Sponsored by the - also young - SNG Publishing Ltd, The first HIP!-EX show is to be hosted at the splendid De Vere Whites, Reebok Stadium, which has hosted prestigious industry events in the past. The line-up for this show appears no less prestigious and a floor plan is available from this page.

Styled 'The Student Show' our flyer is inclusive and announces 'The Show for Plumbers and Heating Engineers and Your Apprentices'. Gas-News will certainly be attending and would be pleased to see others supporting the event on either April 22 or April 23 2008. Those South of Watford can expect a similar event in 2009, though this venue, nudging the M61 (500 metres from Junction 6), is easily reached.

Aside from the many familiar product names, synonymous with quality, it will be interesting to meet the supporting organisations, not always seen, that underpin standards, including WRAS and the Copper Development Association. Others would have been welcome and it is not too late for them to join in. That includes City and Guilds plus a delegation representing awarding bodies, Colleges and perhaps EUSkills ?

The Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering are on the team sheet at this football stadium, offering real discounts on the annual membership fee for trainees. No sign yet of ARGI or the APHC but they can be found in other Gas-News pages and should not be overlooked.

For those who may not already be aware, SNG (Supporting the Next Generation) Publishing Ltd, produce hardcopy magazines in various flavours, aimed at the younger generation, including one called 'Sparks', as well as a dedicated student website. Healthy figures already appear at the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the magazine titles, which should be of interest to students of all ages; yours truly was training at Viessmann earlier this month.

A brief look inside the HIP! Magazine illustrated opposite, suggests a new and welcome ethos in favour of energy efficiency is becoming the accepted backdrop, rather than simply a bolted-on concept. It will be interesting to see how other trade magazines respond to this challenge in style.

We would welcome a holistic approach to energy efficiency featured in magazines, not just copy which favours the big players. Generating heating and hot water efficiently is fine but that still costs us money. Reducing waste once generated, will save us even more. We have a soft spot for our wallet as well as the planet.

CORGI, who incorrectly claim we are their members (?) will be at HIP!-EX in the flesh, having abandoned the hugely popular and far more appropriate regional PHEX shows, in favour of self-aggrandisement and ego. Time they focused on their mandate or risk losing it to one of the new applicants.

Let us know on the forum who you think should be on the team sheet and please advertise this event. We will include the magazines in our Trade Magazine section once we have full details of where they can be obtained. They are entirely relevant.