There’s a saying in these parts a bit like "once in a blue moon" and it’s "once every Preston Guild". Not many people outside the North West will be aware of the latter saying, so here is a short local history lesson
Back in 1179 King Henry II granted Preston the right to have a Guild Merchant. This was an accreditation that allowed members of the Guild to trade in the town. Periodically the Guild checked its membership list and members came to swear their loyalty to the Mayor and Guild Members. When they had been through this process members were re-admitted as Burgesses.
In 1542 they decided that this process should take place every twenty years and it has done so ever since. The good mathematicians among you will have worked out already that the next Preston Guild, therefore, is in 2012. Lots of other towns used to have their own Guilds but Preston’s is now the only one remaining in Britain. It will take place next year from 1 to 9 September and will be something for all Lancastrians to look forward to after the Olympics. If you’d like to see what is planned for the event take a look at their website: http://www.prestonguild2012.com/
A good friend tells me that a blue moon is roughly every two and a half years. A full moon is every 29.5 days, so there are generally 12 in a year but as an average month is 30.5 days there will be some years that have 13 full moons, and the second moon in any one month is a blue moon. So, there you have it - a blue moon is much more common than a Preston Guild!
This year I was the Chair of the judging panel for the Lancashire Business Awards Exporter of the Year section. The glittering awards event was held at the famous Blackpool Tower Ballroom and I was proud to present the award to Submarine Manufacturing & Products Limited of Newton, a rural village near Preston. The company have achieved fantastic export success, with 85% of their products heading overseas. They supply diving, hyperbaric and subsea equipment to around 40 countries around the world for various sectors such as oil and gas and coastguard and marine services. This year they won a multi million euro contract to supply the Spanish Coastguard.
What’s really impressive about them is their use of all sorts of social media to reach both their existing customer base and to attract new customers. They regularly use Stumble Upon, Yahoo, Digg, Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to maintain close relations with their customers and have grown rapidly, expecting the 50 or so employees to achieve a turnover of £10m this year. I don’t think the Burgesses of Preston had social media in mind when they established their Merchant Guild back in 1179 but communicating with your customers and maintaining close relationships is as important today as it has ever been and SMP is a shining example of how to use the latest. Back then they did it by membership of a Guild, today it’s done by membership of LinkedIn or Facebook, but the principle remains the same.