The things that keep us going

I'm back from my AWOL, and I can tell you that it was totally unavoidable. I had to go away into London for a placement programme as part of my course.. But fear not, people.. I'm back! And I've swiftly got myself back in gear for my dear old business...

On Thursday, I attended a seminar, organised by the Business Startup Community and I can say it was excellent, at the very least. There were three speakers at the event - Mortton Patterson, who spoke on descision making in business. He stressed the importance of being able to differentiate between 'Wants' and 'Needs' when making decisions. In his own terms, "Wants are Wishes and Needs are Necessities", and he went on to give practical steps to help in making sound decisions.

Next up was Jill Durdin from the UK Intellectual Property Office. I particularly needed this lecture as I had been considering acquiring a copywright/trademark in the future but I was clueless as to at what point I would need them, how to go about getting them or even what they were !(I previously never associated trademarks with IP!). Jill laid out all the terms and briefly explained them accordingly.

- Trademarks protect reputation/goodwill

- Patents protect ideas ( as well as Technological innovations)

- Copywrights protect creative work

The last but not the least was a short but explosive talk given by The Can Can Man, Ben Kench. He started by charging the atmosphere for the first couple of minutes with a few "Who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire" themed questions, before passionately delivering his lecture themed "Small Business, Big Future." The sheer passion with which he delivered his message directly communicated his point across. He stressed the importance having passion for what you do - So much passion that you pass some along to your potential customer and get them caught up in the frenzy! I cannot fully convey the amount of motivation Ben transferred to me through this 2-dimensional medium but you can take a look at one of his videos, and see what I'm talking about. Plus he was very very open, welcoming and very ready to give advice to anyone who as much as e-mailed him - He offered to e-mail everyone the lecture powerpoint slides of the day. That I'd say is someone who's truly passionate about the job!

Well folks, thanks for visiting and I'll update you guys more regularly from now on!

On a different note, I just realised Angelique Kidjo is performing at the Barbican in Sepetember - Ooh

**Edit** I was just re-reading this post for errors, when my news generator came up with this interesting New York Times News Article on Electricity in Africa (which I hurriedly grabbed!)