Events management companies often organize a whole series of related events covering, say, race meetings, rock concerts, celebrity dinners and corporate road shows. One important piece of publicity which deserves special attention is the calendar of events. Promotional print makes an extremely valuable contribution to the success of any event. From publicity posters to invitations, floor plans to agendas, programmes to guest passes and badges - every aspect is very important and if even one is overlooked it can be a major setback to the accomplishment of the organizer’s goals.

One major aim of any event is to ensure that things run smoothly and that the guests are made to feel at ease with the organizer’s presence being almost invisible. Football pundits say that when you watch a match and you don’t see the referee then he’s having a great match. Sometimes it’s the same with the promotional print. There are times when it’s good for something to jump out and shout - a poster, for example or a high-impact invitation. But at other times it’s good for a product to keep working away in a quiet fashion.

A calendar of events might be an example of such a product. It could be just one part of a promotional mailing. The pack might contain a major announcement, some high impact invitations plus a calendar of events for the next 6 months. That makes the calendar a long term product and something that the events organizer is keen for his customer to keep. That immediately rules out a leaflet or even a tidy booklet but a really neat piece of folding pocket media the size of a credit card - now that’s a different matter.

One product which is published in the Uk is the Foldilocks card. It features twelve pages which fold out into a strip that is over 400mm long but then fold away and then lock into a four-page cover that is the same size as a credit card. It is absolutely ideal for giving dates and details of a series of events, race meetings, sporting fixtures and so on. The fact that it is the same size as a credit card will encourage the customer to keep the Foldilocks - in a wallet, a purse, a handbag, a pocket or it might just be popped in a desk drawer but it is unlikely to be thrown into the bin which happens all too easily with a leaflet. The product can be seen on video by clicking on http://www.popupmailers.co.uk/popup_foldilocks.html

Article by Paul Whitney.

Whitney Woods Ltd is a manufacturer of promotional marketing products designed using sophisticated cardboard engineering techniques. The company is a market leader in this field in the UK and publishes a range of over 50 products covering the areas of promotional pocket media, interactive marketing products, information discs, promotional pop up cards, creative folding and automatic pop up mailers. Whitney Woods also publishes a range of products which are particularly suited to Christmas promotions and for use as company Christmas cards. In addition, the company incorporates a direct marketing division incorporating a full service mailing house and also supplies eyeletting and hand finishing services to the UK’s print industry.

http://www.popupmailers.co.uk/pocket_media.html

Sometimes the smallest of actions and events can paint a vibrant picture for you to use as well as make your day worthwhile.

I had taken my mother to Petsmart to get some bird and squirrel food and canned cat food. While I retrieved the former, she picked out the latter. Because of her advanced age and slowed pace, I had time to spare.

Consequently, I wandered over to where an animal rescue group, borrowing space within the store, had cats and dogs for adoption. As a rescuer myself, I’m inescapably drawn to potential adoptees.

Anne, an adoption official, and another women were trying to get a small, short-haired, fawn-colored Dachund mix, that had recently had its hind legs amputated after being hit by a car, to use a doggie cart.

Strapped in, the pooch looked uncomfortable, anxious, and concerned. He wasn’t even trying to move in the contraption. They had been laboring for awhile, coaxing the sad-eyed dog with treats - but to no avail.

I asked if they minded if I tried. As a kitty mom of 13 and a socializer of animals to ready them for adoption to loving homes, I thought maybe I could help. They shrugged, said, “Sure, go ahead,” but didn’t really think the dog was likely to cooperate with anyone so soon in the harness after surgery.

I flattened myself on the floor and talked intimately to the pooch about life and the universe; he cocked his head as if to listen. Then sharing some more doggie philosophy, I scratched his head, especially behind the ears. Slowly excitement built in my voice.

As I reached a crescendo, I scuttled back a few feet, got down on my knees, and slapped the floor hard. Using my best bacon-flavored doggie encouragement voice, I called, “Come on!”

The dog’s eyes widened. He started wagging his tail. Cautiously he made two steps toward me. I threw my arms around him, praising his accomplishment. His eyes sparkled.

Walking 10 feet away, I turned and repeated my “red-rover-red-rover-come-over” excitedly playful command. The dog’s tail whipped the air. He stamped in place, his body aquiver. Then raced toward me, like a newbie Indy driver, giving me a great big doggie smile as he scooted along.

Almost unbelieving, I stood, mouth agape, and felt the glow of a newly-announced MegaMillions lottery winner. Incredibly gratified, I then left to join my mother.

But later, just as we were about to leave the crowded store, Anne put whipped cream and a cherry on top of this doggie sundae. She signaled me from across the store front. Smiling, she nodded her head to the side, “And you were going to leave without saying ‘good-bye?’”

Questioning, I looked down. Racing toward me, ears flying, tongue lolling, was the pooch. He moved with the ease and confidence of one born to his new “legs.”

A huge throbbing smile caught in my throat. “Come on, baby!” I barely called out, my voice cracking, and sank to one knee. Like a kid experiencing pride in his first two-wheeler achievement, he rolled thirty feet across the tiled floor, past milling customers with their own dogs on leash, straight into my arms.

The next minute we were a tangle of wiggly hugs, neck scratches, prancing paws, and doggie kisses - a moment you can’t manufacture but can joyously revel in.

This small event created a vibrant picture, one to which others could resonate. When you present and promote yourself, you need to consider using such pictures: visual stories that create a particular emotion and/or convey an identifiable and memorable life lesson. People quickly become involved in stories. Getting people’s attention is all about reaching them where they live: in their heart and gut.

No matter what specific point you want to make if you can get to it through a story, that point is much more likely to be heard, felt, and understood. This is because emotional connections and rapport are everything in communication, but especially in today’s marketing communication.

Signe A. Dayhoff, Ph.D., teaches professionals and entrepreneurs who are uncomfortable promoting themselves or have ineffective marketing strategies how to create profitable visibility and credibility confidently, professionally with integrity at low cost without selling through a relationship-based method called the “VODKAA Process.”

Dr. Signe is a social psychologist and coach-consultant who has specialized for the last 24 years in teaching how to boost trust and liking through creating rapport with prospects, how to polish interpersonal skills and increase effective speaking and small talk, how to eliminate marketing reluctance and replace it with confidence and relationships, and how to become a valued and accessible educational resource to prospects and clients alike.

Author of five books and over 100 published articles, she has worked internationally with CEOs, attorneys, physicians and other health-care providers, CPAs, FBI agents, TV producers, writers, seminar presenters, computer programmers, and small businesses, for example.

Subscribe to her free monthly Get Your Ideal Clients Tips self-promotion ezine and claim your complimentary Marketing Self-Assessment at http://www.GetYourIdealClients.com

Before finding a solicitor make sure you are aware of the nature of your legal problem.If you find a solicitor who you think might be appropriate, verify his/her experience and skills in dealing with your type of case.

You could use internet directories to search for a solicitor. However, most of these directories describe the firm rather than an individual solicitor.

Once you have found a solicitor with relevant experience it can be a good idea to check whether he/she provides a free initial interview. This gives you the opportunity to talk to them and for you to judge whether they are a good choice.

Please specify any necessary services you may need when you make an appointment with the solicitor. For instance if you have any disability or you need an interpreter.

Before the initial interview, get together any significant letters, evidence, pictures or other papers regarding your legal matter. If you can’t decide which are the most relevant, bring them all. Prepare a list of questions on the advice that you need and information that you want to know and bring it along to the meeting.

During the initial interview, don’t be afraid to ask all that you want to know. The solicitor is there to help you and work out the best interests for you. It is important to keep in mind that the legal advice you receive will be based on the accuracy and completeness of the information you provide to the solicitor.

Before you have instructed a solicitor to act for you, ensure you find out about the method she/he uses to charge for the service. Solicitors do not always charge a fixed price for a case. In fact, they more often charge according to the time they spend on the overall case. However, they should be able to advise you of the estimated cost and the expected time period your case will take.

Once you have appointed a solicitor it’s also your duty to keep in touch with him/her. Do not hesitate to request a progress report by letter, phone or face to face. Any letters, new evidence, actions which might affect your case you should present to and discuss with your solicitor.

If you’re dissatisfied with your present solicitor, speak to him/her first and explain your concern. Or you may want to try the firm’s complaints procedure. Normally, this involves taking your complaint to a partner in the firm who will investigate your complaint.

If you are still dissatisfied, you should then write to the following address giving details about your complaint.

The Consumer Complaints Service Victoria Court 8 Dormer Place Leamington Spa Warickshire CV32 5AE
Tel: +44 (0) 1926 820082/3

If you are unhappy with the response from or the actions of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors you can write to the Legal Services Ombudsman at the following address:

Legal Services Ombudsman 3rd Floor Sunlight House Quay Street Manchester M3 3JZ
Tel: +44 (0) 161 236 9532

This article about finding solicitors has been written by Rebecca Lim, who works on the website Find A Solicitor.

It has been only couple of months when financial press was lamenting the fate of US dollar. All time or multi year low against many currencies, credit crisis, housing market in shambles, nightmarish deficit. Seemed like every news hitting the wire was worse than the one before. Tragic story. And the outlook, well, just as bad.

What a difference two months make. USD has staged impressive rally across the board. Large moves against CHF, AUD, EUR, NZD and GBP seemed to quiet the critics and reverse general sentiment. There hasn’t been many bullish news for the dollar, as much as a lot of bearish developments for the other currencies. Falling commodities prices and signs of world wide economic slowdown seemed to take the heat off of the Dollar. The new “whipping boy” of Forex markets is, for the moment, British Pound.

Just how bad have things gotten for the Pound? GBP-USD lost 8.2% percent in August. This is the biggest monthly drop since October 1992, when the fall was just a little worse at 8.6%. And we all know just how memorable that event was. UK left European Exchange Rate Mechanism which resulted in a huge one day Sterling tumble. That is when George Soros “broke” the Bank of England and reportedly made $ 1B in one day, something that is stilled widely discussed in all financial circles.

This time around there has not been any single event, but rather a string of news of economic data getting from bad to worse. Figures reported in August showed house prices fell at their fastest pace since 1991, while retail sales plunged to their lowest level in 25 years. These are pretty bad numbers by anyone’s standards and they culminated in news that economic growth ground to a halt in the second quarter.

This raised expectations that the Bank of England would move to cut interest rates during next meeting, further undermining the Pound’s appeal to investors. And it looks like investors have been loosing faith in Sterling rapidly. Over last couple of weeks GBP sell off was not confined only to its pair with Dollar, but broadened significantly. Just over last 10 trading days pound fell 1000 pips against JPY, 500 pips against CHF, while CAD gained 600 pips. To top it all off, EUR-GBP is on a brink of all time high.

We don’t know what BoE is going to do, but current outlook for the Pound is not very optimistic. That is, at least, general market sentiment as reported by financial media. We all know, however, that market participants, as a group, tend to be collectively wrong when markets are reaching the extent of their moves. Just look two months back and USD.

Current Sterling situation isn’t exactly like that. We are not at multi year price extreme, but rather an intermediate move bottom, as measured on weekly charts. Let’s take a closer look at GBP-USD and use it as a proxy for all Pound pairs. After an initial sell off from 2.1100 to 1.9400, there was a period of consolidation. It was followed by this latest leg down, which reached 1.8200. This is probably the extreme of this move.

Chances are price will consolidate in this area, contained within roughly 1.8500-1.8000 range. This should take few weeks. After that, breakout above/below this range will likely indicate direction of next price move. Analysts are predicting continuation of the move down, to about 1.7200, but given their recent track record, appreciation to 1.9200 is more likely.

No matter what happens, Pound is currently at very important juncture. Even if you missed most recent moves, just get ready and be patient. Next few weeks will probably provide very good trading opportunity, with a move large enough, that, if caught, can easily make trader’s year.

Mike P. Kulej is a Chief Forex Strategist for Spectrum Forex LLC. He specializes in mechanical trading systems as explained on http://www.spectrumforex.com. Spectrum Forex LLC offers numerous services to individual traders. He also publishes trading blog http://www.fxmadness.com. With questions and comments e-mail him at kulej@spectrumforex.com.

Debt. It’s something we are reading and hearing about more often every day that goes by. With the UK’s debt currently over £1,430bn it is hardly a surprise that more of us are feeling the squeeze and are in need of help.

Did you know that, excluding mortgages, the average household in the United Kingdom is in debt to the extent of £9000 - £12,000? And to make the fact even harder to swallow, more and more people in Britain are getting into serious debt every day.

Debt consolidation was, for a long time, seen as a desperate last resort and was generally frowned upon. This attitude is changing, with people beginning to realise that the sooner you decide to bit the bullet and consolidate the sooner you can get on your way to be debt free and stead on your feet again.

With modern culture’s use of media on TV, the internet and pretty much every public place you see offering “buy now, pay later”, loans, credit cards and similar products it should not be a surprise that the personal debt of people in the United Kingdom goes up by approximately £1 Million a minute! And with the stomach wrenching feeling of having another brown envelope hit the door mat or ignoring the ringing phone in case it is somebody demanding payments being all too familiar to many people in Great Britain, debt consolidation is thankfully an option you can take to help you sort your financial problems, and your life, out.

In layman’s terms, debt consolidation means you contact all of the companies that you owe money to and request a settlement figure. Collect these together and calculate the full amount. You would then apply for a loan from whoever is offering the best rate, and pay back your debts, in full, with this amount. You then only have one, although significantly larger, monthly repayment to take care of. This is obviously much more manageable and easy to keep track of.

However, if you have a bad credit rating you may find it difficult to be accepted for a debt consolidation loan. If this is the case, you may need to approach one of the many specialist debt companies who would offer you the money and take care of the settlements for you. Unfortunately there is a catch. Most of these companies will charge you a high interest rate, so you will eventually be paying more than you originally owed in the first place. However, you will be paying a lower monthly repayment which is easy to track and keep on top of, usually meaning an easier life for you.

If you think you may benefit from debt consolidation, be sure to check with as many companies as you can.

Search online for the best deals if you have debt problems.

There are many companies offering debt advice to help you choose.