Visiting the BETT Education show brought it home to me how powerful a teaching tool technology can be. This amazing show covering two floors at Kensington Olympia was buzzing last week with thousands of teachers and other education professionals.

From huge interactive whiteboards to large flatscreen touch sensitive monitors through to tablets and laptops, exhibitors were all extolling the benefits of their hardware and software. But what shone through most was their enthusiasm for using technology to bring subjects to life for students and school children. There was even a musician on one stand creating the sounds of a rock band using just three iPads. Hey, teachers! Leave those kids alone (to experiment with new technology)...

Dave Chaffey has posted on his site - Smart Insights - a series of 'Quick Guides' for success in marketing which I'd wholly recommend.

Dave is a a bestselling author, consultant and speaker who enjoys sharing tips, tools and techniques on all things digital. He was my tutor when I studied for the IDM's Diploma in Digital Marketing and happens to be based down the road from us in Derby. He's also spoken at our DMA North's annual conference on digital trends. His series of quick guides cover the following which he presents as 10 key factors for marketing success in 2012:

1. Digital marketing is Marketing
2. You need a strategy
3. Measurement and optimization are your foundation
4. Joined-up, customer-centred marketing is essential
5. Keep communications human
6. Be agile
7. Inbound marketing trumps outbound marketing
8. Engagement is the real challenge
9. Think global, act local
10. Markets are conversations

Here's a short video we helped produce to promote construction as a real choice for young people considering their career choices.

We're pleased to announce that the agency has won a coveted place on a new framework to supply design and branding services to the Department of Education.

This creative and media services contract is in fact open to all government departments and the wider public sector. It's being managed by Creative Choice - a Community Interest Company - who will procure a range of marketing services including strategic communications, design and direct marketing from this agency along with several other communication agencies regionally and nationally.

We've developed strong expertise particularly in education and training and are delighted to be part of this new government initiative. As this framework is open to wider government departments as well as non-departmental public bodies we're excited about the new opportunities this appointment will bring.

This Christmas we're raising funds for St Giles Hospice in memory of our friend and colleague – Kevin McCabe – who died this summer after a long battle with cancer. Kevin was a rare creative talent who worked with us for over 10 years and who inspired us with his humour and optimism. St Giles Hospice, who provide specialist nursing care for those with cancer, cared for Kevin.As they rely almost entirely on public donations for their funding, we wanted to support them this Christmas.

To find out more about fundraising on eBay and to see what we’ve got listed click here. Please bid for anything that takes your fancy and if you’ve got something to donate send it to us and we’ll list it on your behalf.

Earlier this year I trained as a Restorative Justice practitioner. Restorative justice is a fantastic concept which allows victims of crime to sit down with the perpetrators to agree on a way of putting right the wrong. Some of my colleagues have already been involved in local projects where young people have worked hard to put something back into their community to make up for crimes such as graffiti or vandalism. It's a great way to show people the consequences of their actions, as well as helping the victims of crime to feel that they have been listened to, and that the perpetrator has gone some way to make amends. Watch this space for more news!

I had an interesting day yesterday doing mock-up interviews with the Staffs Uni Advertising and Brand Management students. There were some real shining stars and some real talent that just needs some fine tuning. What's interesting about the course is that it replicates the real agency environment, giving students an understanding of the fully integrated agency process, often working on live briefs. A competitive advantage for the students and a real benefit for employers...

Last week the team were interviewed by our Investors in People accreditor in the final part of our reassessment for the Investors standard.

We've been accredited as an Investor in People since 2004 and were pleased that not only do we meet the standard but have now been awarded the higher bronze marque. For this agency the Investors marque is simply a away of confirming that the way we treat staff and communicate internally exceeds best practice standards.It also sends a strong signal to those we recruit that we always look to get the best from people. Congrats to all!

We all take our responsibilities to the environment seriously. Yet as an industry we make a significant contribution to waste going to landfill and to carbon emissions. Our trade association - the DMA - has now made a voluntary agreement with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to reduce the amount of unwanted advertising material produced and to cut waste through greater recycling.

The key objectives set out in the voluntary agreement are that by y 2014 the direct marketing industry will have to achieve a 25% increase on the industry’s current use of suppression files, launch an ‘all-in-one’ consumer preference service for unaddressed mail, maintain public awareness of the consumer preference services and retain established direct mail recycling rates.

This is significant not only because we now have set targets for reducing waste but also makes it shows that self-regulation can indeed work.

Ex-labour spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, presented the PR Week awards last night the first of which went to Blackpool FC manager Ian Holloway who received one of the loudest cheers of the night.

Campbell wrote on is blog: "Some of the judges were worried that their peers would not quite understand why football manager Ian Holloway was being so honoured – indeed Mr Holloway himself felt the same – but their concerns were misplaced, even before the video highlights of his best outbursts were shown.

Over dinner the Blackpool manager who brought a breath of fresh air to the Premier League and whose after match interviews became must viewing for football fans and comms students alike, gave me his version of how he developed his own unique brand of interview style. He credited two life changing events, both of which required him to make huge changes in attitude and lifestyle. The first was his wife’s cancer. The second was the discovery that due to a genetic condition, his three daughters were all born profoundly deaf. The first of these taught him the value of life, the second the importance of clarity in communication. Holloway’s appeal is that in a world fed up with pre-packaged everything, he says what he thinks, and thereby passes the number one rule of communication -authenticity."

Take a look at this compilation of interview snippets and see if you agree.

Today's updates from the DMA conference are all top tips. All of the organisations represented at the event are responsible for successful marketing campaigns via a number of different channels. Here are some of their secrets of success:

1. Aviva - anchor your marketing in a single strategic platform. Theirs is - 'one satisfied customer after another'
2. Synapse - align your social media marketing with your KPIs and constantly measure it
3. Wunderman - assign the right people to the job - 'the people who can make it possible are different to the people who can make it happen'
4. ITV - content needs to live and breathe across all of your different platforms
5. Latitude - photos and prices in your Sitelinks will help drive conversion

More top tips to follow...

Yesterday's DMA North Conference (in conjunction with the IDM) at the Lowry in Salford Quays provided me with lots of great food for thought. Over the next few days, I'm going to share my key learnings from the event. Here are today's five which all fall under a community engagement theme:

1. TV has now become even more entrenched in social media, as evidenced by Aviva, whose ident campaign around Downton Abbey was instantly critiqued by customers and opinion formers via the social networks, and ITV who are driving greater customer engagement by driving customers to engage in discussion about live TV via their websites.
2. Every advertiser must have a mobile strategy. As 1 in 7 searches are on mobiles, if you don't have a mobile strategy it's like closing your business on a Thursday (original quote, Jason Spero, Google).
3. Mobile phones provide an opportunity for greater engagement and dwell time. The average app session is 4.3 minutes, compared to 1 minute for an average web session.
4. The key to differentiation according to Gregory Roekens is to stage experiences for your customers.
5. We must engage to be remembered. Long term memories are created when we have an emotional connection to an experience or visual, according to Lisa Tomlinson.

I'm off now to put some of this into practice! Thanks to the team at the DMA North, including our very own David Patrick, for a fascinating and insightful day.

The BBC's excellent business programme 'The Bottom Line' usually presented by Evan Davies was this week hosted by the BBCs Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders. The main topic of conversation was the power of direct marketing. The contributors were Richard Harpin, chief executive of Homeserve; Nick Wheeler, founder of shirt company Charles Tyrwhitt ; and Charles Cohen, chief executive of the mobile gaming company Probability.

Richard described direct marketing as the saviour of their business while Nick emphasised how simple techniques to personalise their direct mail such as signed letters from him as Chief Exec literally paid dividends. It was also interesting to hear them all talk openly about their response rates and what proportions of their revenues they spend on marketing, 50% in the case of Charles Tyrwhitt. Fascinating stuff. You can listen again on the BBC's iPlayer here.

I had a great day at the 2011 Construction Diversity Expo on Monday, suitably held at the architecturally breath-taking Guildhall in London. As you would expect, there was a diverse crowd and some really inspirational speakers. A particular highlight for me was Dawn Gibbins (formerly of Flowcrete and of Secret Millionaire fame) who burst onto the stage and won everyone over with her effervescent personality and unique perspective on the construction industry. I also enjoyed the panel discussion where Loraine Martins of the Olympic Delivery Authority spoke with real conviction and Val Lowman OBE (Director of BeOnsite) put forward a compelling argument that a diverse workforce is quite simply good for business. I also enjoyed meeting the head of Women Working in Construction (www.wwicgroup.co.uk) and came away with lots of inspiration. Now I'm off to see how I can put it in practice...

Someone isn't taking their equal ops responsibilities seriously. This job ad refers to the post available being subject to "the usual rubbish about equal opportunities..." Red faces all around in the marketing team at this hospital. Their response: "The wording on this advert in no way reflects the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust's position in relation to equal opportunities, to which it is fully committed."