Tomorrow sees us taking a stand at Huntingdonshire Business Fair.  When I say “taking a stand” I mean that both literally and figuratively.

Literally of course we have a designated space in which to put up our pop-up banners and stand, smiling at passers by and wishing we’d worn more sensible shoes.  Figuratively though, we are taking a stand.  We aren’t bringing any printed materials.  Zip.  Nada.  Apart from our business cards that is.  Now, before you say anything, I know that we’ll be breaking the first commandment of exhibition attendance “Thou shalt spend a fortune on glossy leaflets, brochures and special show offers”. Bear with me - there's a good reason for it.

We’ve all been to exhibitions, trade fairs and shows.  We’ve all collected our plastic bags at the door and wandered round fresh faced and excited about all the goodies we can get our grubby mitts on.  Or is that just me?!  Anyway, by the time we’ve done the rounds of the stands, we are feeling rather more jaded and unimpressed, despite the mountains of paper leaflets we’ve gathered.

Answer me this.  Where does that mountain of paper go?  What do you do with it once you get it home, if in fact you even take it home?  Do you file it in the circular file?  Under “b” for bin?  I’m the first one to admit that if I’m feeling particularly enthused I might sort through it first but generally speaking, it all goes in the bin.  The recycling bin of course.

We’d rather just talk to people.  If they have any HR headaches and they want to talk to us about them, then great.  We’ll take their details and only send them information or talk to them about issues that are relevant to them.  We'll be keeping it simple.

That’s what I call taking a stand.