Mirror, MIRROR!!

I didn't volunteer for the job of finding the promotional gifts because I knew how hard it would be. Unfortunately for me I got put on the job anyway, I wasn't going to complain (too much) because in all fairness I did need to do something, I just knew this would be difficult so I wasn't looking forward to the challenge.

I should probably tell you more background info before I go on. Im currently on the commitee for a new group created for women in technology, currently named B WISTE. We were discussing the launch of the group which is going to happen Wednesday 22nd October. We'd talked about schedual of the event and inticing new people by offering free food when Hollie thought of offering a welcome gift. Everybody thought it was a great idea, but the question was... what the hell was it going to be?! We all agreed that it should be useful, but we were stumped for a while. Hollie suggested a lanyard. She had loved hers so much and it was useful. It was a good idea but all I couldt suddenly remember was my freshers week and the half a dozen lanyards I had been given and eventually threw away because I had so many. I kept thinking, it should be something that people would want to carry around and something that not everyone gave out. Then I thought how about a COMPACT MIRROR? Yes it is central to women, but then again so is the group. And they use mirrors in physics, ok not in the same way but they do. Plus a lot of women I know carry a compact with them. It is unique and easy to kept with you, and come on lets face it a decent compact mirror is worth its weight in gold!

However at the same time I knew how hard it was likely to be to get hold of 324 compact mirrors, especially ones that looked nice. I at first believed the ideal price would be £5, boy was that hopeful! As a price overall that was just way too much. I thought I was stuffed, the Pippa found a site where I could buy 324 compact mirrors for £1.79 each (in bulk) and to top it all off they were decent mirrors. Suddenly the price dropped from £2500 to £600. I must admit I was pretty freaking happy, hell I was ready to buy them there and then! I even managed to squeese free engraving from one of the companies my dad does some freelance engineering for.

The only problem left is VAT. I hate it so. That 17.5% that screws up all of your plans, it would be fine if we could claim it back. But we can't!! How awful is that! Currently I'm not sure what we're going to do but it will have to get sorted soon. :)