Nuance on track (and treadmill) for supreme fund-raising effort

How’s this for a heavyweight team set to participate in the forthcoming Moodie Multi-National Marathon? • Roberto Graziani • Chris Wood • Andrea Belardini • Alex Anson • James Turl • Clara Helmlinger Yes, it’s a team from The Nuance Group and it’s absolutely great to see the company’s President and CEO Roberto Graziani (pictured above) leading a fellow management team

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Welcome to the ‘Trinity Walk’

You’ve heard of The Trinity Forum, now welcome to The Trinity Walk. In this case the industry ‘Trinity’ compromises three suppliers representing three categories – confectionery (Martyn Westbury, Mars), fragrances (Jan Kristiansen-Binder, Coty) and liquor (Peter Ayling, Taittinger). This real-life Trinity partnership will be undertaking a 3.5km mile walk in Cardiff on Sunday 12 December

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Hand in Hand for Haiti takes shape

Great news reaches The Moodie Blog from Haiti, where yesterday saw an important landmark for Hand in Hand for Haiti. As reported, the travel retail industry-funded charity is building a school in the town of St Marc, to help the reconstruction of Haiti after the tragic earthquake in January this year. In June Hand in

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Closer to the bone

Comin’ from the heartbeat. Nothin’ but the truth now Everything is sweeter, closer to the bone – Kris Kristofferson Every time I find an excuse to be fearful I discover a reason to be strong. My recent Blogs on the medical challenges I face seem to have struck a chord with many people. The feedback has

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M&M’s stay cool in marathon preparation

Meet the M&M’s marathon team, pictured in intensive training for the Moodie Multi-National Marathon to be run between 4-7 March 2011. Confectionery house M&M’s has kindly agreed to sponsor this unique event, which will see travel retail teams from all over the globe putting together six-person teams to run a combined marathon and help raise

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Going Gaga

The beauty bloggers went into overdrive earlier this week, as Women’s Wear Daily broke the news that Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – better known by her stage name, Lady Gaga – had signed a fragrance licensing deal with Coty. Lady Gaga and that, ahem, tasteful meat ensemble It’s certainly a major coup for Coty, which

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The dancing of the Northern Lights

“People always ask me how do you drink Scotch? I reply, ‘You’re  either left handed or right handed’.” Meet Willie Tait,  Master Distiller and Isle of Jura Ambassador at the Whyte & Mackay owned malt whisky maker. Willie was on hand at London Heathrow Terminal 5 this week as part of the airport company’s excellent

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A fateful roll of the dice

Two men. Two fates. Two vividly contrasting sets of emotions. This week I underwent a medical procedure known as an endoscopy, a miracle of modern science in which a camera is fed down your throat complete with forceps to photograph and if necessary biopsy a particular organ. All that’s missing is Steven Spielberg directing and

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Devastation in Christchurch – but no lives lost

[Photo: The Press, Christchurch] My thoughts go out to the people of my home town Christchurch and the province of Canterbury after the devastating 7.1 degree earthquake that hit the region on Saturday morning. Amazingly, although up to 100,000 houses have been badly damaged and many business buildings in the central business district condemned, no-one

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A priceless exchange

I am not a deeply religious man but in illness I have found a spirituality I did not think existed. Not just in myself but in many of the people I know in this great, warm and embracing travel retail community. No-one will ever tell me again that we are a superficial sector that simply

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Let it rain

Let it rain, let it rain. Let it rain, rain, rain – Eric Clapton Faced by volcano ash clouds, a weak currency, collapsing travel companies and British Airways cabin crew strikes, who could blame millions of Britons for becoming ‘staycationers’ this year and shunning foreign holidays? Formerly strong forward booking trends for foreign holidays have stalled

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Ivo bowls them over

Anyone who knows Ivo Favotto, The Nuance Group’s Executive Vice President Strategy & Business Development (who is set to return to his native Australia to become Director – Sydney Airport for the company), knows that he plays a straight bat. The down-to-earth Italian Aussie is one of the good guys in this business, someone who

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Eton Mess anybody?

Now this is what I call a promotional campaign with taste. And it’s exactly, exactly, the sort of thing that airports should be doing to promote their country’s culture, crafts or traditions. Passengers flying through Heathrow Airport are to be treated to what we are promised will be the ‘best bites of Britain’, to mark

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