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Let a little sunshine into your life

Here’s something to cheer you up.

There you are, sat at that screen for 10 hours a day, wondering where your next lead’s coming from, putting off phone calls to good contacts because newsdesk is screaming for more NIBs, wondering if the boss will let you put a KitKat on your exes because last night’s council meeting went on till 10pm, aching to get out of the office for a few hours in daylight – just once – thinking “I really ought to get home a bit earlier to see the kids….”

And what are the top brass doing about it? Do they take your concerns seriously? Isn’t that what Investors in People is all about?

Take heart, my downtrodden friends.

News to cool the fevered brow reaches me from the Commonwealth Press Union.

It’s time for their biennial conference and, since all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, they’ve decided against a smoke-filled room with endless cups of black coffee as they debate topics such as:

  • As readership grows ever more aware and discriminating, how do editors and publishers manage to keep all their constituencies happy, despite evidence borne of ethnicity or gender?

    Speakers at the three-day event will include the Rt Hon Don McKinnon, Commonwealth Secretary General; Les Hinton, chief executive of News International Inc; and Jack Fuller, president of the Chicago Tribute.

    Entitled “The Rhythm of the Islands”, the conference will open on October 31 with a ceremony attended by the Rt Hon Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of Barbados (oh, didn’t I mention it was being held in Barbados?), followed by a welcome reception and dinner. Sessions start in earnest the following day and continue until November 3, when they conclude with a sunset cruise around the island and a gala dinner on board.

    The conference takes place at Almond Beach Village, St Peter, half an hour’s drive from Bridgetown, and the CPU newsletter says reassuringly: “For those with energy left over from the conference schedule, the resort faces on to the ocean and has a range of extra-curricular facilities available, including a nine-hole golf course.”

    There, doesn’t that feel better?

    Anything that really gets your goat, or just pushes your buttons? Heaven or hell, tell us about it.
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