Thanks to the Chalkchalking phenomenon (8,000 visitors and counting!), I'll be speaking at the MGM Grand in Vegas on the 23rd October this year, they want me to talk about marketing chalk on the web. Cool.

This is really good news. You know, I always knew I'd finally hoist my flag on the dotcom landscape sooner or later, I'm a little bemused that it was chalk that got me there but I'm not complaining. I've actually been doing some research into chalk and how it came into common use for a whole load of cool and interesting things.

Apparently during the Middle Ages in England, people pioneered the use of chalk for medicinal purposes in the fight against scurvy. Later on, the Saxons used chalk to make the very first ever door locks, in the mid to late 14th century Welsh market traders used to try to pass chalk off as a hard cheese on unsuspecting customers, hence the popular term 'chalk & cheese' and of course more recently the big users of chalk have been teachers, the best Saville Row tailors and Coors swillin' pool players in roadhouses all accross the southern states of the USA. Chalk certainly is a versatile mineral and we owe a lot to it. Thank you chalk, you're the best.

If you guys have any suggestions that could help me prepare my PowerPoint slides for my talk, then I'd sure love to hear them.