To say Bankstone News is looking forward to the BIBA conference next week would be the biggest understatement since Captain Oats informed his colleagues “I’m going out now. I may be some time,” or Captain Moody told passengers aboard his volcanic-ash-struck 747 “We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. I trust you are not in too much distress.” You get the general idea.

The theme this year is Plasticine, the world’s favourite modelling clay, as in “Shaping our Futures”. It’s genius really. Bankstone news can’t wait to get its hands on some of the brightly coloured children’s art material – superior to Play Doh in every way except, of course, it doesn’t smell as nice.

Every other email this week has included the offer of a glass of champagne/wine/beer or a nice cup of coffee “on our stand at BIBA.” Nice to see so many people ignoring the national capital-letters shortage too, by refusing to write it as Biba. What is that all about?

In his official show preview, BIBA’s Eric Gallbreath notes that everything could be about to turn to sh*t so this “could prove to be a pivotal year for the UK on both a global and a macro scale.”

“In times of dramatic change,” he warns, “it is tempting to think about burying our heads in the snow and hoping the icy winter winds blow over as quickly as possible,” and how true that is. Many’s the time Bankstone News has felt the arctic blizzards whipping about its exposed nether parts as its nose and ears start to lose feeling – only to recognise at the last minute that only frostbite that way lies. “Tempting but highly irresponsible,” EG concludes, and somehow you know he’s right.



Instead, he says, we need to “cut out the dead wood of restrictive thinking”, “recognise that the facebook generation will be tomorrow’s business leaders” (had you ever considered that? It’s logical enough, though, really when you think about it), “wake up and get connected!” Follow Eric on twitter at… oh, Bankstone News doesn’t know, he’s probably on there somewhere!

Think he’s given up on getting modelling clay in there somewhere? Oh no, he hasn’t! 
“Our aim is to mould BIBA into the most effective lobbying and member association in the UK,” he concludes ambitiously. “Meet us in Manchester and tell us what you want from us.”

We’ll be there. Will you?

Tags:

No responses yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *