SPAZIO Interior Design Service launch event

Friday night saw the launch of SPAZIO Design's new Interior Design Service at their New Street showroom in Chelmsford. Senior Interior Designer Samantha Morphew has introduced a stunning range of soft furnishings and accessories to the offering, augmenting the already stunning kitchens, furniture and lighting on display.

The 'ladies night' event was a huge success with ladies filling every corner of the 2000sq ft showroom, browsing through paper and fabric sample books by the likes of Andrew Martin, Thibaut and Designers Guild, as well as admiring the gorgeous items for sale.

Local chef Mark Webb, who gives cookery courses at Braxted Park Cookery School, delighted us with delicious summer canapes, which he prepared in front of us on the 'live' island, sharing his recipes on pre-preapred handouts. Christine Moss from The Chocolate Truffle Company also treated guests to a truffle-making demonstration, and the chocs were very soon dispatched without trace!

A great evening was had by all, culminating in a prize draw of wonderful goodies such as a Miele Cat & Dog Vacuum cleaner, Designers Guild throw and a free interior design inspirational visit by Samantha Morphew.

The night's activities and the showroom's splendour were captured beautifully by photographer Sally Parkinson - with a few of examples shown here.

M Furniture at the Ideal Home Show

Great news! M Furniture has been asked to provide floating shelves for two roomsets at the Ideal Home Show. The white and black shelves can be seen in the teen room and the kitchen. The sets are also being photographed for the August issue and the images can be seen on the House to Home website here.

New Street in Chelmsford is going to be a hive of activity tomorrow, with the opening of SPAZIO DESIGN, a furniture showroom selling contemporary kitchens, lighting, bedroom and living room furniture.

The Mayor of Chelmsford, Councillor Bob Shephard, will be cutting the ribbon at 10am, after which invited guests and members of the public will be free to browse the fabulous displays.

Bright Green Communications is delighted to be on board with this new venture, establishing the brand in Essex and beyond.

How brands use Facebook

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch - well, that may be but I recently attended a free seminar organised by PRmoment.com and can report that it was a very informative and worthwhile evening.

Held at Ogilivy's swish Canary Wharf offices (lots of envy), the event was about how brands use Facebook (or Facie-B as my teenagers call it).

First to speak was Rob Mansfield, Senior Digital Editor, Age UK. As Age UK is a 'new' brand, it was interesting to hear his objectives for his charity's FB page, the brand's awareness, why they choose this as a channel to reach stakeholders, what works well and what doesn't.

The over 50s are huge users of Facebook and engage well with Age UK this way. Rob told us that he finds it useful for instant feedback on issues or research, compared with traditional focus groups which take much longer. He also commented that as people tend to speak their mind on social media it can be very insightful. Their campaigns such as Donate a Coat have been particularly successful and top posts get a 3-5% engagement - a good score.

Laura Price, Social Media Manager at British Gas delighted us with a hugely entertaining presentation on the difficulties of being in this sector and having "fans"! Her take on integrated social media and customer service initiatives was one we should all take to heart and those of use with small clients can still implement.

I would have liked to pick the brain of James Whatley at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence as I knew that what he said was just a sliver of his in-depth knowledge. It's great, though, that all three speakers saw FB as here to stay - definietely not a fad.

The overriding message from all three was - commit and know what you want to achieve. Don't do it half-heartedly.

New Year, new client

What a great start to 2012! We are now working with bespoke furniture company M Furniture who create contemporary handmade items, both fitted and freestanding, for just about any room in the home. Check out their website to see gorgeous kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms and bedrooms that they have transformed.

M Furniture also makes fabulous, high quality floating shelves, and undertakes retail fit-outs to boot. It's great to be advising them on all aspects of their marketing, and moving forward with them.

Go organic with veg

I've been receiving a weekly veg box from Riverford for around 6 years now and can't recommend them highly enough for the quality and flavour of their produce and their customer service. You could almost set your watch by the delivery time on a Tuesday morning, and whenever I email to change my regular small veg box to a seasons box, or to let them know that we will be away, I receive a prompt confirmation within a few hours.

What started as a stand against our local supermarket getting such a large proportion of our weekly shopping bill has turned into a 'shop local' mission for me. I also use the local butcher and other shops in our nearest town in preference to the large high street chains.

What is particularly lovely with Riverford, is that the weekly messages from the farm make customers feel very much 'part of the family'. We are kept up to date on the latest successes, and failures (after all organic farming, or any farming come to that, can be hit and miss). Last week I was saddened to read that organic sales have dropped by around 20% in the last few years. What a crying shame. Organic farmers give so much in the way of helping wildlife by not using agrochemicals, and that's just the tip of the iceburg.

Riverford boxes are 85% locally grown and they never air freight - anything that comes from abroad comes by ship. As they sell a whole range of foods, not just veg, some items - bananas or chocolate for example - aren't produced locally for obvious reasons.

Anyone who is still sceptical about organic vegetables should really give them a try. They are absolutely not the preserve of vegetarian and alternative lifestyle groupies. As well as winning awards such as Best Organic Retailer at The National and Organic Awards 2009 and Winner of the Observer Ethical Awards 2010 Riverford regularly carries out price comparison checks and consistently comes out lower in price than the major supermarkets.

If you don't fancy the box contents, you can make up your own order from the individual items available. There are plenty of recipes on the website and in the weekly update to tempt even the most hardened veg-dodger (sorry Hugh F-W, borrowed your phrase there!) and the produce is fresh, seasonal and utterly delicious.

It also gives me the inspiration to try new meals as, let's face it, cooking every night can become a chore and we do need nudging out of our comfort zone from time to time. Now, where did I put that pumpkin?

Training and continual professional development

For quite a few years of my life in PR I tried to avoid giving presentations, thinking that it wasn't one of my strengths. I was wrong to doubt myself and have since proved that I can present very effectively, win pitches and explain concepts clearly.

Recently, I have been asked to conduct some training for a client and the sessions have been immensely rewarding. It's great when you see people learning something new and realising what a difference it will make to their work.

It is not the first time that I have been asked to give training sessions, but I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. The key to success for me is being thoroughly prepared - what used to throw me was being asked to present slides that I had not written. Winging it is not an option.

Is there an area of your working life that you feel is under par? Get out there and test yourself. You could be surprised, and if you were right about needing a boost then try to find a course that will unlock the mysteries.

Yes it's a bit of extra effort, but the returns are worth it in increased skills and self-esteem. A dog is never too old to learn new tricks, in my opinion.