September sees the EVA conference on Payment Systems, which takes place at the smart Sheraton Airport Hotel in Brussels, on the 11th and 12th and is chaired by ‘our own' Jeff Allsop, Director, MEI International UK.

Two weeks later and the third Polish Vending Show is being staged in Warsaw (25th and 26th). Not that there will be many members of AVS there, as their own annual conference is taking place from 25th-28th, in the altogether sunnier Fuengirola.

Moving into October and the first two days of the month see the KioskCom Self Service Expo at Olympia. Admittedly, demonstrating some of the fringier, or maybe alternative, sides of vending, it is full of ideas and, therefore, worth a visit.

The better off among us (by which I mean you) can fly off to NAMA at St Louis for October 15th-17th. But you need to be in Paris from the 29th-31st for the rather more relavent Vending Paris exhibition. I like that one - excellent excuse to spend some time in one of the world's greatest cities!

Into November, and there's another exhibition in London, OOHLive (9th and 10th) which, as you might have guessed, focuses on the out-of-home refreshment market.

Then on November 25th Nivex North opens its doors at Old Trafford, Manchester. The only one-day show in the UK dedicated to vending (apart from from Nivex South, that is!), this is a must for all with the time (and energy) after three potentially hectic months.

Having said that, there's another, rather less upbeat, side to the current economic situation that should concern us all. I remember very well from my years in marketing communications that as soon as the economy took a dip, many companies took the knife to their promotion budgets. ‘The first (and easiest) thing to cut is the advertising budget', was the common theme. Some redirected some of the money into PR instead - missing the point that the two should go hand in hand in a planned campaign, and not operated in isolation.

The point? Well, promotion has to continue through the ‘poorer' times because, sure as eggs are eggs, we will emerge and customers' memories can be short. Leaving that aside, it's still essential to carry on doing the best we can now!

So don't slash the ad budgets, it's short-sighted and there are more worthy budgets to trim. Moreover, consider for a second that the industry media (and that includes VI, of course) relies on advertising revenue more or less totally to cover costs. If the industry is heavy-handed with the cutting knife there may be nothing to advertise in when the situation improves.

Help create a huge stir - here's another event in September that we can all be part of. Friday 26th is the date for this year's Macmillan Coffee Morning.

John Sewell