December 2010 Archives

These pictures live up to their billing as "12 Amazing Objects Made from Plastic Bags," which a well-meaning family member has sent me from Oddee, a website featuring "the odd, strange and bizarre things of our world."

They're quite impressive, and it is good to see plastic bags being recycled constructively, but you have to think "Why?" or "I bet that's scratchy on his back."

The Blog is enjoying a two-week end of year break, using up all the holiday days which should have been used up during the summer but somehow weren't. Nevertheless, it's hard to resist sharing another advance in the world of plastics.

Biodegradable pudding bin bags are apparently on sale at Nigel's Eco Store, and being recommended by the Times as one of its top five stocking fillers in its last-minute gift guide.

They're cute, but probably about as welcome as a festive gift as an ironing board cover.

At last a photo has been found of the moment when ICIS walked off with the Data Service of the Year Award at last week's RBI Achievement Awards.

Those diehards who were still there at the end of the evening accepted the award on behalf of the whole ICIS global team, 200-plus all around the world.

Click here for video footage.

I'm rather impressed with the new promo video for ICIS pricing reports. Try as I may, I can't find anything wrong with it, not even a spelling mistake. Perhaps the voiceover actor does get a bit carried away, but who can blame him?

At the ICIS Innovation Awards lunch, the winners were Tata Chemicals (overall and best product), Teijin (innovation with best environmental benefit), NiTech Solutions (SME) and Huntsman Advanced Materials (best business innovation).

John Baker, global editor custom publishing was there, and brought this photo back for the Blog. A full article will be in ICB on 13 January 2011.

The sponsors for the event, held on 10 December at the Lanesborough Hotel in central London, were Dow Corning (overall), CRA International (best product) and U.S. Chemicals (innovation with best environmental benefit).

To cover the annual meeting of the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) in La Quinta, California, ICIS has put together a digital review, with photos, video and written coverage.

It's very impressive, especially the video clips, and The Top 100 Distributors. This is the second interactive review that John Baker and his team have produced, following on from the first one at K-2010.

Click here to see the full wonders of the interactive digital review.

Great excitement at ICIS today after we scooped the top award at the RBI Achievement Awards last night. The whole ICIS team piled onto the stage to accept the award at the glittering awards ceremony and Xmas party at London's Battersea Evolution in front of 1,500 guests from across Reed Business Information.

The final award of the evening, for Data Service of the Year, came after ICIS individuals had also won marketing and sales awards for being star performers in their fields.

Some official photos will be out later in the day, but in the meantime we have Dan B's shaky footage on his mobile phone, which captures the thrills of the moment perfectly.

The mood was upbeat at last week's EPL in Brussels, I hear from our returning travellers. The aromatics guys were expecting a good first quarter, and the olefins contingent was pleased that this year had been better than expected, but wary about expectations to improve margins next year.

The guest performer Rick Wakeman put on a good show, according to ICIS delegates Nel, Truong and Julia. The audience enjoyed the music, and were relatively quiet and attentive, apart from one table at the back which had to be restrained - there's always one.

The Blog did catch some murmurs of discontent from dinner guests who thought that a 20-minute version of Eleanor Rigby in the style of Prokofiev was a touch self-indulgent. His patter was a bit corny, and one joke in particular was quite shocking, according to my informants.

Again the Brussels Hilton comes in for criticism. Serving dessert at 10.30-11.00 is way too late. The allocation of wine at the tables is always stingy, and the hotel itself is over-priced and gets shabbier by the day, said returning travellers.

(photo: Rick Wakeman at EPL dinner, Dec 2010, by Nel) 

Istanbul will be the venue for the summer EPL in June 2012.

That's fantastic news for anyone who remembers the last EPL (European Petrochemical Luncheon) in Istanbul, which was at the Ciragan Palace Hotel on the shores of the Bosphorous.

I do hope it's at the Ciragan Palace again - it was a wonderful hotel. The breakfast in the gardens was idyllic, and the after-dinner cocktail bar by the river with a band playing was definitely a step up from the usual post-EPL smoky bar of the Brussels Hilton.

(photo: Ciragan Palace Hotel)

The second sequel Lego Star Wars computer game is due to hit the shops in February 2011, the Blog reads in the weekend papers.

Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars is a traditional fantasy game starring the characters from Star Wars with an adorable Lego makeover.

Lego, made of bright shiny ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), is the perfect petrochemical toy, and this screen-based representation of its attractions is sure to introduce it to new generations of young followers. 

These are the responses to the question "Where would you like to see future European Aromatics & Derivatives conferences held?" as posed to delegates on the conference feedback form two weeks ago.

You've got to admire the guy who wrote "Hawaii." Not penned in by traditional concepts of Europe. That's real thinking outside the box.

Remembering my vocal complaints about the tiny bathroom at a Frankfurt hotel where we stayed for one ICIS Training course, my fellow trainer Nigel showed me this article on CitizenM hotel rooms in today's Guardian.

He says that we'll have to try out these compact rooms for one of our next Training courses, where the room is inside a shipping container, and contains all the elements of bedroom and bathroom in one space.

I'm still wincing at the idea of being able to reach out and touch the bed, shower and WC in the same room. Our colleague Kristian stayed in one in Amsterdam. They are very embarrassing for couples, we hear. 

WoZela! is an admirable scheme in South Africa to recycle leftover vuvuzelas from this year's FIFA World Cup, according to a piece the Blog saw on CNN in a hotel room on Friday.

"WoZela - make a difference, not just a noise," is the slogan of the scheme's competition.

Winning entries include earrings, lampshades, plant pots and table legs. Most coverage has gone to the earrings, but the Blog's choice would be the plant pots, unimaginative but useful.

(photo: Wozela)

This great billboard advert for waxing was up on a street in Shanghai last weekend, and the Blog had to have it.

The weekly ICIS Paraffin Wax report is a big seller and the leading benchmark for global wax pricing.  We know from recent discussions with our European readers that the market is getting ever tighter due to constraints on wax supply.

The ICIS report is widely used as a benchmark in the candle industry, but with advertising like this, and the well-documented increase in demand for male waxing services, the report should be a super soar-away success in 2011.

(photo: Shanghai Strip)

This PVC Pipe Instrument was showcased by Snubby J, a young performer who has apparently been on America's Got Talent.

Brian Ford in ICIS Houston put this video clip on the in-house yammer system, ostensibly to show the versatility of PVC pipes ...

(Photo: Craziest Gadgets)