Copywriting - May 2008 - the open water season starts

May is traditionally when the open water training season starts. This roughly translates as "the time of year when Nicola spends four mornings a week swimming in cold water". She makes sure her fingers thaw out by the time she's at her desk. (To see what she's training for, check out the "Channel swimming" pages on this site).

Work seems to be getting ever-busier for Nicola. In May, she ran a hugely successful annual conference for the Institute of Family Business, which she took over conference production duties for last year. (She wrote their web-copy too, as it goes). Her speaker from Australia - who she somehow managed to secure without a fee or travel expenses (she's still trying to work out quite how that happened) - went down a storm. Thanks, Hugh.

She also continued to work on events for CIBSE. She has taken on the bulk of their conference production work and enabled CIBSE to cease their search for an extra full-time member of the team. "We have been really happy working with you and we would like to continue to ask you to write our conference programmes in the Autumn and beyond," CIBSE said.

Nicola wrote monthly newsletters for various clients, including the London Photographic Association and Assorti.

Also on behalf of the London Photographic Association, Nicola continues to write online profiles for their members: this month included Robert Dowling.

Something a bit different: Nicola was asked by Aussie swimwear brand Zoggs to come and "coach" some newbie triathletes at Dorney rowing lake during one of their Open Water Swim introduction days. Nicola really enjoyed giving something back to the sport and trying to impart some of her passion for open water. She won't lie, though: it got pretty chilly standing in that lake for hours!

She wrote various pieces for magazines, including two for newly-launched publications. Sweet is a glossy health and lifestyle magazine for anyone interested in avoiding, or at risk from, diabetes. Triathlete's World is a new launch from the well-known Runner's World brand. Nicola had some super feedback from the Triathlete's World editor - "Your 'turning runners into cyclists' piece was great - if all the mag's writers had such a good grasp of the subject matter and target audience my job would be much easier!" - and the Runner's World website has chosen her article as the only one from the magazine to showcase the new title on its homepage!