Day 2 Carbon Footprints Conference

I roasted all night, my luxury bed was wasted... :-( I couldn't sleep as it was way too hot in the room and when I opened the window it was London outside and the sound of people, traffic, police sirens and so on was more than I could take. Ah well. Just as I headed for breakfast I figured out the air conditioning. Damn.

Dave and I had breakfast and straight after I headed off to the Zambian Embassy to get my visa. Using the superb new Google Maps for Mobile I quickly found which tube station was nearest to the embassy and made my way in the humid heat through the underground system over to 2 Palace Gate.

This is what I saw when I got there.



I was so annoyed. I'd nearly chosen to go on Thursday, but now I'll have to come back to London again next week.

I hurried back to the conference and arrived just in time for the mid morning coffee break. Our stand had several people around it talking to Dave and people were all saying very positive things. If something doesn't come of this I'll be surprised.

Later on Tim arrived and after lunch did his presentation.



This was one of the best presentations I've ever seen Tim do. He had the audience in his hands even though it was the graveyard slot. They laugh and clapped at his jokes and it went down very well. I think its going to take more of this to engage people in this somewhat dry topic.

Following his presentation at the mid afternoon break our stand was full of people. Lots of companies wanted to know more about what we do and we had a number of very significant leads.

At the end of the afternoon I went to the conference office to collect our packaging for our stand and equipment and to my horror discovered that the Hotel had thrown our packaging away complete with the expensive display stand carry cases. I couldn't believe it. The Russell Hotel was a complete shambles the whole time we were there. They were unable to sort out the internet for us and lost our stand when it arrived by courier. Having been told they could store it all for us till next week to be picked up by courier, we were then told that there was now no secure storage left. At the end of the day the level of service and so on I don't think deserves the 4* rating the hotel has.

Anyway - managed to get it all packed up in some old boxes and left the lot with the conference organisers to look after. Must remember to get the courier to pick it up from them next week instead of the Hotel. Arghhhh.

The conference over, Dave and I headed for some food, while Tim and Tim K (see Steal This Brand Blog on left) tried to record a podcast with some others.

Having never been to a Yo! Sushi bar, Dave and I gave it a try. And very nice it was too.



Then we headed back to Paddington on the Underground. Now for those that don't know, Friday is always busy. Getting out of London via Paddington always a nightmare. This friday tho is the start of a public holiday weekend and school half term and everyone seemed to be travelling.

We witnessed a very nasty situation at Kings Cross Station underground station where simply too many people were going down the escalator. The people at the bottom couldn't clear the space quickly enough and all of a sudden the people coming down started screaming as they all piled into the waiting crowd. Amazingly no one seemed to have been injured despite the pile of bodies that very quickly formed at the bottom of the escalator. I wish I'd had my camera handy as it was a frightening thing to see. The station gauards were simply unable to control the huge numbers of people.

Eventually we made it to the large concourse at Paddington station which was similarly crowded.



30 mins or so waiting and we managed to scramble onto our train. Again confusion there were 2 coach D carriages. So all the reserve seats were screwed up. We did manage to sit for a few minutes, but there were others more in need of a seat than us, so we gave up my place to a pregnant lady.

The train was like a sardine can, with people packed in and not a space to move. Keep in mind these trains travel at over 100MPH!



Not a pleasant journey or end to the good couple of days.

Eventually arrived home around 9.20pm.