Mr. Fox at LBF

Here he is:

It was a bit of a disappointing day, actually. The winners were asked to be there at 2.35pm (precisely!) to meet a mystery VIP. 2.35pm came and went. At 3.30pm we were rather bored. A trip to the info desk later and a call to the person who had organsied the meeting, revealed the VIP had cancelled and the organiser "hadn't got round to telling us". Humph. It was apparently supposed to be Camilla Parker-Bowles. No curtseying from me, I can tell ya. But the other winners were very nice and it was worth it just to meet up with them.

So I had a wander round with Clare (Hi Clare!), who I bumped into there, and also came across Jon (Hi Jon!). It all seemed very quiet. That's volcanoes for you. Apparently, many people are cutting their losses and packing up early today. I gave a few people my card, but I find it so cringeworthy.

Then came 4.30pm and the "networking event" we had all won the honour of attending. That was just odd, quite frankly. It was very poorly organised; a bit "here's a glass of wine, now mingle." I had rather thought the judges of the illo comp would be there and possibly make some kind of welcoming speech but no speech was forthcoming. It was just a huge crush of young illustrators all vying for the attention of the very few ADs and Editors who had shown up. One AD who I did manage to talk to didn't even know there had been a competition! I hate that kind of arse-kissing get together anyway, so maybe it was just me. I decided to take a handful of my cards and do a mad dash around all the booths that were still manned and hysterically say" Can I give you my card?!" before dashing off again, cards trailing in my wake. So not exactly the reception I had imagined it would be. I suppose it was the first year they had run something like that so hopefully next year will be better.

I have made up my mind to make it to Bologna next year, at any rate. It seems that is the place where all business is done and decisions made. I'm sure I'll cope with a few days in Italy!