Monday, December 17, 2007

Year in review


How quickly the year has gone! Here are some of the highlights (and lowpoints!) It started off for me in London after my mother was taken ill at Christmas and admitted to hospital. Fortunately after several weeks, she made a remarkable recovery and is in much better health this Christmas! Long may it continue.

In February I visited a law firm client in Christchurch, the first of several visits there in 2007. In March, I was able to attend the Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival and listen to many fabulous artists including one of my long term favourites, Larry Carlton.
In April I paid my first ever visit to Lisbon to address a law conference for a UK law group on the topic of 'Pricing Strategies'. After an enjoyable trip to California and New Zealand on the way home, I returned to Portugal to discover the translated version of my latest book 'Why Entrepreneurs Eat Should Eat Bananas' had made the top ten best selling business book list in that country. After giving the keynote at a conference on Entrepreneurship in Lisbon, I returned to Australia. The Dalai Lama visited in June and I was one of 12,000 odd to attend his talk in Brisbane.In July, my partner Sue and I drove up the east coast of Australia to Port Douglas and back. A round-trip of 4,500kms. Quite a trip but large parts of the trip were uneventful. The town of 1770 stands out as the highlight. In August, I launched this blog! In September, after addressing the NZ Mortgage Brokers Annual Conference in Rotorua, I hosted the Future Firm Forum in Ohakune New Zealand. About a dozen people attended what turned out to be an outstanding event thanks to the contributions of various facilitators including Gerry Riskin. The event will be repeated next year. Not for the first time, Sue and I were charmed by Ohakune and so we decided that towards the end of the year and over the summer period we would move across to New Zealand for the summer. Before then in October, here were a couple of major conferences to 'MC' in Australia. After a client visit to Melbourne in November, it was time to pack up and leave for New Zealand. So, here we are standing at the foot of volcanic Mt Ruapehu on a beautiful sunny December day! Wishing all clients, lawyers, law firms and visitors to my blog a happy festive season!