The joy of written communication is often in the avoidance of pronunciation so I am confident in blogging on the subject of Eyjafjallajokull - that most publicity hungry of Icelandic volcanoes.

For a company that organises international events, the areas of tectonic, volcanic and seismic activity are usually at the more unlikely end of the ‘what can go wrong’ scale – but not anymore.

It was an amazing testament to nature and a true reminder that there are still things that we cannot control when most of Europe took the biggest technological back step in history. International flight is taken for granted in the same way as electricity and the suspension of it resulted in chaos. Not just inconvenience or temporary discomfort but actual chaos. It was still possible to travel but as our Head of Live Events Mark Huffington will tell you, ‘Portugal is quite a long drive’.

So while ordinary people were forced into journeys of epic proportion (that I am sure the credit card companies will be celebrating long into the future), The Phoenix Partners are proud to report that by hook or by crook, one international event was successfully delivered.

The Everest Climb continues – sponsor us at www.thephoenixpartners/donate