A positive result

by admin on September 4, 2010

Be Planet Positive is working with key members of David and Associates to develop its brand identity and marketing material. The lead agency M-A-D-E, headed up by Mark Andrews, is being supplemented by other senior team members including David Hughes, Lindsay O’Hagan, Dominic Rutterford, Sue Singer and Mike Everett.

A key component of BPP’s service delivery will be a new web site to be launched in the 4th Quarter of this year. But there’s no need to wait until then if you want to make a positive move to a more environmentally sustainable business. You can see the current Planet Positive site here.

The service helps SME’s reduce their environmental impact through a simple, quick and cost neutral 4 step process that involves measurement, reduction, positive action and communication.

Businesses get an internationally recognised accreditation that will help them pursue new business opportunities and fulfill tenders. It’s a simple online process that avoids the need for expensive consultants and can deliver certification within as little as 4 weeks. Throughout the process the registering business is in control of a process that is both transparent, quick and cost-effective.

There are many benefits:
- Reduction in running costs
- An aid to winning business via environmentally sustainable and accredited business practices
- The knowledge that your participation is making a distinct and measurable contribution to local, national or international sustainability projects.
- And last but not least, the tools to promote employee engagement and behaviour change helping to reduce your carbon emissions still further.

Everyone’s emissions are measured by the same internationally recognised system so there is real credibility surrounding the certification process. Certification will help small and medium sized businesses demonstrate that they are committed to being environmentally sustainable. And any business can Be Planet Positive. It’s positive news for business, the bottom line, your employees, the local community and the planet.

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Polishing up presentation skills

by David Hughes on February 27, 2010

Recently I’ve been giving a series of two hour talks on various aspects of social media. In the last two sessions I was lucky enough to have Lin Sagovsky as one of the attendees. Amongst other things, Lin runs Play4Real – a consultancy that takes theatre techniques into the workplace as a way of building skills and confidence in all walks of working life.

Although at pains to let me know that my sessions were full of good content Lin offered to help me improve my presentation technique. I had the cake, what was missing was the icing.

What a revelation. I knew my presentation skills weren’t as good as they could be. I just didn’t know why, or where to start to improve the situation. Very quickly Lin was able to pinpoint the areas that needed working on and offer equally rapid solutions.

In less than two hours we looked at body language, breathing, timing, staging (sight lines, lighting, acoustics), managing the audience and much more besides. All of Lin’s advice and tuition addressed my specific needs.

I can’t recommend her highly enough.

I have a few weeks to practice before my next public speaking opportunity which if all goes well will be the whole cake, complete with icing. And in time I might even manage a cherry on top.

If you think you could do with some help in improving your own public speaking you could do a lot worse than signing up for Lin’s free tips newsletter. It’s a good first step in the right direction.

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Richard Swan follows up last years BNI song with a Beat Poem

Miscellany

At this year’s BNI Big Breakfast the first speaker’s slot was given over to Richard Swan who had penned a new piece to follow up on last year’s pastiche of Don Maclean’s American Pie. This time around the musical backdrop was a composition of his own. Watch the home recorded version on YouTube here: BNI [...]

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LinkedIn session at St Stephen’s Club

Recent news

January 20th saw the second in a series of talks I’m giving focusing on different aspects of social media and getting to grips with the major platforms. The Wednesday session took LinkedIn as its subject and specifically how this online networking tool can best contribute to sales and marketing efforts. It was aimed at those [...]

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A thank you to Keren Lerner for our latest client win

Recent news

Keren Lerner of Top left design kindly recommended us to SAV Mayfair Developments Limited a building contractor providing residential building services in London. Thankfully they took up her advice and we are now helping them build a larger and more qualified stream of traffic to their website.

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Twitter Twaddle

Miscellany

I gave a talk recently to introduce a group of business owners to the world of twitter. A few were already regular twitterers but most had simply heard the growing buzz around twitter and social media in general and had yet to stick their toes in the water. This post rounds up some of the [...]

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Generation text

Miscellany

This last week has seen the views of Matthew Robson, the 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley, causing a little concern in boardrooms across the world. The reason: a three page report he had been invited to put together detailing the media and communication habits of his peer group. In some quarters, this straw [...]

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26 ways to improve your prose

Bookshelf
Thumbnail image for 26 ways to improve your prose

Last month saw the publication of John Simmons book One of the things I like most about the book is John Simmons’ belief that we are all capable of writing in a more compelling and persuasive manner. In this latest addition to the bookshelf he gives us practical tools to help unleash that potential. Twenty-six [...]

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First Fridays

Testimonials

Piers’ recent work on behalf of the International Fund Raising Consultancy (IFC), a sub-brand called First Fridays, prompted this remark from John Baguley the IFC’s founder: “Piers is a genius and you can quote me on that. He has created some stunning products for us that perfectly capture the spirit of First Fridays which is [...]

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Putting the fun into fundraising

Examples of work

First Fridays is a monthly, free to attend, fundraising surgery where charities of all sizes meet to discuss their fundraising issues with International Fundraising Consultancy (IFC) founder, John Baguley and his colleagues. John asked Piers to create an IFC sub-brand that had a chatty, informal tone of voice to match the atmosphere at the meetings. [...]

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