Good turnout considering many of us only got to bed at midnight or later after tasting the delights of corporate hospitality thanks to Louise Hassett of Delfont Mackintosh and David Coburn of BRX. Our treat was going to see The Jersey Boys at The Prince Edward Theatre – never knew so many songs were done by Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio. After the show, standing out on the balcony overlooking Old Compton Street in the third drinks interlude of the evening would have had anything thinking “what recession?” – it was heaving with people.

The 10 minutes kick off with Fiona Gale of Only Connect Solutions, a communications agency specialising in CR and reminds us that buying decisions are heavily influenced by brand perception. Zoe of Opus Telecomm would still like to talk to small struggling companies to save them money on their telecomms costs while Justin Beavis (Happy Birthday!!) is back from Dubai after talking to potential investors who run leisure parks around the world.

Peter Stephens from the audit part of Sayers Butterworth allows Martin Dunn to have a lie-in and Mab of Olive Communications will let potential customers have a 14 day trial with a new smart phone that integrates with MS Outlook. Yours truly cheers everbody up with the news that the FT-SE 100 index has finally fallen through the psychological barrier of 4,000 reminding everyone again that in2 Consulting is getting a steady stream of calls from people who basically want some reassurance about the interesting times we are living in.

Mike Nightingale of Green Park Insurance Services would like intros to family offices, which work rather like IFAs but deal with all the members of one family rather than a series of diverse individuals. Our copywriter Caroline Hampstead often works as a condenser or abbreviator getting a message down to 5 words on a card or 20 seconds in a radio commercial.

Louise Hassett’s 60 seconds is a little poem about Kirsty, while the lady herself of Perfectly Tempered, produces an article about how hopeless men are at being romantic, although a few have cottoned onto using chocolates as a “sorry” present or what some people call a peace offering.

Paul Chapman and his colleagues at HSBC are now regarded as sensible people whereas they were universally regarded as a bit boring a few months ago. He wants customers interested in banking relationships rather than just taking what is sometimes described as “hot money”.

Christian Ingerslev of Danesoft does regular surveys for AOL and Jason Southard of Fun Casinos subs for Emma Ross of PhotoWonder. At the end of the meeting, Alexis of The Happiness Centre gives them a referral to Snappy Snaps. She had met the National Marketing??? Manager at a photo show a few days before but the guy had never heard of them, although Gavin signed up Snappy Snaps ages ago! Telemarketing guru Mike Segall wants intros to chartered accountants while Roy Duncan tells us of a good post going at the Bank of England Director of Financial Stability salary £240k. Makes you wonder what the others are doing at the UK central bank if this new bright spark is needed.

Lewis Joseph of Joseph Sterling Jewellers shows his imagination again with a double-sided ring for an Arsenal supporting lady (rubies) who has married into a Spurs-supporting family (sapphires) proving the old saying that opposites attract. For me, his 60 seconds are often the most memorable using real life examples each week…..

Jamie Denham of Sliced Bread Animation wants intros to web designers and Javier of Shadow Finance stands in for Mike Chan and reminds us that there is still life in the mortgage market. A new guest does curtains and gives a referral but apart from that … little info (business cards again please). Giuseppe Argento of Qube helps people move on time and on budget and wants intros to commercial estate agents.

Gavin M-H is having job interviews and amazes us all with an impromptu 10 minutes (courtesy Justin) about googols (not the other sort) which are 10 to the power 100, googol plexes 10 to the power 10 to the power 100, where if someone started writing the number out now, they would be dead well before it was anywhere near finished. There was a serious point to all this as we were asked to name are main referrers where accountants came out first. As a post script, Michael Dodd, our Ozzie personal communications guru, reminded all of us of the 3 T’s in giving a presentation – touch the board or screen, turn round to your audience and then talk which give power and continuity to the message.

No words of wisdom from master coach George Metcalfe whose back is indisposed, so yours truly has the brainwave of having a “fun portfolio”. E-mail me with a share or fund of your choice, which will go into a virtual portfolio – one choice per person please – you will get the largest choice in a broadsheet newspaper or serious tabloid. The portfolio will be tracked and it will be interesting to see how this portfolio performs through our current troubled times and beyond. E-mail me at: george@in2consulting.co.uk with the heading BRX Fun. For now they will be anonymous, but 12 months after the start of the portfolio, a prize will go to the person who suggests the best-performing fund or share over the previous year.

George Emsden

P.S. it’s Friday… http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3203784/Britain-a-land-of-bog-snorkellers-worm-charmers-and-hostage-takers.html