ICIS Chemicals Confidential: March 2009 Archives

Live Twitter from NPRA Todd Buchholz speech

By Barbara Ortner on March 31, 2009 10:43 AM

us and texas flags.jpg I've been on Twitter for about two weeks and it still seems like a lot of fun, but now I see the early adopters are already jumping ship for the Next Big Thing. There's an email in the Blog inbox inviting me to join a Yammer group, when I've hardly grasped any of the fancier trimmings of Twitter.

Through the wonders of the Blog's #NPRA Twitter feed, Chris was twittering away all through Todd Buchholz's presentation on Monday morning and his tweets were feeding through live onto the Blog. Here they are:

At NPRA opening session. Former White House policy director Buchholz is keynote.	2:11 PM Mar 30th from web
NPRA President Drevna says that economy and new US administration presents a range of challenges	2:13 PM Mar 30th from web
Drevna says NPRA role is to challenge politically expedient, counter productive policies	2:16 PM Mar 30th from web
Distinguished Safety Awards to Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil	2:20 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz now speaking.	2:23 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz : New era of hyper competition is upon us, as building blocks of world economy have shifted around.	2:25 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Market capitalisation of Mattel (makers of Hot Wheels toys) is bigger than GM today.	2:27 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Credit ratings agencies were the C students from the biz schools who had to market the work of the work of the smart kids	2:40 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz recommends reading industry journals!	2:48 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz just worked a picture of Prince Charles looking at a bunch of sausages into his ppt	2:49 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Crucial for oil to stay at moderate level c.$50 bbl	2:53 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Forecasts signs of recovery in the autumn	2:55 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: The economy is lousy, however there are sign posts suggesting we are near the bottom.	2:55 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Unlike the 70s there is no wage spiral now. Thinks inflation has rolled over - everything is on sale, everywhere	2:57 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz quotes Warren Buffet - only when the tides goes out do you realise who is swimming naked	2:59 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: We are re-allocating how we spend money - in the US breast augmentation surgery is down 10%.	3:00 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: In the UK the tooth fairy is giving less	3:01 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Housing market will bottom in the summer.	3:03 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Some signs of stabilisation in job market	3:05 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Believes housing disaster would not have turned into recession if it hadnt coincided with commodity bubble.	3:07 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: The way out of recession is to give people with jobs more buying power, not government subsidies.	3:11 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Signs of hope from China, although nervous about view that China subsidies will save capitalism	3:13 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: US stimulus plan is "worse than useless"	3:14 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Spend isnt going into the right areas. Money going into government not manufacturing.	3:15 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Peak oil isnt the challenge. Peak people is the issue : we need more petroleum engineering students and ag scientists	3:19 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: We need to get out of recession without threatening globalisation and free trade	3:22 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Cap and trade may become less of a focus from the White House. Energy floor could be proposed to drive alternative fuels	3:23 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Despite the maelstrom we have opportunities for innovation and prosperity	3:25 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Joe K asks if Congress may introduce cap and trade just to raise revenue	3:26 PM Mar 30th from web
Buchholz: Bets that odds are less than 50% for cap and trade. Revenues only needed if moderate democrats cant restrain spending	3:28 PM Mar 30th from web

Click here for Joe Kamalick's full article on ICIS news from the presentation.

Top NPRA parties 2009

By Barbara Ortner on March 31, 2009 10:40 AM

Who in the real world gets invited to five parties in one evening? Even in these hard times, most of the regular NPRA parties were still on, even if some of them were a bit sparsely attended and doorkeepers were rather less strict about keeping uninvited guests out. Of course, everyone lamented the absence of the LyondellBasell casino party, but the Blog hears that delegates managed to grab a few moments to enjoy themselves nonetheless.

Here they are, the Blog's awards for Top NPRA parties 2009:

Most glamorous party: The Vopak party in the Presidential Suite on the 37^th floor of the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel, with a musical duo complete with tinkling piano.

npra P1010246.JPG

Best sushi party: Mitsubishi cocktail with wall to wall sushi.

Best afternoon party: ICIS open house cocktails on Sunday afternoon.

npra P1010239.JPG npra P1010238.JPG

Best after-hours party: Gantrade's late-night party at Michelino's, complete with endless margaritas and a C&W band.

Best outdoor party: The Kolmar party on an unexpectedly warm evening under a spreading tree in the stone courtyard of the San Antonio Plaza.

Scottish golf event hard to resist

By Barbara Ortner on March 30, 2009 12:08 PM

Gleneagles hotel and golf course.jpg SAN ANTONIO (Chemicals Confidential)--The Blog hears that some guests being invited to a petchems industry golfing event to be held at the prestigious Scottish course of Gleneagles this summer are reluctantly having to decline the invitation due to new more frugal policies on business travel and restrictions on accepting corporate hospitality.

However, some guests are getting around the problem by taking the days as holiday and attending in a purely private capacity.

The ICIS suite at NPRA 2009, San Antonio, Texas

By Barbara Ortner on March 30, 2009 9:18 AM

Photos of the ICIS suite in the Marriott Riverwalk (MRW) Hotel at NPRA on Sunday, 29 March 2009.

NPRA 2009: Photos of the Rivercenter lobby

By Barbara Ortner on March 30, 2009 9:08 AM

Thanks to Chris for taking a few photos of the Marriott Rivercenter (MRC) lobby on Sunday afternoon, the first day of NPRA. The conference has shifted its focus to the new Hyatt Grand this year, so there's a lot more space in the MRC lobby, where last year it was standing room only.

On-line conferencing - you can't beat the real thing

By Barbara Ortner on March 29, 2009 5:16 PM

SAN ANTONIO (Chemicals Confidential)--When times are hard and travel budgets are cut, conferences struggle to get the delegates. So consultant Dewitts moved its pre-NPRA Houston conference online, and our own Peter Taffe switched his booking from "the top boutique hotel in the US" to listening to the conference papers online.

What was it like, and could it compare to attending a real live conference? Well the simple answer is no.

"Dewitts see it as one-off. It might be the sort of thing we need to do at the moment, but you can't beat the real thing," Peter told me in the ICIS suite at NPRA today, after taking days to wrestle with the presentations from the comfort of his own desk in London.

"The conference slides were hosted on the DeWitt web site and you are given a password to enter and listen to the papers in your own time. There was no live question and answer session but you were encouraged to contact the speakers."

"A positive was that you could listen to the papers without the cost of travelling, but downloading all the slides was not easy."

"A big problem I found with an on-line presentation is that you get disturbed at your desk by people coming to talk to you or the phone ringing. If you attend a conference, then you can give the papers your undivided attention."

So it looks as if there's still some mileage left in the old conference format of travel and face-to-face networking.

The road to San Antonio

By Barbara Ortner on March 29, 2009 2:38 PM | 1 Comment

While the Blog took the simple flight-only route from Europe to NPRA, others took the more scenic Texas road trip, driving from Houston to San Antonio and taking in a few culinary and shopping diversions on the way.

The ICIS news guys from Europe piled into a rental car and drove the back roads via the Shiner Brewery (free beer!) where they picked up a local recommendation for a Texas barbecue place by name of Kreuz in Lockhart. It was here that the lads were defeated by a meal of "One pound of shoulder clod, one pound of pit ham, a pound of barbecue pork ribs, and three jalapeno cheese sausages, a stack of bread, some tortillas and some crackers."

kreuz barbecue texas.jpg

meat feast at Kreuz.jpg Others took the shopping route, at least those with euros or swiss francs to spend. At the Kolmar party on Saturday evening all talk was of the San Marcos Mall, midway between Austin and San Antonio, where a couple of the Swiss-based trader guys had bought 4 pairs of handmade shoes (buy 3, get the 4^th free), a pile of Ralph Lauren beach towels, Tumi suitcases, ruby jewellery, and handbags in a seven hour shop-till-you-drop foray.

Another trader based in Switzerland was buying up Swiss watches at La Cantera, where he told colleagues the dollar prices were half what he would have paid in Switzerland.

The bars of San Antonio

By Barbara Ortner on March 29, 2009 11:21 AM

san antonio riverwalk2.jpg The ICIS technical crew has been building all day Saturday - they are the advance guard moving into a city ahead of a petchem conference and turning an unpromising empty room into a wonderland of ICIS technology.

They know the petchem cities of the world like the backs of their hands: Monaco, Berlin, Vienna, Houston, Singapore and San Antonio.

So as we arrive in San Antonio for NPRA 2009, they share their tips about the nightlife on the Riverwalk ...

MadDogs

The techie favourite and the evening's starting point. It's got a Scottish theme, mini-kilts, loud music, karaoke and dancing.

Coyote Ugly

Bit more of a wild one. Staff and punters dancing on the bar. Always has hen parties with Texan girls keen to practise their English on visiting Brits. Don't ask for the water, cos you'll be wearing it (as per the film.)

Swig

Martini and very good cigar bar. All right if you like that kind of thing.

Bar Sirius

A serious shots menu on the wall. A bit heavy, and if you're from out of town you'll be the focus of everyone's attention.

PS Just to be clear about this link to "the film". It is to the film "Coyote Ugly." It is NOT a video of anyone we know dancing on the bar, as suggested to me by some German friends on the way in to the Mitsubishi party. They said they had been looking forward to getting home to a faster internet connection so that they could see the dancing!

Buzz words for this year's meetings

By Barbara Ortner on March 29, 2009 7:33 AM

I've been in San Antonio for less than a day and I'm already goggle-eyed with disbelief at some of the Top Buzz Words coming out of the mouths of otherwise normal people in conference meetings.

I think I would have to practise in front of a mirror before I could use these expressions with a straight face.

Top Buzz Words for the conference:

collocating - as in "co-locating chemical plants" (building plants next door to each other)

curating - use in "I'll be curating this meeting." (I'm in charge of this meeting, but I don't want to be too heavy-handed about it.)

offerings - "We'll be offering new offerings ..." (We have new products to sell.)

PS There's a funny list of banned jargon on the IT Projects blog at ComputerWeekly.com, including such classics as: "let's take that offline," "heads-up, "singing from the same hymn sheet," and "high altitude view."

The art of firing Singapore staff

By Barbara Ortner on March 28, 2009 7:04 PM

staff laid off in singapore.jpg SAN ANTONIO (Chemicals Confidential)--This email is doing the rounds about a fire drill in Singapore, but is it an urban myth or true? According to a diary piece in the Times:

The alarm went off at 4pm and employees duly filed out. No sign of a fire, but they waited for ten minutes anyway.

Then a manager made an announcement: "Dear employees, with melting heart I am making this announcement that for many of you this will be your last fire evacuation drill." Because of the recession, almost half the staff were being laid off. Those who were going would find, on trying to reenter the building, that their swipe passes would not work. The layoffs were being done this way to avoid "any violent outbursts inside the office".

Libya and Male Spas - In-flight Education

By Barbara Ortner on March 28, 2009 4:55 PM

ColSabrathaLibya second century theatre at Sabratha.jpg SAN ANTONIO (Chemicals Confidential)--Things I learnt from the in-flight magazine en route to San Antonio for NPRA ...

1 Libya is "North Africa's hottest destination." It had to happen. A Libyan petrochemical company visitor to London once gave me a glossy coffee-table book of the architectural sites on the coast. With the golden colours and the bright blue of the Mediterranean it looked a lot like Sicily, but without the tourists. Without any people at all in fact. I'd better get that book back on the Blog coffee-table before the hordes descend and the next summer EPL books into the Tripoli Hilton.

2 On the Beauty page, under the Five Best Urban Male Treatments, BA is plugging "The Blackberry Addict" spa treatment, £56 at Spa V, Hotel Victor, Miami (hotelvictorsouthbeach.com). What areas does that concentrate on then? Thumbs?

Manners Maketh Man

By Barbara Ortner on March 28, 2009 4:47 PM

SAN ANTONIO (Chemicals Confidential)--I had the nicest email yesterday, from a French contact. It read:

"Dear Mrs Ortner, Thank you very much for your below message - this is precisely what I need.. Thanks again."

It just shows there's no need to wax effusive to convey appreciation. A simple thankyou will do just fine.

(Click here for the Blog's views on How to be a Good Price Reporting Contact)

Customer Satisfaction Survey

By Barbara Ortner on March 28, 2009 4:36 PM

SAN ANTONIO (Chemicals Confidential)--After the Houston flight has taken off, a courteous and deferential flight attendant makes the mistake of choosing me to fill in the randomly distributed BA customer satisfaction questionnaire. Yes me, with my already well-formed opinions of BA terminals, customer service, queuing, cabin temperature and food, and then hours of flight ahead of me. He even gives me a pen.

I tick all the boxes at the extremes, expressing myself "extremely satisfied" and "extremely dissatisfied" at their every question, because I know from reading the analysis of our conference and training delegate feedback forms that only a few extremes will push the average score away from anything around the middle.

I then settle down and write a short and, I flatter myself, rather stylish short essay (no more than 200 words) full of penetrating insights in response to question 34 - "What aspect of British Airways' service on this journey are you least satisfied with?"

Still, I shouldn't really complain, because seriously all we care about is safety and punctuality, and this flight has managed both today, so I'm happy.

What is business casual for women?

By Barbara Ortner on March 27, 2009 7:22 AM | 1 Comment

Whereas business casual for men can be a source of endless hilarity, business casual for women is an altogether more serious affair. The fashion pages are full of advice about what constitutes a fashionable business casual outfit (4 inch heels, lipstick, flesh, layers and big jewellery) but from visiting chemical companies and holding our own training seminars across northwest Europe, a different picture emerges. This season the continent's petchem business women will be favouring:

1 black

2 trousers (not jeans)

3 wool (jumpers, tunics, thick tights, waistcoats, tabards)

4 low-cut tops (English women only)

5 any Blackberry

And for the US, it's all of the above plus flesh-coloured tights and acrylic nails.

While for Singapore, it will be pashminas and pastel-coloured jackets for warmth against the fierce air-conditioning.

Packing a laptop for NPRA?

By Barbara Ortner on March 26, 2009 5:40 PM

Is it worth packing a laptop to go to a conference like NPRA? Can't a Blackberry do everything you want while you're on the move? The extra weight in carry-on luggage and the nuisance of unpacking a laptop for security checks make it an extremely undesirable travelling companion, but if you're going to be writing articles and uploading pictures, a Blackberry just won't hack it.

But show me a cute little netbook, and that's another story. They are selling like hot cakes - 35 million this year, and 139 million in 2013 apparently - but a review of the top four netbooks in today's New York Times says cruelly:

"A netbook is a laptop with a shrunken screen, an undersize keyboard and a processor that's so slow, you'd have laughed at it in 2007. The netbooks' crucial attractions are tiny dimensions, light weight and low cost, usually $350 to $500. Otherwise, they're all about compromises.

The term "netbook" is a euphemism, intended to stress its main functions: e-mail, Web browsing, chat, Skype and word processing. The hope is to distract you from what netbooks are too feeble to do well: Photoshop, video editing, games and so on."

For more laptop blog postings, click here for:

Top 10 new technologies

Shouldering the pain of laptop use

Calculators are for wimps

Singing plastic egg

By Barbara Ortner on March 25, 2009 3:21 PM

My fellow blogger Tim has spotted this plastic singing egg, which sings out "Killing Me Softly" when your soft-boiled egg is done.

EPCA - record attendance, big names and Mercedes World

By Barbara Ortner on March 25, 2009 9:09 AM

The March 2009 EPCA Newsletter has just dropped into the Blog inbox, trumpeting the success of its last annual conference and giving advance notice of the thrills in store at its 2009 conference.

The first line states proudly: "With more than 2,158 registered delegates, EPCA reached an absolute record number of registered persons (at its September 2008 conference in Monaco.)"

With just days to go before the annual NPRA conference in the US - "the world's largest and most prestigious conference representing the petrochemical industry" - which announced last week that its registrations so far were at 2,200 - one could be forgiven for thinking that EPCA was showing a playful bit of competitive spirit here.

The theme of EPCA 2009 in Berlin was announced as "Turbulent Times for Chemicals: Coping with Challenges through Sustainable Development," and there are some big names on the programme including

Condoleeza Rice, US Secretary of State 2005-2009
Joshka Fischer, former Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor Germany
Nikhil Meswani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries
Stephen Pryor, Global President, ExxonMobil Chemical
Dr Gerd Leipold, Executive Director, Greenpeace International
Dr Ulrich von Deessen, BASF

In addition to the opening party at Mercedes World, EPCA will organise an exhibition "Sustainable Cars: Chemicals as Part of the Solution," in co-operation with Cefic, which will run for the duration of the conference.

(Click here for the EPCA Newsletter, but you will need your EPCA username and password.)

Since publication, EPCA has let us know that the exhibition is not a confirmed part of the programme yet.

Bulldog in the Texas bluebonnets

By Barbara Ortner on March 24, 2009 3:28 PM

English bulldog Grace in Bluebonnets, Texas.jpg

A lot of delegates on the NPRA list already have their out-of-office messages on, saying they're out of reach on the way to San Antonio via the delights of Houston. The weather forecast covers everything from "isolated thunderstorms" on Friday, to "sunny" and "partly cloudy" on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, then back to "isolated thunderstorms" for Tuesday. Temperatures are set to be in the mid 80s F, with a low chance of rain, so in that spirit, here's a topical photo of an English bulldog puppy frolicking in the Texas bluebonnets last weekend, sent in by one of our friends in Houston.

"The picture was taken in beautiful Brenham, Texas which is a little over an hour from Houston. Brenham is known for two things, Bluebell icecream and bluebonnets. Grace loves to go site seeing. She enjoyed the wide open field full of bluebonnets as much as we did, maybe even more as they tickled her little puppy belly as she scampered around in them. She skipped through them as though she had found paradise. Grace was so exhausted after her little romp, she snored the whole way home. English bulldogs have such funny personalities."

ICIS offices on Google Street View

By Barbara Ortner on March 24, 2009 3:06 PM

I think that by now we've exhausted all the fun to be had from Google Street View, but here's a couple of views to add to your collection.

ICIS Houston office

ICIS London office

View Larger Map
View Larger Map

Global polystyrene industry threatened by sheep

By Barbara Ortner on March 22, 2009 5:58 PM | 2 Comments

sheep grazing in Scotland.jpg An insulation material made from sheep's wool, which has won a UK innovation award this week, is set to "one day replace polystyrene and polyethylene as the packaging used to transport and store many perishables, such as fresh food," according to this article in the Sunday Times today.

There's just one problem ...

"The main problem... is price. A Woolcool box costs about 50% more than a polystyrene one."

And the banks haven't been very helpful ...

"The banks have been terrible lately," she said. "Working capital has been a big issue holding back our growth and product development."

It looks like the polymer producers can breathe a sigh of relief after all.

The grueling lipstick circuit

By Barbara Ortner on March 22, 2009 5:29 PM

rouge diorific lipstick.jpg It was a good day on Saturday. England did well at the rugby, my son came home for the holidays, and I was given a free goody bag from the Dior counter at Bentalls, featuring the new Rouge Diorific Long-Wearing True Colour Lipstick which I am going to test drive at NPRA.

I am under instruction to report back to Ash, the manager of the Dior concession as to how it holds up during the grueling three-day circuit of mwa-mwa conference air kissing, constant coffee drinking and margarita sipping.

Using New York plastic bags to promote a manifesto

By Barbara Ortner on March 20, 2009 4:43 PM | 1 Comment

New Yorkers carrying home their dry cleaning draped in plastic bags have found a picture of an island in an ocean, together with a manifesto.

"Dokdo Island is Korean territory," is the slogan being promoted by the 3,000 Korean-owned drycleaners in the city, according to this article in the New York Times today.

Big suitcases and guns - more business travel costs

By Barbara Ortner on March 20, 2009 1:08 PM

trunk suitcase luggage.jpg As if it wasn't already difficult enough for UK petchem travellers to decide what to pack for NPRA in San Antonio next week. By the time they've packed businesswear, business casual, ties, mandarin collar jackets, warm weather clothes and wet weather clothes, they'll be needing a monster suitcase. So now imagine my horror on reading this warning from British Airways today:

British Airways will introduce a charge for oversized checked baggage and a 'special bag charge' for certain items to cover the additional cost of handling these items ...
The charges are:

Introduction of a £25 handling charge for bags between 90cm x 75cm x 43cm (35.5ins x 29.5ins x 16ins) and 240cm x 75cm x 65cm (94.5ins x 29.5ins x 25.5ins) the maximum dimension.
Introduction of a £25 handling charge for firearms.

And that firearms charge is just the final straw.

Brad Pitt 'split from Jennifer Aniston because of chemicals'

By Barbara Ortner on March 20, 2009 9:29 AM

Brad Pitt was destined to separate from Jennifer Aniston and take up with Angelina Jolie because of chemicals, a scientist has claimed. Thanks to Mark W and Madelon for spotting this one for the Blog.

ICIS Training Seminars in Brussels

By Barbara Ortner on March 19, 2009 2:14 PM | 1 Comment

(Photos: the view from my hotel room at the Ibis on the Grasmarkt in Brussels)

It's Springtime in Brussels, and the city's cobbled streets and squares are full of people in pavement cafes enjoying the sunshine, smoking heavily and eating chips with mayonnaise followed by waffles.

But the ICIS Training seminars are not here in the heart of Tourist Brussels. They're a few stops away on the metro at the chic offices of the European Petrochemical Association (EPCA) in the smart suburb of Montgomery.

The group gathered for the seminars on Tuesday and Wednesday this week is a very jovial bunch. All of Peter and Nigel's jokes go down very well, and during the workshop sessions there are gales of laughter as the students take to spending billions of dollars like ducks to water.

A moment to savour is when one Swedish lady on the training course tells Nigel that "it is an honour" to meet him, since she has been reading all of his Chemical Insight articles on ICIS news. Nigel accepts the compliment graciously, although naturally we tease him about it for the rest of the week.

I notice that Peter has jazzed up his presentations with some very stylish photography. This is along the lines of "food porn," lavishly photographed designer food for glossy magazines, and "property porn," those photos of big houses to salivate over in the weekend supplements. Now there's "petrochemical porn" - ordinary household products beautifully lit and arranged with expensive accessories, which Peter has sourced (with attribution) from the websites of Ineos Vinyls, LyondellBasell and BASF amongst others. The photos on my presentations look a bit dusty by comparison.

The Blog's Prize For Making A Heavy Duty Industrial Product Look Green goes to one picture of a chunky black Goodyear tyre nestling in a bed of sweetcorn cobs.

SBR corn tyre Goodyear.jpg

Help us find our Longest Standing Reader

By Barbara Ortner on March 17, 2009 4:49 PM

woman reading icis chemical business.jpg I'm at the ICIS Training seminars in Brussels and as usual we give out free copies of our ICIS Chemical Business magazine (ICB, the Magazine Formerly Known As European Chemical News or Chemical Market Reporter), and during the workshop session I like to browse through the copy and pick up little snippets.

This week I see that we are looking for the magazine's Longest Standing Reader.

"Have you been reading ICB ... for decades? The search is on to find ICB's most loyal subscriber. Please contact us and let us know about your history? will.beacham@icis.com

Russian nuclear power beauty contest

By Barbara Ortner on March 16, 2009 6:09 PM

miss atom 2009.jpg Is there anything which sex can't sell? Apparently not, if this article in today's Sunday Times is to be believed.

In an eye-catching effort to brighten its image, Russia's nuclear power industry has encouraged hundreds of female employees to compete for the title of Miss Atom.

Third-placed Alyona Kirsanova, 22, posted photos of herself in a black bikini against a backdrop of giant cooling towers.

The official line on the beauty contest is that it is "open to women in Russia's nuclear industry and students in nuclear-related subjects." Oh Pu-LEASE.

Best steak in England

By Barbara Ortner on March 16, 2009 5:55 PM

Harry%27s%20Bar%20mother%27s%20day%20menu.jpg

On Saturday night I had the best steak I've ever had in England. It was at Harry's Grill Bar in Exeter, Devon, and it was really up to Texan standards. For proud parents visiting their student offspring at Exeter University (oh yes that's us), this is just the place to take them for a treat.

The bill came with this promotional postcard for the Mother's Day menu (next Sunday in the UK). I'm not sure if it's a bit gross in the context of a steak restaurant or just black humour, but it was unexpected and it made me laugh.

NPRA IPC - advance delegate registrations hit 2200

By Barbara Ortner on March 16, 2009 11:11 AM | 2 Comments

There's just two weeks to go until the NPRA IPC conference, and the organisers have sent out the advance registration list showing 2,200 delegates had registered by 9 March 2009.

The annual International Petrochemical Conference (IPC) of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) - "the world's largest and most prestigious conference representing the petrochemical industry" - will be held, as always, in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday 29 March to Tuesday 31 March 2009.

Click here for more pre-NPRA blog postings:

Are you wearing a tie to NPRA?

http://www.icis.com/blogs/icis-chemicals-confidential/files/2009/03/are-you-wearing-a-tie-to-npra.html

NPRA 2009 attendance expected down

http://www.icis.com/blogs/icis-chemicals-confidential/files/2009/01/npra-2009-attendance-expected.html

Dewitt cancels pre-NPRA conference, switches online

http://www.icis.com/blogs/icis-chemicals-confidential/files/2009/02/dewitt-cancels-pre-npra-confer.html

Mikhail Gorbachev to speak at NPRA Luncheon

http://www.icis.com/blogs/icis-chemicals-confidential/files/2008/12/mikhail-gorbachev-to-speak-at.html

As Attendees Drop, Tradeshows Focus on Quality

By Barbara Ortner on March 13, 2009 4:14 PM

Attendance at US trade shows and events in all industry sectors fell sharply in 2008, so exhibitors are now weighing up events on "attendee quality" rather than numbers, according to this article sent by my new friend Dan in New Jersey.

"According to "Determining Exhibitor ROI At B-to-B Tradeshow Events," 40 percent of survey respondents indicated that traffic to exhibits decreased in 2008. A show's past success (44 percent) was the second factor when deciding to exhibit at events, followed by topic/theme/content focus (41 percent)."

Cuts in business travel across the petrochemical industry have meant reduced attendance at many of the regular event fixtures on the calendar.

The Blog will be keeping a look-out for "attendee quality" at the next big petchem conference on the horizon, NPRA in San Antonio, Texas.

Chemicals to turn George Clooney's sweat into flavoured tofu

By Barbara Ortner on March 13, 2009 2:45 PM

The animal rights group PETA wants to change George Clooney's sweat into flavoured tofu. Through the magic of chemical flavours and fragrances, the distinctive Clooney sweat aroma could be produced on an industrial scale to flavour otherwise bland tofu, producing CloFu.

Derived from a donated sweaty towel which Clooney had recently used in a gym, CloFu would "help people be healthier and more environmentally friendly and will spare animals from being killed for the table," the president of PETA wrote in a letter to Clooney, according to this article sent by my fellow-blogger Doris in New York.

Scratches in car paintwork disappear with new PU-paint

By Barbara Ortner on March 13, 2009 12:05 PM

Scientists have developed a new self-repairing car paint based on polyurethane which mends itself in less than an hour when exposed to sunlight, according to this article today.

(Image from Daily Mail)

Are you wearing a tie to NPRA?

By Barbara Ortner on March 12, 2009 9:18 AM | 1 Comment

What is it with guys and their ties? Since the chemical industry has embraced business casual, open-necked shirts are the order of the day even for important meetings. And "Dress Down Friday" moves one step lower in the sartorial chain, from what I saw sitting in the reception area of Shell one Friday, to feature a lot of washed out blue denim. I don't believe that a tie has been seen in downtown Houston for many a long year.

Our American cousins have been sporting chinos and polo (golf) shirts to NPRA and other conferences for years, but European and Asian delegates have clung steadfastly to their suits and ties. Now this year, when non-Americans are going to be even more in the minority than in previous years, the peer pressure to shed ties will be even greater.

A debate has been raging on the letters page of the Times about the perceived pointlessness of ties. One writer described the tie as the "last remaining item of male attire to serve no useful purpose whatsoever," while another welcomed the tie-less but drew the line at string vests. More importantly for our industry, one letter noted that "a tie helps the older man to hide the rapid progression of a wrinkled neck."

For the final and comprehensive word on the subject, a link on Twitter has led me to the credo of the Mandarin Collar Society, champions of tie-discarding everywhere:

Neckties are often discarded when men reach a certain level of success and achievement.
Neckties are the bearers of bad news: They show and tell the wearer when he has gained weight.
Neckties have no obvious function other than as soup bibs, and something for adversaries to grab in a fight.
Neckties waste time, encourage tardiness, and contribute to trillions of lost work hours.
Neckties are increasingly uncomfortable as the Earth's temperature rises because of global warming.
Neckties are just fancy choke collars to impose conformity, invite enslavement, and remind the wearer that his superiors have him by the neck.
Neckties present health risks, choke off the oxygen supply, contribute to glaucoma, and are immediately removed in medical emergencies.
Neckties require expensive dry cleaning and waste money that could be spent on necessities, such as golf clubs.
Neckties cannot be worn with today's ultimate style statement, the mandarin collar.

Plummeting London hotel prices great for ICIS conferences

By Barbara Ortner on March 11, 2009 1:24 PM

London black cab sculpture with London Eye big wheel.jpg

Just heard in the lift that hotel room rates for conferences in London are now down to £100/night even at 5-star hotels.

Linda Lucas from our events team told me it was the same story everywhere, even in Dubai.

London is always a popular location for ICIS conferences but since our first Aromatics Conference here proved so expensive that it hardly broke even, we've held the event in cheaper places like Antwerp, Amsterdam and Cologne.

Maybe it's time to revisit London, with all these cheap hotel rates and the extremely feeble pound. Surely the few business travellers who are left out there would agree that London has a bit more to offer than Antwerp or Cologne ...

Click here for more advice on spending petrodollars and euros in the UK.

Inside Today

By Barbara Ortner on March 11, 2009 11:19 AM

My fellow blogger Adam Tinworth has tracked down this viral video from BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, which has gone out round the world today on Twitter. As you will see pretty quickly, it's a spoof.

Painting the Forth Bridge with epoxy

By Barbara Ortner on March 11, 2009 9:15 AM

painting the Forth Bridge.jpg What could be more like painting the Forth Bridge than ... painting the Forth Bridge? The endless task - once you've finished, you have to start again (like Camus' Sisyphus) - has become a watchword for endless tasks everywhere.

Only now a special "glass flake epoxy" paint is being used which will provide a once-and-for-all coating, so that Scotland's landmark bridge will not need repainting again for decades.

Bernie Madoff jokes

By Barbara Ortner on March 11, 2009 9:02 AM | 1 Comment

The petrochemical industry may be divided about the bailouts to banks and the car industry, but they are solidly of one voice on the subject of Bernie Madoff, the Ponzi swindler due in court on Thursday and expected to plead guilty. He is facing a 150-year jail sentence.

In gleeful anticipation of the speedy triumph of justice in the case, a few Madoff jokes have been going the rounds.

1 Congress says they're looking into the Bernie Madoff scandal. So the guy who made $50 billion disappear, is being investigated by the people who made $750 billion disappear.

2 The Obama Administration rolled out its much-awaited foreclosure-prevention plan on Wednesday nicknamed "The Ponzi Policy", saying if it could work for Bernie Madoff, it could work for the United States. The plan asks those facing foreclosure to simply send a cheque for a thousand dollars to the first name on the list, "Fannie Mae", then place their name at the bottom of the list, and ask 275 million friends to do the same.

3 "It looks like more than 13,000 people were caught up in that Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. You know what a Ponzi scheme is? That's where you throw good money after bad, or as the government calls it, a stimulus package." -- Jay Leno

(Photo from New York Post)

Even more bad news for plastics makers!

By Barbara Ortner on March 10, 2009 8:42 AM

Ed Cox of ICIS Heren, travelling in India, sends this piece for the Blog ...

Check out this photo from a rather remote part of India. I snapped this in Sikkim, a stone's throw from Nepal and Bhutan. Stunning place and very environmentally aware. On the same day the New York Times was reporting a ban in New Delhi imposing a five year jail term or 100,000 rupee fine on anyone caught carrying or handing out plastic bags. The Indians are on a mission!

Bring Your Gun to Work

By Barbara Ortner on March 9, 2009 4:37 PM

Petrochemical folk who are contemplating a March trip to Houston or San Antonio may be interested to see this Client Alert from a US law firm on the subject: Texas Legislature Considering New 'Bring Your Gun To Work' Bill.

Texas State Senator Glenn Hegar has proposed a new bill that would limit Texas employers' rights to prohibit guns in the workplace. While the proposed bill would not necessarily allow an employee to carry a licensed firearm while at work, it would allow the employee to store the firearm in their vehicle in a parking lot, garage or parking area.

Yellow ducks - more plastics in advertising

By Barbara Ortner on March 9, 2009 8:07 AM | 1 Comment

I've just remembered this ad was also on before the main film last night. Anyone who still has the ICIS yellow plastic ducks from conferences gone by, not to mention the Hilton Hotels tiny yellow ducks, will welcome this advance of the ducks into mainstream cinema. The advert is called "March of the Ducks" and has a slightly threatening voiceover from British screen heart-throb Sean Bean.

Orange animals - plastics in advertising

By Barbara Ortner on March 9, 2009 8:06 AM

No time for blogging today cos I've got two presentations to write by lunchtime, so here's a link to a good plastics ad I saw in the cinema before Slumdog Millionaire yesterday.

Budget time - EPL booms as transatlantic travel dies

By Barbara Ortner on March 6, 2009 4:25 PM

Brussels Palais de Justice.jpg After all the talk of falling numbers, the European Petrochemical Luncheon (EPL) saw a record March turnout in Brussels on Thursday.

An EPL spokeswoman told me that in the end there were 95 registrations, which was even an increase on last year's 90, and that some people had said it was because they weren't able to go transatlantic. On Thursday afternoon, there wasn't a seat to be had in the Hilton lobby, and the staff in the café and the smoky bar were run off their feet. We retreated to the lounge on the 24^th floor which is nice and airy, with free drinks and patisserie and a splendid view out over the golden dome of the Palais de Justice, still swathed in scaffolding after ten years.

Since everyone was watching the pennies, there was some creative managing of travel budgets. Two of my dinner companions told me that they had shared cars for the four-hour drive from Germany, to get around their company's ban on flights to EPL. At the cocktail party there was some speculation that they had saved a princely €30 a head by doing so, but that can't be true.

I too took the budget option, choosing a BMI flight which was fractionally cheaper than BA. Terminal 1 at Heathrow was deserted now that BA has pulled out - and the plane was empty. However, I hadn't appreciated that there was no lounge and not even coffee on the plane included in that price, so had to forgo my usual three fatboy breakfasts.

I even cut out the Brussels taxi driver, and discovered that it's just €5 to go by train and metro all the way from the airport to the Hilton at Avenue Louise. Predrag told me that he had had a mad driver from the airport, driving at speed and on pavements through town, and that the journey now costs €45 - which at the airport exchange rate of €1 = £1 is real money.

Hot topics at the EPL were Hilary Clinton, who was staying in the Hilton with her entourage, and when the styrene "bubble" would burst.

Click here for Madelon's news article on the confusion in the styrene market.

Let's get collocating - conferences fight back

By Barbara Ortner on March 4, 2009 9:09 AM

Cutbacks in business travel are reducing the numbers of delegates signing up for conferences, exhibitions and seminars, leading organisers to embrace all manner of imaginative solutions. My Houston colleague Stephen has sent me an e-mailshot from one organiser which has "collocated" three similarly themed events in one place - in Denver, Colorado on 14-18 June 2009.

"The 2009 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo is now collocated in with the 2009 International Distillers Grains Conference & Trade Show and the Advanced Biofuels Workshop."

I particularly like the slogans: "One place. One time. Three world-class events," and in these budget-focused times, "Three Events - One Trip."

US plastics industry association defends NPE2009

By Barbara Ortner on March 3, 2009 2:43 PM | 1 Comment

It's interesting to see the speedy, civilised and courteous manner in which the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) has defended its showcase NPE2009 trade show from rumours of exhibitor space cancellations.

In a reply on 1 March to a blog posting, followed by an email on 2 March to its wide mailing list, Bill Carteaux, SPI president and CEO, gave specific details of the space already booked, put it into context against the previous 2006 exhibition, and gave further details of the individual country pavilions, as well as names of sponsors, exhibitors and presentations.

The Blog takes its hat off to Mr Carteaux for this exemplary response. If only all industry trade associations were as PR-savvy.

Click here for the full ICIS news article.

PMMA stars on the BBC

By Barbara Ortner on March 3, 2009 2:00 PM

The decline of the Asian polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) business has come to the attention of the BBC, and is the subject of this video clip spotted by my colleague Linda on the BBC News website.

Tom Lane joins Houston-based ChemStar Inc

By Barbara Ortner on March 2, 2009 9:15 AM

The Blog has received an email announcement that Tom Lane has joined Houston-based ChemStar Inc in sales and business development, and will be working from Confluence, Pennsylvania. The company's products include: toluene, xylene, propylene glycol, DEG, glycerine and styrene.

Lane was previously with J&J Chemical America and Nova Chemical.