Tricks Of The Trade

This year's Entrepreneurial Exchange conference revealed some very, er, special talents among the Scottish business community.The Most Likely To Appear In A Bollywood Film award goes to former curry king Charan Gill, who managed to maintain his composure and accent as the bearded, turban-wearing MC Baba Jee and kept us entertained with his spontaneous dance moves.

And the Most Likely To Quit His Job To Hit The Comedy Circuit award goes to Bob Keiller, who had the audience in stitches throughout his story of the management buyout of Aberdeen oil services company PSN - a tale that could have so easily run dry. Keiller even went so far as to finish with his own rendition of American Pie. The Diary can still remember how that music used to make us smile.

Another revelation at the event, and one that is far more worrying for us media types, is that some of our most entrepreneurial empires are bypassing the "advertising thing" for what they believe are far cheaper and more effective tactics, namely PR.

Aaron Simpson, founder of worldwide concierge service Quintessentially, boasted that it had 80% brand recognition in its targeted markets, despite spending just £100,000 on advertising in seven years. "That's all PR," he crowed. Then Judy Naake, UK and European distributor of global tan phenomenon St Tropez, waxed lyrical about her ability to get free publicity in the fashion bibles and tabloid newspapers through celebrity endorsements, some of which have come out of sheer luck.

Perma-tanned Posh Spice, right, for instance, originally wanted her session with Naake kept underwraps, but she was "papped" - pictured by paparazzis - walking out of the hotel with a bottle of St Tropez in a clear plastic bag. The resulting media coverage had the Naake phones ringing off the hook. "The photos went everywhere. Once we got Victoria Beckham, everything took off," she says.