Leith is who we are.
Leith is where we are.
The Leith Agency's weblog.

Tuesday was another day of contrasts. The afternoon saw me speaking at the national annual conference for Hepatitis C in Glasgow. The evening saw me watching the winner of the French equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent – the delightfully named Incroyable Talent - break dancing in a theatre chock full of children.

The afternoon session possibly sounds more impressive than it was. In reality, I was half of a double act with Karen, one of our Government clients. We were presenting progress to date with the communications activity designed to raise awareness of Hepatitis C. She had five minutes on what we were doing next. I had five minutes on findings of two sizeable pieces of research which had helped to inform the what next.

Those that know me will know that I struggle to be succinct. So the challenge of condensing what I (sadly) calculated to be not far short of 25,000 words of debrief into 5 minutes was sizeable. And I think I might have hogged up to 6 or even 6 and a half minutes of our precious slot. Karen was far too polite to comment.

From one concert hall to another and back in Edinburgh, I headed along to the Festival Theatre (again!) for a rather fabulous show called Breakin’ Convention which has been touring after a spell in Sadler’s Wells. The French guy was accompanied by a mix of local acts and international acts including a spectacular South Korean crew, Myosung, performing a piece called The Revolution Will Not Be Supervised. I’ve never see break dancing that makes a political point. I would recommend seeking it out.

Last night, Brie and I were treated to the fiftieth anniversary production of West Side Story, at the very hospitable hands of the marketing boys and girls at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh.

The show was as you’d expect. Crowd-pleasing songs (though have you ever noticed that all the ones you like are stuffed into the first half with a pauce selection of curious discordant numbers and reprises peppering the second half), a polished and portable set (touring production), a cracking little orchestra, the most gorgeously voiced man as lead boy, Tony and a most suitably sweet girl as Maria.

But punctuated by ample refreshment breaks, poor Brie stood patiently through me talking wildly about my favourite subject all night. The experience was topped off with a chance to meet the cast in the bar, post-show.

I always get a bit star-struck in these instances so managed to choke out a ‘great show’ and then fell silent. The actors stared back expectantly. Emma said encouragingly that we worked for the agency that made the IRN-BRU ads. The actors stared back expectantly. And then luckily, as is often the way in these slightly awkward encounters, little knots of conversation distracted little groups of people and the Them And Us moment of awkwardness passed. I would be hopeless in Hollywood.

Anyway, I would thoroughly recommend a corporate hospitality package for anyone who has starry eyes and enjoys a night at the theatre. As this night had icing on top.