I got an email the other day from IBM UK's head office. It came from the department which handles press and publicity for IBM's research and development centres, which have done ground-breaking work on a wide range of technologies, such as disc storage.
 
It was a "quick heads up that we have a new media relations manager for IBM in the UK following the departure of ...."
 
Just for the heck of it, I did a quick check back through my emails to confirm what I suspected. Although IBM's press office obviously has my email address on file, I've never heard from the press officer who is now leaving.

I suppose it is nice to know that in these hard times there are still a few pockets of luxury employment left.
 
The HDMI Organisation in California recently organised a "road show" with its top people visiting London, Paris and Munich to brief the press on the recently agreed HDMI 1.4 standard.

Ver 1.4 is hugely important because it enables 3D TVs, 3D TV receivers and 3D Blu-ray players to talk to each other and automatically set the correct display format; it also lets a TV set send digital audio back to an AV receiver; and it lets an HDMI cable work as an Ethernet connection. 

There is also a new HDMI Micro connector which is small enough to build into a cellphone. And an HDMI car connector too.
 
But someone really goofed. There were just three journalists and a couple of industry folk at the briefing. 

Colleagues in the IT, trade and AV press tell me they heard nothing about the event but would dearly have loved to attend, learn about V 1.4 and write about it. 

I will report in ERT magazine next month.
 
Too many companies see cutting press relations as an easy way to save money. Full time staff are axed and the job given to a marketing manager who has no experience of dealing with journalists or has to try and squeeze in a little communication at the fag end of a Friday afternoon.
 
Verbatim, just cut back on outside help and the first result was to give out memory cards containing a press release for an exciting new product in a file format which gives only gobbledygook on the screen. Now Verbatim has had to hire outside help again to send out a press release that the press can read. I’ll report on that too in the magazine
 
The oddest press event recently was staged to mark the launch of a new website that sells electronics gadgetry, and so cuts out the High Street dealer.
 
The company had laid on a hotel briefing, complete with a pile of gadgets, and invited several trade and specialist journalists who have been in the business for many years. We were promised a briefing by a "gadget guru" who is a "technology writer...(and) a technical IT consultancy (sic) in investment banking and works with WISE (Women in Science and Engineering), encouraging young women to get more involved in technology."
 
Browsing through the pile of mostly bog-standard gizmos like memory cards, I spotted a mini fridge that cools a single can of beer.
 
A youngish girl asked if I needed any help and explained that it plugged into a laptop USB port (thereby conveniently flattening the battery). I said the cooling plate felt nice and cold - so what is the cooling process?
 
She peered inside, and pointed to some wires and cooling fins.
 
Yes, I said, but in any fridge there has to be some kind of heat exchange process. What process did the mini fridge use?
 
"It's USB," she pronounced. Biting my lip, I just asked if there was someone there who actually understood what they were selling.
 
There wasn't.
 
Soon afterwards the same woman was introduced as the "expert" who would tell the assembled technical press about the gadgetry on show.
 
I made my excuses and left.

So, sadly, I missed the golden moment when one of the technical journalists politely asked the gadget guru girl if the fridge used a Peltier effect chip and she assured "no, it is just USB".
 
 Barry Fox