It’s not everyday that you get invited to introduce an awards ceremony and so when Harj Sandher, the organiser of the prestigious Midlands Business Award www.midlandsbusinessawards.com  asked if I would be interested, I accepted immediately, as personally I believe that we don’t do enough in our country to celebrate success and if I could help Harj then I am your man. The filming took place at the NEC Hilton filming with Pamela Howe of “Wills in Warwickshire” http://www.willsinwarwickshire.com  in the restaurant.

It was good fun and quite an experience being “set up” , practicing what we were going to say but it was rather a shock to the system realisng how hard it is to say something word perfect in front of the cameras. It was very helpful there bieng two us as Pamela is really good at creating the words and keeping things going. Little did I know that after the initial shooting at the NEC Hilton, where the awards will take place on January 30th, only three weeks away now, that Harj would ask if I’d be able to help out with some more filming. I said yes and so I found myself in full black tie at 8am in the morning videoing more footage at the Gallery Restaurant in Earlsdon.

It meant an early start at 5.30am in order to catch the train to Coventry clutching my laptop and suit. Once there it was a quick change in the “Gents”, followed by a few ribald comments from the early risers at the Coventry Business Breakfast network meeting, before gulping down a welcome cup of tea and downstairs to being set up with the lighting and then the filming.

Now I’m not saying that I can talk for England but when normally asked to say a few words there is no problem, but when asked to learn a script including some long words in a clear voice, in front of a camera, without any hesitation or mumbling, from memory relatively early in the morning, well sufficient to say that a few takes were required but we got there. I only hope that Terry’s (the cameraman) positive words are supported on film. I will have to wait until the big night to see the result. The photograph above was taken of me in full regalia but what we got most of was Terry’s back. It gives a really good view of his polo-shirt and his company’s name www.video-interactive.co.uk  and you can just see me in the background if you look really hard.

It was a very interesting experience and one that I’d like to repeat in the future. Harj asked me afterwards how it went and my reply was “OK, thanks to Terry’s patience for the retakes…” then I added “just let me know if I can help out some more as your vision of what your doing to celebrate people’s hard work often in very difficult financial circumstances, as well as recognising all the support that wives and husbands give their partners is crucial to the Midlands and the UK in the gathering gloom of a slowdown in the economy”

Many thanks Harj for the experience and roll on January 30th for the big night.

©William Barron – Creating Insight – January 2009 - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it