![Photo of Alberto Giacometti by Henri Cartier-Bresson (via Wikipedia)](http://johnelkington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/440px-Photograph_of_Alberto_Giacometti_by_Cartier_Bresson.jpg)
![Shell Foundation 'mural'](http://johnelkington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SF1-1024x471.jpg)
![Sun sets over London town](http://johnelkington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SF2-1024x303.jpg)
Quite a week, though not quite up to the one to come. Great Shell Foundation conference in Docklands on Monday. Theme: ‘Accelerating the Growth of “High-Impact” Markets to Serve Low-Income Communities.’ Caught up with a number of people I hadn’t seen for ages, but also met some fascinating new folk, including some at the reception later in the evening on the 30-somethingth floor of their Canary wharf tower, overlooking the wonders of London, the Thames and a setting sun almost worthy of the Impressionists.
![Richard Northcote, who will play a pirate in his daughter's end-of-term pantomime - against skull-and-crossbones wallpaper in Workshop Coffee, Clerkenwell](http://johnelkington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SF3-1024x394.jpg)
![A Futerra blackboard making its mind up](http://johnelkington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SF4-1024x655.jpg)
Wednesday included a great session with Richard Northcote and Stefan Koch of Covestro, c/o Futerra. Then, later in the day, a trip across to the National Portrait Gallery for an exhibition of the work of Alberto Giacometti, always one of my favourite artists. Invitation followed on from a conversation I had had in a car home (after the Crowd event dinner covered earlier) with Andrea Sullivan of Bank America Merrill Lynch, who are sponsoring the exhibition.
Elaine and I had to race around the exhibits after the speeches, though am utterly determined to go back, in order to be away in time to get to Notting Hill and a quite stunning dinner hosted by Peter Wheeler, now of the Nature Conservancy. It featured readings by a long-time friend, Jeanne-Marie Gescher, from her new book, All Under Heaven: China’s Dreams of Order (Kaduna House, 2015).
On Thursday I chaired an ‘away day’ session with the Admissions Panel of the Social Stock Exchange, working through how we best manage the growing number of applications to SSX. Then a dinner with SSXAP members around the corner from the Royal Exchange.
Yesterday, Saturday, was flat out getting speeches done for next week, when I give 6, and my diary takes me to places as diverse as Ely, Rome and Bristol.
Today, am just off a Skype call with Peter-David Pedersen, a conversation beamed directly into a Tokyo conference of next generation leaders who are now part of NELIS – which stands for Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability. In my comments, I drew on some of the work we did some years back around the idea of a Future Quotient.
And then, this evening, thanks to an invitation from Gaia, it’s off to a premiere of Danny Boyle’s new Steve Jobs film, ahead of a week that I can hardly bring myself to think about …
![Jieying's lilies bloom](http://johnelkington.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/SF5-1024x576.jpg)
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