Right now everyone we talk to is waiting for the emergency budget later this month. And in the public sector they’re bracing themselves for cuts that will surely come. Some commentators are looking for job cuts of around 15% so the public sector can share the pain that the private sector has already endured.

And yes of course over time we need to reduce the budget deficit. And yes of course as an entrepreneur I want to see imaginative ways of doing it. But what bothers me is that it is easy in all this to miss the point and not to appreciate the real value frontline workers bring.

And sometimes if you’re looking for inspiration the public sector is, some would think surprisingly, often the place to come. Let me give you a couple of examples. We’re just finishing filming – alongside the LGA – the first ever local government challenge. It’s an attempt at finding the local government leaders of the future.

Two teams of six battle it out on a series of challenges to find out who is fired and who is hired – a format that might be familiar to some of you. At the last challenge – one to revamp shops on a busy high street – the young people were discussing late into the night the best ways to bring that community to life. Real passion and real commitment, and it’s in the public sector.

And this is also the time to vote for your council worker of the year – www.localgovernmentchannel.com/awards. This year we’re running six categories and again we’re looking for frontline workers who go over and above the call of duty on a daily basis. Just take a look at the finalists and tell me they don’t inspire you! And it has caught the public imagination too with literally hundreds of thousands of visits to the voting page.

And whilst I can’t reveal the winners yet I can tell you about the winner of last year’s Bravery category – Barry from Mansfield. Barry is a street cleaner who put out a fire in a petrol station saving many lives. A real unsung hero and a good friend of ours. So yes lets talk about cuts to the public sector but if we ever lose sight of the contribution that Barry and his colleagues make to our society then whatever money is saved our lives will still be all the poorer.

Well it’s only a matter of hours now until the UK prime ministerial TV debates get under way. All the leaders are prepped and ready to go and the programmes – live on tv, radio and the internet will reach tens of millions of people throughout the world.

And it’s a first. Whilst common practice in America this has never been attempted before in the UK. It’s the first time a Prime Minister has given the opposition equal footing in this way. And though a lot of attention has been focused on the strict rules governing the event it is still generating great excitement.

But what will it achieve? Is this really just style over substance actually masking the policy differences between the two sides? It’s tempting to think so isn’t it. After all it’s what happens to the economy, not the rating figures that really matter.

But I’m not so sure. One trend that is inescapable is the ever-reducing engagement between politicians and their electorate. If people flocked to public meetings and  debate was alive across the dinner table then we wouldn’t need these events. But it isn’t. We’re ten days into the campaign and frankly nobody really seems to care.

So I’m really looking forward to them. I hope the energy the TV and the social networking bring will kick start these elections. And though they may not re-write the rules in the way the Obama campaign did they may at least make themselves relevant in the 21st century. That’s if they don’t fluff their lines!

So what’s your year been like so far? If you’re anything like us you’ve seen off the snow – though it doesn’t always feel like that – and you’re looking forward to Spring and what lies ahead.

For us here at WebsEdge it’s a busy time. We’re working on a new initiative this year - the Local Government Challenge - where we bring two teams of aspirant local authority chief executives together to work on a number of leadership challenges. It’s fun and exciting and a very different way of seeing who is up to the mark. If you haven’t been following it please take a look here on our local government channel website.

And we’re working on a whole host of public sector television projects here in the UK. Later this month we’re covering conferences on people management and culture for the local government channel. And then in April it’s the first ever Surgical TV for the Association of Surgeons in Britain and Ireland. And whilst the UK public sector market remains challenging there’s still plenty for us to get our teeth into.

But a growing amount of our work is in the US now. In June for example we have two major conferences to cover for our Global Health TV Channel - Women Deliver and the Global Health Council’s Annual Conference. Both take place in Washington DC and both tackle progress on meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

These are obviously exciting projects. And the filming for them takes us all over the world. One segment alone takes us from the US to Haiti, Afghanistan and Malawi! The logistics are challenging but we really enjoy making such relevant content.

So it’s already been an exciting year and we’re not even a quarter through. Let’s not kid ourselves - it’s going to remain economically challenging for some time to come but I can’t help but feel that as the world continues it’s journey out of recession opportunity is still out there as long as you know where to find it.

Is it just me? But this New Year, decade even, seems to have gotten off to a flying start. January can be a bit of a quiet month but not this one. Our first conference of the year was in San Diego and it seems like a long time ago now - the sunny weather certainly does anyway. We were producing Historians TV with the American Historical Association which is both fun and quite a challenge. How do you sum up Barack Obama’s political ideology and legacy in a minute and a half!

We’re busy now making programmes on the green economy in Washington DC and next week working on the Local Government Association’s Climate Change conference in Liverpool.  Interesting stuff and certainly makes you think and I think I can spot a theme there!

In between we’re developing a couple of new formats. One in particular is grabbing our attention at the moment. We’ve just started filming the Local Government Leadership Challenge. In short it pitches two teams of aspirant chief executives together to work on challenges to find our leaders of the future. The first of these programmes will be on the Local Government Channel website next week and I’m really looking forward to see how they do.

So we’ve certainly hit the ground running. And as I pause for breath I can’t help thinking about how this translates into the wider economy. Certainly there’s a degree of optimism going around - a new bounce into people’s step. But whilst the pace is frenetic it isn’t guaranteed to continue. Everything seems very short term. It’s as if we know there are clouds on the horizon and we’re stopping ourselves from getting too excited. Let’s just hope someone got his weather forecast wrong as well!

What a night for television audiences. I think some 20 million people tuned in to watch the final of this year’s X Factor and what a finale it was with the favourite Joe McElderry taking the honours.

Right now the Local Government Channel is involved in its own talent search. We’ve teamed up with the Local Government Association to run the Local Government Leadership Challenge.

Based very loosely on the concept of the Apprentice, ok I’ve got my shows a little mixed up here, the idea is to set two teams of individuals from councils throughout the country a number of challenges to revitalise their communities. There are various of these ranging from promoting local libraries and other services to giving a boost to the local high street.

And we’ve got off to a flying start. The contestants have been chosen, the challenges set and everything kicks off in January. We’re going to be filming every one of them and posting the results on our web site. So be sure to tune in to see how the candidates are getting on.

A little light hearted but with a very serious message. Our attention is often drawn to high profile talents on a national and international stage. But very often there’s some excellent work being done on our own doorsteps and it is high time we recognised it!

So it’s been education week here at WebsEdge. We’re just back from the Association of Colleges annual conference in Birmingham where we were producing AoCtv. And a busy week it was with the highlight definitely being Kirsty Wark with me and Ruby Wax on the sofa. Not to mention the students beating the principals in the AoC quiz.

But that aside there were plenty of issues there for us to get our heads round. Should skills or education top the agenda, should it be locally or centrally controlled and who is going to pay for it all anyway?

You got the distinct feeling that the election was already underway with politicians of every hue parading their wares in front of us. Even Lord Mandelson had to justify his Department’s policies to a packed plenary session.

Exciting as all this was I couldn’t escape the feeling that there was actually more going on here and that it was a celebration of Further Education. The teachers and lecturers here were really focused on one thing – how to bring the best out of their students.

There was also a real focus on employability and recognition. It’s no longer enough just to provide a first class education but you’ve also got to provide students with the real life skills to land them a job at the end of it.

Dig a little deeper still and you found that all this was underpinned by quite startling innovation. One college I spoke to made podcasts of all their lectures and actually enabled students to file their class work in the same way. Quite simply a rate of innovation unheard of in even our own industry.

So it seems to me that as long as the politicians don’t mess it up our future is in safe hands. Our students are not only equipped to face the future but they are up for the challenge as well. Which is just as well given the competition they face from their Asian competitors.

This is certainly a busy time of year for all of us at WebsEdge. Our work in conference television takes us all round the world. We’ve already been to Denver, Chicago, Edinburgh and London this month. And this week sees us at the China Education Expo 2009 in Beijing.

This is our first conference in China and has certainly been an eye opener. The numbers alone are staggering. There are hundreds of universities here from all over the world and the doors opened yesterday to some 30, 000 students. And as this Expo visits five Chinese cities there are plenty of logistics to get your head around.

And what of the television programmes themselves. Well there are obviously some differences. Everything has to be translated into both languages of course but apart from that the processes are pretty similar. So far so good.

But there are major differences in the content of the programmes. Everywhere we’ve been this year the discussions have focused on dealing with the recession. But not here. It’s still all about growth. Particularly in the education sector, because the Chinese have targeted good education as a means of gaining competitive advantage and there seems to be no letting up in that approach.

But how can students, and their parents, afford this expensive education, especially as incomes remain considerably lower than in the western world? It comes down to saving and investment. Families save a considerable portion of their incomes and they see education as an investment in the family’s future. Perhaps that’s a lesson we could all learn from.

How’s everything in your business? Getting back to normal or still stuck in the recession? Indeed does anyone know what normal is any more!

Well it’s our busy time of year here at WebsEdge. We’re currently working on tv projects ranging from university admissions to crime and law enforcement. And we’re on our travels too – Liverpool in September, Beijing in October and New Orleans in November amongst many others.

To kick this season off I’ve just come back from Montreal where, for the fourth time, we’ve been producing a series of tv programmes for the International City Managers Association Annual Conference. Before and during the event we talked to city managers from all over the world. And of course the main subject for conversation was the recession.

What really surprised me was the amount of consensus. Everyone it seems has been effected by it. Everyone feels the worst is over and yet everyone is wary about the recovery. What shape will it take and how will we even know it’s here?

Not surprisingly being in Montréal we worked with quite a number of Canadian cities. And it was really refreshing to do so. Canadian cities, it seems are investing heavily in their communities future and they can afford to do that because the recession in Canada has been less severe than in many other countries. And that I think says a lot about their desire to build a sustainable future without getting too involved in economic bubbles that all too often leads to economic bust.

Well it’s been a good fortnight hasn’t it? Swine flu cases are down, the economy is picking up and I know summer is finally here because I can get a seat on the tube.

And it’s been a busy couple of weeks too. I’m just back from Beijing and Shanghai ahead of our first conference tv season in China. We’re producing a series of television programmes for the Chinese Education Expo which encourages Chinese students to study abroad. Over 100,000 young people are likely to take up that opportunity to give themselves an insight into foreign cultures and pick up new skills.

And whilst some of those students are funded by the State the vast majority are paid for out of savings. And it’s a lot of money. But the young people and their families see it very much as an investment in the future.

Because that’s very much the story in China at the moment – investment. In infrastructure, in overseas companies and in the workforce itself. And you can see it start to pay off. With growth rates of still around 7 per cent China is likely to come out of this global slowdown as not just a regional economic superpower but as a dominant player on the world stage.

So I’m about to leave all this for now and take a couple of weeks break with my family in Scotland. Gives me a chance to re-charge the batteries and do something to shift that work-life balance. I just hope the competition hasn’t got even tougher when I get back!

So it’s over for another year. The votes have been counted, the champagne has been drunk and all the winners of the council worker of the year awards have been duly congratulated.

And it’s been great. We’ve had more finalists than before, more categories and more votes. And the dinner in Harrogate earlier this month was a big success. Judging by all the tapping fingers and smiles the politicians and chief executives really enjoyed the evening.

Of course the most important people there were the finalists themselves. We hold a private lunch for them earlier in the day and it is a real privilege to meet them all and put names to faces. It’s also quite a humbling experience. Because this is truly a diverse group of people who have done so much to benefit the community in which they live.

But all that not withstanding the night itself belonged to Barry. I’m obviously talking about Barry Snowdon from Mansfield Borough Council. Barry won the award for Bravery after he spotted a petrol station about to catch fire and put out the blaze at great personal risk.

Barry was in the right place at the right time because Barry is a street cleaner. And people look down at Barry. But his pride in his work is tangible – you can almost touch it. And if the rest of us went about our work the same way as Barry does the world would be a much better place.