An inflight story

The Australian toy industry came together last weekend for the Australian Toy Association's Toy & Hobby Licensing Fair. It’s been three long years since the industry’s last trade show, thanks to COVID.

However, my favourite highlight from the show had nothing to do with the event. This month, Qantas published a two-page profile about Artiwood in its in-flight magazine. The airline sent out a request for submissions in September last year. As a former PR exec, I knew I could draft a compelling pitch.  

I was delighted when Qantas made contact in November. It selected six companies to profile between March and August this year.  I pushed for the March edition so that people attending Toy Fair would read our story. A freelance journalist interviewed me in early December, and a photographer spent half a day conducting a photo shoot in our showroom on 12 January. We finally saw a pre-press proof in late January while visiting suppliers in London.

It was a proud moment seeing the profile in print for the first time in the airport lounge last week. It’s hard to believe that passengers and crew on every Qantas flight worldwide are reading our story. How cool is that? As you can see above, the photo that opens this post fills half a page in the magazine. Here’s a link to the published article.

The story captures Artiwood's eco-friendly journey through four flights that our hard-working staff, Garry, and I have taken in recent years. If I'm honest, it's a little too PR-centric for my liking, but as the saying goes, "all publicity is good publicity." I'm still flattered Australia's national carrier wanted to share our story with the world. 

Aside from giving our business a tremendous profile, the story has reconnected me with a surprising array of people I've met and worked with over the years. Several people I haven't seen or heard from in decades have contacted me to say they’d seen the story. Each of these “out of the blue” connections is a special moment.

Renewing these relationships brings to mind some sage advice I once received. Put simply, I'm reminded that we should never say "no" to any opportunity. It may not align perfectly with what we're striving to achieve. However, the simple act of saying “yes” can pave the way for a life-changing sliding door moment.

I once said "yes" to restocking photocopiers and delivering internal mail at IBM. That nine-month contract opened the door for a role with IDC, which in turn kicked off a 20-year career in tech-driven public relations. It would be fair to say that replenishing photocopiers was never aligned with any of my career goals.