What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 8th Aptil 2013

Welcome to another week!

So that’s two short weeks out of the way and normal service resumes here at Cloud 9 Towers. We’ve having to be super organised currently (not that we are not usually anyway) but with so much going on, dates and diaries and schedules are even more important than ever.

What with closing dates for entries for the PRCA DARE Awards, Fresh and Brand You for Bristol Media, judging dates for the Midlands Media Awards and booking deadlines for the CIPR Northern Conference, as well as nominations announcements, meetings and the events themselves, it could be a bit of a blur without a proper schedule in place and those all important diaries.

This got us thinking a little this week about the good old diary, just who started the trend for them, the more famous ones that have been written, the introduction of the Filofax and in more recent years the  trend for electronically sharing dates through hubs.

After a bit of a search on Google, we discovered that the oldest diaries in existence stem from both the Middle Eastern and Asian cultures, although even earlier examples are still around, written in Greek by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the second half of the 2nd century AD. 

There is then a whole tale about Eastern Europeans and Japanese style diaries, but we are not here to deliver a history lesson, or indeed look at the stories based around some medieval chronicles and itineraries, which detailed their authors own opinions,  hopes and fears without any intention of publishing. Something many a youngster who hides their diaries away from prying adult eyes will recognise as an on-going trend!

 

In 1908 the Smythson company created the first featherweight diary, allowing diaries to be carried around, and it’s the introduction of this diary that we probably recognise most today. 

If you think famous diaries then you probably think Samuel Pepys, the earliest diarist who remains well known today, and of course that of Anne Frank, who wrote her diary whilst in hiding during the German occupation of Amsterdam in the 1940s. Otto Frank, Anne’s Father, edited his daughter's diary and arranged for its publication after the War.

And of course then there are the famous fictional diaries such as The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾  which was the first book in the Adrian Mole series, written by Sue Townsend, and Bridget Jones's Diary from 1996 by Helen Fielding.  Not to mention Diaries of a Call Girl and the Vampire Diaries, both more famous for their television presence than in their original literary form.

And then came the Filofax…

The Filofax was a 1980s phenomenon. Although the Filofax has a long history dating back to 1910, it was re-invented by Ian Logan, when he revamped the Filofax in 1980. The Filofax, like the mobile phone quickly became a desirable accessory for the aspiring Yuppie and its image was helped by being on sale in top designer Paul Smith's London store in the 80s.

The original idea for a loose leaf ring binder goes back to Philadelphia in 1910, when the Lefax organiser was invented to hold engineering data and in 921, a UK company, Norman and Hill, began making the Lefax.

The name Filofax (File of Facts) was coined by a secretary Grace Scurr, who eventually became chairman of the business, and in those days the Filofax was mainly used for military and scientific data. The transformation from personnel organiser to personal organiser was undertaken by David Collischon who bought the company in 1980 and asked designer Ian Logan to give the Filofax a new image.

The reborn Filofax had arrived with varying diary options, and forms for everything as well as pockets for credit cards and passports. You could and still can, buy a larger version for your desk or a smaller wallet sized version as well as oodles of stationery accessories to fill your Filofax.

The Filofax is still going strong today and even though it was much maligned as a Yuppie accessory (anyone who has not seen the episode where Dell Trotter is a Yuppie in Only Fools and Horses, a la Filofax is either too young to appreciate this or has no sense of humour).

Many prefer its simplicity and charm to the variety of electronic organisers that are available and I have to agree with them – even if the only diary pages I could find this year were pink…..

To be fair, most meetings and emails scheduling meetings these days are quickly followed by a confirmation email with just a calendar symbol and the details of where and when and who, even if not why.

And, most companies operate electronic diaries or regularly use things like Google Calendars on a regular basis.

So there you have it, diary info and in whichever form you use to make a mental note of dates, the following might be useful for you….

• Monday 15^th April : Bristol Media Brand You Awards Live

• Friday 19^th April : Discounted Ticket deadline for the CIPR Northern Conference

• Friday 26^th April : PRCA DARE Awards Entry Deadline

• Friday 10^th May : Midlands Media Awards Nominations Announced         

• Friday 17^th May : PRCA DARE Awards Nominations Announced

• Thursday 13^th June : Midlands Media Awards Ceremony

• Wednesday 19^th June : IPR Northern Conference

• Thursday 20^th June : PRCA DARE North

• Friday 21^st June : PRCA DARE Scotland

• Wednesday 26^th June : PRCA DARE South East  

• Thursday 27^th June : PRCA DARE South West & Wales

• Friday 28^th June : PRCA DARE Midlands

And we haven’t even mentioned Fresh or got as far as July….but more of that to come.

So get organised, get diarised and we’ll see you next week.

Enjoy!