Do you stare at a blank computer screen wondering what to blog about or how best to describe your products and services in an exciting and eye catching way?

At any given moment hundreds, perhaps even thousands of critical decisions are being made. Decisions that will affect an organisation’s ability to generate revenue, control expenses and manage risk; in short decisions that will directly affect the bottom-line.

At our March Communications Breakfast our guest speaker Paul Fletcher told us “It’s impossible to predict the future but you can influence and guide the future”.

“How is the culture in your organisation or team?” That was the question posed by Claire Dunning at this month’s breakfast. Claire, founder of Dunning Creating Sparks is also one of Scotland’s top marketing professionals and Vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

We just want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and relaxing New Year with bells on. Take care and we’ll see you all back in 2013 to do it all again.

“Slap, Bang, Wallop” – what better way to celebrate two successful years of the Communications Breakfast than to raise a few glasses at the Corinthian Club during our recent ‘Comms Christmas Celebration’.

Most of your businesses will be based in Glasgow but have you given any though as to how you might build that business into an international one?

You’ve spent blood sweat and tears building your brand and reputation then unknowingly you do business with someone convicted of bribery and all of a sudden you and your business are in the spotlight – what’s that all about?

It was interactive; it was fun, thanks to our speaker Gordon ‘Glasgow’ Brown for sharing with us his celebration of creativity.

Gordon Brown, managing director of Circuit Break and creator of Brain Juice posed the question to the sell out crowd “What is creativity?”.

Our August guest speaker will be taking the breakfast ‘out of this world’. Gillian O’Neil, online video entrepreneur and co-founder of Moviecom.tv and 29studios, recently embarked on an amazing adventure to an Astronaut Leadership Experience in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia with a small group of like minded people including her sister Michelle Hynes.

At the highest levels being technically excellent is a given; so it’s vital that you develop the influencing skills that will give you the competitive edge. For those who need to motivate and inspire others, which is probably the majority of us, this has never been more important. Leaders need to get key messages across persuasively and clearly; with one of the principle challenges being to flex your communication style to suit diverse audiences and environments.

Digital Britain and its information economy purports to be clear, immediate and exact. Yet the return on investment in intangible assets which underpin this market is often unapparent, unforthcoming or just unfathomable. So, why bother invest in IP?

It was great to see the hoards of folk who flocked to the Comms Breakfast this month to hear about where businesses are on their social media journey.

STV are keen to engage with local businesses and they are doing a lot of ‘new stuff’ we probably arn’t aware of – that’s why in April we invited them along to tell us about ‘Digital STV – the Future’

To give us the low down on their vision and the reality of where TV is headed whom better than STV’s Chief Executive, Rob Woodward. So when he agreed to come along we were delighted.

O2 Ville is probably a lot like the town you live in today. There’s a great sense of community. People still go to work and enjoy the same kind of things… music, movies and family.

You’ve heard the hype about Cloud Computing making business life easier, but what is it and what can it do for you?

December; a time for celebration and what better way to celebrate the roaring success that is the Communications Breakfast 2011 than with a very special Communications Party.

In a tough economic climate accessing funds to start and grow a business is increasingly difficult. But now there’s an alternative source of finance. Crowdfunding is not only a worldwide phenomenon, it is the latest evolution in the way new businesses raise their start-up funds — in the ‘80s there was VC funding, the ‘90s saw the rise of seed capital, then came angel funding but the future is crowdfunding.

With over 120 million members LinkedIn is a living, breathing and growing network offering huge possibilities. But how many of us have accounts that are languishing in LinkedIn purgatory? Have we really grasped how to achieve success to deliver on our goals and business objectives using LinkedIn? Are we leveraging the relationships we have to create the relationships that we need?

‘Glasgow’s Miles Better’ well at least that’s what we were told back in the 90’s by a giant yellow Mr Man! Oh, how times move on and undoubtedly, now ‘Glasgow really is Scotland with Style’ with truly 21st century appealing assets that compete and win time and again bringing international visitors to enjoy Glasgow.

You’ve heard the hype about smart phones making business life easier. Are you committed to a contract but still only making calls and sending emails? It can be all very confusing especially when we’re being bombarded by new ‘Tablet’ technology as well – where to start?

Sales in ‘developing’ markets are absolutely soaring. Last year, Brazil saw a 12 per cent increase to £67million, Russia went up 61 per cent, India up 46 per cent and China increased sales by 24 per cent, to £55million. These figures sound exciting, but what’s really exciting is that we’re only scratching the surface of these absolutely VAST markets, the biggest potential sales territories on Earth.

Jules (AKA: Julian Westaby of Dunning) kicked-off the first ever Communications Breakfast with a broad topic. ‘Opportunities in Social Media’. A Full House indicated the type of demand for Communications knowledge and the interactive Q&A sessions proved that the audience had an appetite not just for bacon butties and coffee.

The measurement and intelligent management of emotions is now considered a vital component in sophisticated marketing and for staff development. It’s now crucial for companies to be able to measure how their social media campaigns are received and more importantly, how they make people feel about companies, new product launches and brands. Award-winning marketer Paul Fletcher, Director of Corporate Engagement – University of Edinburgh Business School lifts the lid on this new marketing science.

How many uses have you got for a paper clip? Hoss asked us to write down our ideas of how we could use a humble bit of bent wire. Most had quite a few but he suggested that if we were a bunch of kids, we’d be able to come up with much more! He wasn’t being derogatory, merely suggesting that conditioning can hamper unbridled creative thinking. Innovators ask daft questions, think up crazy options, create the unexpected. Yes it was all about innovation.