We’re just back from a weeks R&R at the wonderful L’Avenida in Soller, Majorca. You can find a full review and more pics at tripadvisor .

It was a much needed break as we’ve got a busy couple of months ahead with work for Imetec in conjunction with Vivid design agency, a two day conference in London for Liverpool University, the New Islington Festival and a tour of student freshers fairs on behalf of a national client. We’ll then finally be taking a break as Nicky prepares for the biggest production of her life!

Plans are already afoot for more Don’t Panic Guides and we’ll be in London in January with our crisis comms event, March with the coolest social media conference and May with New Wave PR.

Anyway here’s Mink Deville and also one of my favourite Eighties tracks from San Sebastian’s Aventuras De Kirlian.

Finally thanks to Stuart ‘Wolfie’ Bruce for this link to Doodle, a great little free programme for scheduling meetings and creating polls.

We were out of the office most of last week as over 200 academics, chemists and engineers descended on an unseasonably wet Bolton for FRPM07, the 11th European Meeting on Fire Retardant Polymers.

The four day conference took place at The Albert Halls and also included a full programme of social events including a drinks reception at The Lowry Centre followed by a dinner at the Imperial War Museum North.

Chemistry was never one of my strong points at school but our delegates are the people who research and develop the stuff which makes buildings, furnishings and transportation less flammable and safer for us all.

FRPM07 attracted guests from nineteen different countries and was hosted by The University of Bolton who have an expertise in fire retardancy due to the area’s historic textile heritage.

It was a long four days but the job was made so much easier by the great staff at The Albert Halls, the LAS tech team, the guys at Fluid Media and our Don’t Panic helpers Jay and Mhairi.

Our one disappointment was the less than smooth accommodation service provided by Marketing Manchester which left a number of delegates without rooms despite having a confirmed booking reference...

PS - I was a bit spoilt for choice on potential titles for this post and it was a close run thing between Ash’s Burn Baby Burn and The Inkspots.