The Manchester National Meeting was full of information that you couldn't help but learn from. The day started with Derek Williams "Wow"ing us into realising that we should all be fans of Eddie Stobart if we want to understand marketing.

Then Will Kintish challenged us to thing about what did we want to do more of or less of - and what did we want to stop doing. One important thing we should all continue doing is raising our own profile, said Will.

In the afternoon, Derek Arden pointed out that we earn the average of the six people we are closest to. So if you want to earn more money, get some rich friends. And if you want to earn more use his negotiating tactic of saying "That's less than I normally charge" to anyone who comes up with a less than sparkling fee for you.

To end the day, Mike Ogilvie emphasised the importance of our branding and said that we need to take the risk away from our buyers by ensuring we emphasise the benefits we provide to them. And he said all that with a pair of red knickers in his hand...!

The meeting also marked a new departure for us - instead of having panel discussions, we enjoyed two interviews with each pair of speakers being interviewed by members of the North West Chapter, Eilidh Milnes and Enzo Calamita.