Sid Rolls Up a Magazine

"It's next to Carnaby Street man" said the cabbie as I pushed my bolder out of his taxi and headed for the Ace CDP Plus group day at the National Magazine offices.

The meeting rooms are all named after past managing directors. - a policy the current MD I would guess didn't get much inspiration from.

But the quality of the team here was evident throughout our day via a new doctrine to see their readers as consumers starting a life long journey of being sold a variety of wares so the Nat Mag team come prosper for another 100 years.

Sharon Douglas took us through a multi media presentation and came across as an honest character and a strong and sincere force behind this ACE programme. I really felt she alone might be the one to push this bloody bolder to the top.

So what did my fellow course mates learn from this session?

Well whatever it was they were encouraged to actively demonstrate that their current employer's belief in their abilities was well founded by proving they can at least type by placing a few comments on the ACE website (just login and add a comment below).

A session entitled " the view from retail" was well presented by Nat Mag Man Rob. He was able to show an x rated movie of several multiple news buyers - who all had written degree dissertations on "what was a plan". Well I have had the same plan from day one - to get to the top of my slope - so I was pleased to learn Rob had tried several things which had failed but still had enough evidence to show he was making some good progress with some key retailers.

Work shop sessions were announced which saw delegates brainstorm at a pace and then present back to the whole group - we definitely have got some future stars in our year.  But the best was yet to come when we were escorted to hallowed ground. The GHI was a very special part of the building with even one floor was out of bounds to most of the magazine staff here.

I have heard of GBH but not the Good Housekeeping Institute this was a new one on me. We were greeted by Lizzy Kershaw who was a walking talking legend. By the end of her lightening history of testing everything since 1924 from washing machines to vibrators -we were all able to recommend her for a knighthood - she must be related to Fanny Craddock surely?

So thank you to Sharon and team - not only for a fantastic insight into her american global company but also for the visit to the pub afterwards - yes you guessed it - I had a deserved scotch on the rocks.

Sid meets Lizzy Kershaw aka "Fanny Craddock"