured live music and performance venue right on our doorstep that draws audiences from Farnham, Fleet, Ash and Aldershot. And deservedly so, I’ve seen everything from the Russian ballet to an audience with Tony Benn, courtesy of David Phillips’ varied programme of plays, films, lectures and comedy. Tonight Julian Clary is gracing the boards.

On Tuesday, I took my friend out for a coffee at the lovely Coffee Mi on Victoria Road, where we were treated to the strains of Albinoni’s oboe concerto which I haven’t heard since I was 15 years old and working towards my grade 5 (hence the “strains”). http://aldershot-info.com/barsandcafes.html

On Wednesday I popped into the fantastic Marks and Spencers Outlet to get a gift for my friend’s birthday. This store offers such amazing bargains that my aunts once turned up for a “lunch” visit at 4pm guiltily clutching three bags stuffed with jumpers, skirts, socks, slippers and jackets.  If it hadn’t been for work commitments that evening I would probably have gone in for another bout with the Funky End quiz (http://www.thefunkyend.com/index.html.

Geoff, the friendliest barman in the world

Put on by the proprietors, graduates of Farnham University of Creative Arts, the Funky End quiz is a highly entertaining blend of visual, audio, current affairs and word play questions that pits the wits of artists, scientist and soap fans against those with an encyclopaedic knowledge of rock, pop and astronomy. We won once: it was the hardest £20 I ever earned.

On Thursday I had a meeting with my new Aldershot-based client, Eleco (http://www.3darchitect.co.uk ), publisher of the Grand Designs 3D software, used by Tim Bawtree to visualise his underground Cheltenham house http://www.pixahome.com/about.php, which was showcased on the long running Channel 4 programme presented by Kevin McCloud. http://www.channel4.com/4homes/on-tv/grand-designs/episode-guides/cheltenham-the-underground-house-08-06-06_p_1.html. Eleco has recently relocated to Ivy Road from its former premises in Bentley, they still can’t stop smiling when they sit in their roomy new board room for our monthly meetings.

The park leading to the West End Centre on Queen's Road

On Saturday, my husband and I walked through the park to the West End Centre where we watched the magnificent Mabon (www.mabon.org), a modern celtic band, comprising a Scot on bagpipes and wooden flute and 5 Welshmen on accordian, fiddle, guitar, drums and bass, who’d missed the rugby to race down the M4 for the performance. They play a blend of modern reels and Galician tunes, which are aptly described on their website at “Interceltic”. It was a stunning performance to a sizable crowd. At the interval I was joined in the CD queue by two ladies chattering away in French about the performance.

I have watched countless performances at the West End Centre http://www3.hants.gov.uk/westendcentre, including: gigs by The Feeling; Julian Cope; stand up comedy from Stephen Merchant;  Mark Thomas and Richard Herring. No matter how many times I go there, I never get over the fact that I can walk there and back within 5 minutes.

Aldershot suffers from a huge perception issue. Go anywhere in the world and people will be able to tell you it’s the home of the British Army. Go four miles down the road to Farnham and people will pull that face when I tell them where I live. But if like me you love the outdoor life; you love being able to hop on your mountain bike and hit the trails within ten minutes of leaving your house;

Tweseldown boasts a treasure trove of mountain biking trails just two miles from Aldershot town centre

if you love live performance by world class musicians, award winning comedians and national treasures like Sir Patrick Moore; if you like a pint in comfortable friendly surroundings and you like being able to leave the car at home while you enjoy a night out; if you want good direct rail links to London, Gatwick, Farnham,  Ascot, Woking, Guildford; or if you and your friends want to take part in the funniest quiz for miles, then you’d soon fall for the place too.

Over a piece of toast, Andrew explained that while there are plenty of volunteers giving up their time to undertake tasks such as gardening and odd jobs at the Farnham site, what the hospice needs is more regular financial support from local businesses.

The reason for this is stark: although the government provides 16 per cent of its funding, Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice still needs to raise £10.22 a minute to maintain the level of specialist care that it provides to patients, and their families, who are coping with terminal cancer and motor neurone disease.

I suggested that he could make a video showing how businesses of various sizes are already providing regular support, with the aim of sharing fund raising ideas and attracting more business supporters to the hospice. With a twinkle in his eye Andrew said, “So how would that work?” …… All of a sudden I was bitten by the pro bono bug.

Andrew went away and contacted three local companies that provide regular support to Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice: Central Heating Services based in North Camp (http://centralheatingservicesltd.co.uk/index.html ); Novartis based in Frimley (http://www.novartis.co.uk/corporate_citizenship/index.shtml ) and Remington Harrow hairdressers, based in Farnham (http://www.remington-harrow.com) .

We drafted some questions for each of the spokespeople and Matthew Barden at Square Production (http://www.squareproduction.com/ ) stepped in to video the interviews, then undertook some skilful editing to create the finished product which you can watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmGHalHDeeE

Watching the video again, what intrigues me is the reasons that each of the companies gave for supporting Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice: it attracts the right kinds of employees to their companies; it promotes a sense of community among the workforce, it brings in new customers; the fundraising activities are fun in themselves. But the underlying theme from all of the interviews is that donating money, time or skills to help others is good for you.

Over time, being in business purely to make a profit ceases to be a motivator. An entrepreneurial friend of mine warned that after six years of successfully winning business, she hit a wall and found it difficult to summon the same enthusiasm that had inspired her to found her company. Donating some of your revenue, or your accrued skills, to help other people reinvigorates and refocuses us on the bigger picture. What goes around really does come around. And that’s the good of pro bono.