A Sporting Life

Sport is at the heart of much of what I do, in both a professional and personal capacity. At Press Ahead, we have worked on numerous sports related projects over the years, and at the moment we’re heavily involved in Sunderland’s bid to bring World Cup football to the region in 2018. Working closely with Sunderland AFC, Sunderland City Council and other partners, I think we’re making a strong case for the city and for the North East. There are 16 cities vying to be part of the England 2018 proposal that will go to FIFA in December and this list will be whittled down to 12 by the national bid team.

NewcastleGateshead is also submitting a bid and it would be fantastic if both cities make it to the final list. We certainly have the facilities up here and just as important, we have the passionate people who will make World Cup games in this region really special occasions.

It’s been extremely enjoyable to be involved in this campaign and it has been marked by some great visual stories that have been featured widely in the regional media. Levels of public support for individual cities will be taken into account by the England 2018 team, so we are encouraging people to visit www.sunderland2018bid.com and register their support or text “Sunderland2018” followed by their name, house number and postcode, all to 62299. Hint, hint…

Away from work, I’ve really enjoyed the 2009 international and domestic cricket season. The Ashes series was probably the highlight and it was a privilege to be at the Oval on the third day of the final Test, as England edged towards victory. I wasn’t there for the finale, but I was listening to the ever excellent Test Match Special while watching Durham CCC play out a rain affected Pro 40 game at the fantastic Riverside Stadium. Most of the crowd who were there with me were also tuned in to the Ashes, judging by the cheers that erupted every time England took an Australian wicket. This latest home series may not have had the quality or nail biting intensity of its predecessor in 2005, but it was consistently entertaining and of course England managed to secure the right result.

Back in the domestic game, the Durham story is remarkable. A first class county for less than two decades, Durham has just wrapped up the County Championship for the second successive year and the club is already planning its campaign for three in a row. In the longer form of the game, Durham has undoubtedly become the county powerhouse, while at the same time developing one of the best venues in world cricket and providing a production line of players for the national team. These really are astounding achievements and huge credit is due to everyone at the club, from chairman Clive Leach and chief executive David Harker, to coach Geoff Cook and of course the players.

I (along with my family) was able to get along to the Riverside on 12th September to see Durham wrap up the title with another comprehensive victory, over their nearest ‘challengers’, Nottinghamshire. It was a great afternoon. The club offered free entry to everyone, the sun shone throughout and Steve ‘Grievous Bodily’ Harmison fittingly took the final Notts wicket just after the tea break. Cue a formal presentation of the trophy and some great celebrations in front of the main stand.

The club can now also celebrate being awarded an Ashes Test for 2013, which is fantastic news. In my opinion, it will be four years overdue as the Riverside should have hosted a match this year rather than Cardiff (though to be fair, the Swalec Stadium did stage a great Test). Nevertheless, this is very exciting and by the time we get to 2013, the Riverside will have been further developed into what I am sure will be an even more outstanding 20,000 capacity ground. I can’t wait.

There’s a person who nicely links all of the above stories - Paul Collingwood. ‘Colly’ comes from the production line I mentioned and has been a great servant and ambassador for England and Durham in all forms of cricket. He sometimes gets a negative press for his style of play and always seems to be on the verge of losing his England place (at least as far as the media are concerned).
I for one am a huge admirer of Colly and to all the critics who point to his poor form this summer after the Lord’s Test, I cite the fact that if it wasn’t for his heroics on the last day at Cardiff, Monty Panesar and James Anderson (who took most of the headlines) wouldn’t have had the chance to hold out for a draw and England would have most likely lost the Ashes.

Colly may actually now be drawing towards the end of his England career, but he still has a huge amount to offer cricket in England and Durham, and I will watch his next steps with interest. He’s also a big Sunderland AFC fan and took time out from his preparations for that great first Test to offer his support to the Sunderland 2018 bid. So, I salute you Paul Collingwood, a man with a surname steeped in North East heritage, who is currently creating his own place in the region’s history.

Right, I’d better make my final preparations for this year’s Great North Run. As ever, I am looking forward to the sense of occasion at the start and the first pint after I reach the finishing line. The 13 miles, 192 yards and 18 inches between the two are slightly less appealing. I’m going to be raising money for a great cause and all sponsorship support will be very welcome. You can find out more on www.justgiving.com/chris-lines.

Still alive, and kicking, and writing...

Lines from Lines has had a somewhat extended summer break. I've not been idle (honestly), but holidays, loads of work and life in general have conspired to keep me busy elsewhere. I'm going to try and make up for that 'silence' over the next few weeks with some concise posts on a range of subjects that have been exercising my mind and occupying my time. This is the first of those concise posts.

An annual outdoor pilgrimage (inside)

As I type, I’m sitting on the Berghaus stand at the OutDoor trade show in Friedrichshafen, in the south of Germany. The event takes place in July each year and sees all of the major outdoor brands gather under one very large roof to showcase their latest product developments. I tend to wear several hats while out here, but spend the majority of my time meeting journalists on the Berghaus stand and giving them an overview of the spring/summer 2010 collection.

It’s been a very busy few days and there has been plenty of interest in the new clothing, footwear and rucsacs. Highlights include a comprehensive collection of base layers, a great selection of low cut outdoor footwear and some really exciting new daysacs. And the colour palette across the range is fantastic – it’s really vibrant and perfect for summer.

One of the other big stories for Berghaus in 2010 revolves around some significant anniversaries. Next year will mark 25 years since Sir Chris Bonington reached the summit of Everest. It will also be 60 years since the first successful summit of an 8,000 metre mountain, when Maurice Herzog climbed Annapurna, and the 50th anniversary of Chris’ own first ascent of Annapurna II. And Chris will be 75, in a year during which he is heading back out the Annapurna region to lead a trek to commemorate all of the above.

Sir Chris features prominently in Berghaus’ communications plans for 2010 and even appears on some really nice ‘heritage’ t-shirts that the company has designed. His association with Berghaus goes back to the early 1980s and he is the living embodiment of the brand, still exploring unclimbed peaks and new areas over 50 years after he started to make a name for himself in the world of climbing.

During the show, I have also been talking to journalists about developments at the Outdoor Industries Association. Since her appointment as association director, Louise Ramsay has made a big and positive impact, and is delivering some dynamic plans that will really help the OIA achieve its long term objective to effectively represent and promote the UK outdoor sector. The latest step has just gone live, with the launch of the new OIA website. It already looks great and there’s much more that will be added to it in the near future, as it develops into an essential resource for outdoor brands, retailers and other businesses.

Finally, I took the chance to introduce a few of my contacts to the Adventure Generator for North East England. Interest in this great online activity break planning tool is building fast. Recently, former Olympic athletes Steve Cram and Allison Curbishley gave the Adventure Generator a spin and enjoyed a range of activities across the North East. And now, several of the outdoor magazines that I met at the show have expressed an interest in featuring it.

All good. Right, I’m leaving the show this afternoon and travelling back by boat, train and airplane. So, I need to go and catch a ferry.

Olympic Adventures in North East England

It’s been a hectic few weeks at Press Ahead towers (a familiar refrain). The pace has been hotting up on the Outdoor and Active front, very literally in some ways. As I type this, a thunder storm is skirting by Sunderland, but we’ve had some very decent weather in the North East lately, and people have been getting outside in large numbers. The region’s Adventure Generator is there to help people discover some great outdoor activities across North East England. It’s even got its own page on Facebook – become a fan and you could win a great prize when we launch an exclusive competition there very soon.

Now that we have this great application, we thought we’d seek out some willing volunteers to put it through its paces. Step forward Olympians Steve Cram and Allison Curbishley. Steve and Allison spent some time with us trying out a few of the adventures that can be found on the Adventure Generator. During an action packed journey around the region, they got on their bikes and the boulders at Summerhill Visitor Centre in Hartlepool, tried a spot of kayaking at Sunderland’s Marine Activities Centre, went for a stroll and picnic with a ranger at Causey Arch in County Durham, and finally took to the treetops at Go Ape at Matfen Hall in Northumberland.

Steve and Allison thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we captured some great photos and film footage of them in action. It will all start to appear on the Facebook page and on visitnortheastengland.com very soon. Meanwhile, we’re working hard to encourage people near and far to try out the Adventure Generator, and we’re busy arranging visits for journalists who have agreed ready to experience some great outdoor activities in the region for themselves.

Our first guest arrives this week, with more to follow soon. A warm North East welcome awaits all of them and anyone else who heads here for adventure.

The ‘Adventure Generator’ has landed

My feet haven’t touched the ground during the last few weeks. Following the Berghaus spring/summer 2010 sales conference and a great camping break with my family, it’s been all hands on deck at Press Ahead. In fact, the outdoor theme is continuing, and then some. We’ve been working flat out on the development of an online application to help people plan visits to North East England and try their hand at outdoor activities. That is now ready and live and we’re proud to announce the launch of the Adventure Generator.

I reckon that the timing for this couldn’t be better. Terms like ‘staycation’ and ‘glamping’ are becoming common parlance and domestic outdoor activity providers and venues are reporting huge demand for their products and services. Research published earlier this year by the Outdoor Industries Association (OIA) revealed that 49% of the British adult population is more likely to eschew a foreign holiday and go on a UK based outdoor break during 2009, due to the economic downturn.

As well as this current trend of holidaying in the UK, for several years now there has been a consistent growth in the public’s appetite multi-activity outdoor adventures. Whereas in the past, someone might describe themselves as a walker or a cyclist, people these days want to try a multitude of outdoor activities, and sometimes all in one weekend or short break. This has implications for brands like Berghaus who make outdoor products, as people want items that will work for a range of pursuits. Kit such as the hugely popular Paclite Jacket is an example of how to get multi-activity product right. And so, in a different way, is the Adventure Generator.

The Adventure Generator clearly caters for the ‘staycation’ audience, but it also includes such a wide range of activity options from all over the North East that it’s perfect for anyone who’s ready for a weekend of varied outdoor adventures. All you need to do is ‘spin the wheels’ and find out what adventures the region has in store for you. You can spin again if the options don’t appeal and then the website provides you with all the information you need to plan your trip and your activities. You can even challenge your friends and family through the website.

Here at Press Ahead, we’re really pleased with the Adventure Generator. Based on our original concept, the actual design and programming was completed by our colleagues at Different. They’ve done a fantastic job (in my humble opinion) and the final product looks great, is really easy to use and wonderfully showcases the huge variety of outdoor activities available in North East England. Now comes the job of spreading the word as far and as wide as possible – feel free to play a part in that!

Outdoor adventures - global and local

I’ve had quite an ‘outdoorsy’ week, which has been very enjoyable. It began with me collecting this beast, which the Family Lines has just invested in. We looked at loads of great tents, but this was the one that really took our fancy – the size, layout, headroom and general quality all appealed. So, we made the choice and look forward to a bit of camping, or maybe even ‘glamping’, very soon.

Anticipating future nights under canvass I then set off for the unashamedly plush Carden Park near Chester, to attend the Berghaus spring/summer 2010 sales conference. There, delegates representing about 30 countries in which Berghaus products are sold, were presented with details of the range that will be available to consumers around the world from next February. I can’t spill the beans on all of that here, but suffice it to say there are (as there seem to be every season these days) some very exciting developments and plenty for Press Ahead to get its PR teeth stuck into.

Berghaus has an outstanding team of sponsored athletes and many of them attended and contributed to the conference this week. Sir Chris Bonington, Mick Fowler and Leo Houlding all gave inspirational presentations about their exploits and demonstrated very clearly how they are the personification of everything that is great about the Berghaus brand. Also at the conference were Anniken Binz, Rob Jarman, Leah Crane and Carlos Suarez – they are all very much part of an extended Berghaus family.

On Tuesday, I led a workshop that Berghaus marketing director Sarah Wilson and I put together for the international representatives. It was designed to give them an insight into how sponsorship can be used to build the brand (and subsequently sales) in their market, and to give them tips on how to create their own sponsorship strategies. Our magnificent seven Berghaus athletes were also involved in the workshop and it was a thoroughly enjoyable session that the audience seemed to both enjoy and find very useful.

One of the best aspects of a Berghaus sales conference is that it gives people involved in the business around the globe the opportunity to get to know each other and share best practice and ideas. At every conference, the company lays on some sort of team activity. This time delegates were split into mixed groups and then set a series of challenges in the grounds of Carden Park. My team included a few from the UK, including Berghaus brand president Richard Cotter, along with representatives from Spain, the Czech Republic and South Korea.

Over the course of a couple of hours, we tried a range of activities and challenges, with varying degrees of success. Our team ‘excelled’ at archery and climbing, but was less successful when it came to ‘laser’ clay pigeon shooting and building a tower of crates. It was all great fun and the sight of Richard Cotter and European sales director Simon Roberts racing each other up a telegraph pole was pretty entertaining. Simon, with reckless disregard to his career prospects, reached the top first and was then given the charming title of 'tree monkey' by Richard!

The images below were taken during the crate building exercise and provide an idea of the fun that was had. The guy balancing at, and then falling off, the top is Mike Clark, Berghaus' retail operations manager.

Overall, the conference was a big success, thanks to a huge amount of work put in by people across the business, from product design and development, sourcing and logistics, and of course the marketing team who co-ordinated the whole event. Well done to everyone involved – now comes the work of selling and promoting the new range!

I returned to the North East to find that the Outdoor and Active campaign up here is really starting to gather momentum. The media coverage in the region is starting to roll in, with a lot more activity in the pipeline. Meanwhile, the team at Press Ahead has been picking up the ’phone to national journalists and visits are being arranged as I type. We’ve got a really cool (can I use that word at my age?) initiative lined up to launch in June, that I think is going to have very wide appeal. I won’t reveal all now, but watch this space for more news on that soon.

So, yes, the outdoors has been the dominant theme of my week. And with the Bank Holiday weekend weather forecast looking quite promising up here in the glorious North East, I dare say I’ll be heading outside quite a bit more over the next few days.

A guide to alienating the nation, by the House of Commons

“The Mother of Parliaments” is a phrase sometimes used to describe the House of Commons. It was actually coined to refer to something else and anyway, at the moment, a more accurate description of that part of Westminster could be “The Mother of Expense Accounts”.

Yes, this has been a pretty awful week for the reputations of British politicians and our political institutions. The scandal of MPs’ expenses has been the elephant in the room for a while now and it finally started trumpeting loudly from the moment that the Telegraph published the first instalment of the leaked information it had acquired.

I won’t repeat the details here – there’s too much of it and it leaves such a bad taste that I’m not going to waste my energy. The point is that the sleaze that in the past tended to be associated with one party at a time, has on this occasion tainted them all. Each of the three main parties has culprits among its MPs. Collectively, the British public has witnessed this story develop with disgust (though interestingly I have not detected much surprise in the voxpops I have seen and heard) and has decided that politicians are collectively corrupt. That label can be added to all of the other less than flattering terms that we use to refer to them.

This really is not good and on this I have to take issue with Stephen Fry, much though I agree with some of his comments on the matter. Mr Fry is absolutely correct to point out that we should in general be more concerned with the macro political decisions that our MPs get right or wrong. However, although this whole brouhaha may be of little consequence in the broader context of war, poverty, health, education and global economic meltdown, I fear that the long term fall out could be profound and seriously harm engagement with our political system.

While the truth is that a large number of MPs have nothing to be ashamed of, they are all now well and truly tarred with the same brush (the cost of which was claimed back as it was used to creosote a garden fence at the second home of an unnamed backbencher). The consequences are going to be far reaching and their impact extends well beyond Westminster and the changes that will have to be made there.

We are privileged to live in a democracy and we can choose who governs at pretty much every level of our society. The problem is that more and more people are voting with their feet, rather than with a ballot paper. Since 1992, turnout in General Elections has dropped from 77% to 61% in 2005 (with a record post war low of 59% in 2001).

What can we expect next time? Younger voters are already disinterested in politics, while people who have consistently voted throughout their adult lives are disillusioned. I know – I’ve spoken to them (and they include my parents). Will the public be inspired by their French counterparts and take to the streets in a more concerted campaign of direct action? Will parties from the far right and far left benefit from the public belief that the centre is rotten (the imminent local and European elections will be an intriguing bellwether)? More questions than answers from me I’m afraid.

Meanwhile, how appealing is a career in politics today? MPs used to be among the most respected members of a community – not now. It was accepted that they worked to serve the public and lived by a political doctrine that was in fact a calling (okay, I know this was not a universal state of affairs, but I hope you take my point). Today, they are perceived to serve (and help) themselves.

Young people who are already unimpressed and uninterested in politics are becoming even more disengaged and dismissive. So far, the UK has not benefited from an Obama lightning rod, and our politicians appear to more disconnected from ‘real’ society than ever. I really worry about the future make up of Parliament in the UK, and if that institution is compromised further, the cascade to all levels of Government will inevitably happen and the effects could be disastrous.

But I am a glass half full person and I still know many good people for whom politics is a real vocation; people who hold genuine, fervent political beliefs and who strive for office for the ‘right’ reasons.

My eldest son’s godfather, Ed Fordham, is one of them, and he is not alone. There are many others from across the political spectrum and they give me hope. But their job is going to be significantly more difficult thanks to the greed and, in my opinion, stupidity of some of the current crop of MPs. And Ed is my age (late 30s), so what about the generation after him, and his colleagues and opponents of a similar vintage? Someone reassure me that they will emerge. Please. Here's Ed expressing his views on the expenses saga, 27 minutes and 28 seconds into this episode of Newsnight.

I am a layperson when it comes to politics, but that makes me no less passionate than the ‘professionals’ about what Aristotle described as the most authoritative science. According to Aristotle, politics governs the other sciences and their ends serve to meet its end, which is nothing less than the human good. Here in the UK at the moment, the science of politics feels a lot less dignified and worthy than that. I hope that will change for the better again soon.

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