FTPB - News

FTPB News n° 10 - 08 February 2008

The end-of-year break feels like it happened a very long time ago, and 2008 has got off to a very busy start here at FTPB — no doubt something many of our readers have experienced too, in their own field of activity.

Among the companies we are currently working with is Espace Loggia, which is already well known in France. It is an interesting interior-design company that was actually founded by Brigitte Bardot’s sister. Its furniture range and interior-design solutions make it possible to optimize one’s living space.

They include beds that it is possible to move about a room (some models can be raised so that they fit right underneath the ceiling in the most inconspicuous of ways), which is ideal to increase one’s living space (for example, for occupants of studio-flats). Espace Loggia also offers a range of mezzanine-style beds (for children’s bedrooms, for instance), among other innovative and stylish options.

FTPB will issue a press-pack on the company shortly and, if you would like more information about them (out of professional or personal interest), get in touch with Ms Kate Ambler, FTPB Press Officer.

We also have several press trips in the pipeline, as the expression goes. The first one is to take place shortly (7 to 9 March) and will take journalists to the mountain resort of Saint-Lary, which is near Pau (in the Pyrenees, not far from the Spanish border). The organisers over in France are keen to promote this interesting and attractive spot, and we would like to hear from journalists and editors working for magazines focused on tourism and travel to France, as well as women’s magazines.

The press trip promises to be good fun and will feature (on the Saturday) the opportunity to attend the final of the Rip-Curl & Sprite European Girls Tour, which will include ‘freestyle skiing’ and snowboarding demonstrations. A top-of-the-range spa treatment is also among the unmissable perks participating journalists will get to enjoy!

The other two press trips we have been working on will take place in early April and are rather more focused on nuts and bolts — but next-generation nuts and bolts, as it were, which not many people are capable of making. The first press trip will take a delegation of British journalists to Besançon, in Franche-Comté (a region of eastern France that is next to Burgundy). The focus will be high-precision engineering and components, which have applications in a wide range of industrial sectors (from aerospace and automotive to the medical-equipment field).

The two-day press trip (2 to 4 April) will be of interest to publications that are more generalist in their approach and cover developments in engineering and advanced technology across the board. The organisers are keen to promote the technological and industrial excellence of a region that is not so well known — and unfairly so — in the UK. Besançon will host the Micronora trade show on micro-technologies in the autumn.

The third press trip will also take place in April (1 to 4 April) and will focus on the region of Annecy, in Savoie. Journalists will get to discover the pôle de compétitivité (or competitiveness cluster) known as ARVE (Industries Haute-Savoie Mont-Blanc). This part of France also has a long tradition of manufacturing and technological excellence, initially centred on watch-making (as is the case in nearby Switzerland).

Today, mechanical engineering and micro-mechanics are just two areas where the ARVE high-tech cluster boasts outstanding expertise, and the press trip will give journalists the opportunity to learn more about all of this.

If any of the press trips above fits in with the topics your magazine covers, get in touch with Kate as soon as possible, since she will be contacting potentially interested journalists very shortly. There are other projects we are currently working on — including the promotion of Corsica’s food-and-wine sector — and I will be able to tell you more about those in due course.

The wide variety of stories featured in the February issue of FTPB News attests to the range and breadth of our public-relations activities: you will find stories on advanced communications systems with defence-related applications (Spectracom); on technical textiles known as ‘architectural textiles’ (Ferrari and a tie-up with the next Rugby World Cup in New Zealand); on cutting-edge service-oriented technical-computing platforms (Fujitsu); and on equipment for horse-riding enthusiasts (EQU’ LA and Devoucoux) .

There are many more, including all you ever wanted to know about WEEE — not a regal form of expression, or something else, here, but the EU directive on the recycling of electrical and electronic waste, as I am sure you knew already.

I hope you will enjoy reading the February issue of our bulletin. The next issue of FTPB News will come out around mid-April.

Philip Jolly, Managing Director, FTPB

Construction & Architecture

Electronics & Engineering

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Construction & Architecture

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