Apologies for the lateness of the ed's blog this week (last week). I had every intention of getting it published on Friday but several things - not least the counter-productive bureaucracy of the national transport system - contrived against me getting back to the office. But my time out of the office was nevertheless spent wisely, as on Thursday TZ attended 'Why should anyone be led by you?', a day-long management conference with 4 sessions of advice, theory, case study and question time from Dave Ulrich and Gareth Jones (see a soon-to-be-posted video interview with Gareth - a great speaker), and then in the evening TZ donned its gladrags for the IITT training awards. A great event with lots of money raised for Childline, more about this one here.

Apparently this week is social media week. I'd say that every week is social media week really, isn't it? Especially here at Sift HQ, where social media often inform and dictate how we engage with our membership. These days it seems a bit like saying this week is 'computer week'. But anyway, to take one example the events in Egypt of the last few days have issued a reminder of the importance of social media as real time tools, and also how easy it is these days to raise awareness compared to previous ages of technology. Invaluable communications I think.

There were also some rather ridiculous football transfers, which left many people - including yours truly - bemused and feeling slightly sick. It took everything in my power not to turn into my dad and issue a generational platitude about how it never used to be like this, or some such. But, football may prove useful yet, as an upcoming article comments on the leadership styles of premier league managers. I look forward to that one.

And on a personal note, I had a much-needed weekend of quiet, culminating in a trip to the flicks to see Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan'.

A great film, and if there's any takeaway from it it's this: train, but don't train too hard.