The last three months of 2011 saw the economy shrink for the first time in a year according to the latest UK GDP figures.

That means we are one quarter away from officially being in recession.

Our national debt reached £1tn for the first time as well - I dread to think of the interest payments on that.

Everything seems nationally to be in a right mess and I'm confused by all the policies coming out of Westminster if I'm honest.

What exactly are they hoping to achieve? Nothing seems to flow together or appear to always be thought out.

If it is keeping everyone in a constant state of misery and worry - then they have definitely succeeded.

But at least the electricity bills have fallen a bit - phew!

If like us at CRN you are frantically concentrating on innovating your way out of this mess then I think you just might make it.

Those of us that just sit on our backsides and wait for the inevitable may well not be here this time next year.

Staying positive is the only way to get through this depressing period in the economy and shouting about your success is the best way to keep morale high.

There has to be a lot of success around in the different macro-economies that make up the general economy.

I definitely want to hear more about it.

I'm sick and tired of constant doom and gloom.

In the good old early days of the tech industry things moved at a much slower pace and there was actually breathing room to develop things slowly, many start ups prospered.

But nowadays you can almost blink and miss the latest technology launch, which seems to happen so frequently that by the time you make a purchase of say, a laptop, camera, games console - it is already out of date.

Intensely frustrating, but true.

This is why the news that Kodak has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is such a shame, because rather than go with the flow and keep charging ahead to stay in front of the competition, the firm seemed almost to stagnate and watch its competitors fly past, eating up its market share.

There was a point when Kodak completely dominated the photographic market - remember the 'good' old days of a camera with a roll of film? My family never used anything else, and we have boxes of Kodak-branded negatives and snaps about the place.

But the digital era seemed to get the better of it and a once great giant was left as a shadow of its former self.

This was a firm that had the world at its feet (if it had feet) but lost the lead whether through complacency or something else.

It is a lesson to us all really. No matter how big you are and how far ahead you are in the market, if you don't keep innovating and reinventing yourself and keeping an eye on your competitors, someone will sneak up behind you and push you out.

And before you know it, you are the bottom of a very big pile.

I hope the company manages to sort itself out. The world of photography would be a sadder place without Kodak.

I'm a little tempted to say 'put another record on' when it comes to national media reports about the economy - the amount of doom and gloom out there is extremely depressing.

We get sent reports from about the state of the economy every day - with one saying that we are indeed hovering over the precipice of recession, and another saying that we are actually IN recession once more.

And of course every day there is an update on the Eurozone crisis with France losing its AAA status last week and other countries set to follow suit soon.

What I am noticing though is that hardly any of these stories are balanced with any really positive economic news - there has to be SOME out there surely?

Oh I tell a lie - M&S sold quite a lot of food at Christmas. Which is nice.

I know we cover negative news here on ChannelWeb - but unlike our cousins in the national press we are not afraid to publish positive stuff as well.

So this is a call to action - if you have some positive news - please share it with us! I would like to write a few more positive stories this week or mention positive news on Twitter.

I must apologise for the number of begging tweets and blogs I'm going to do - but anyone who knows me will know I'm not the sportiest looking person in the world, and after struggling round the London Marathon course back in 2002, vowed never to run again.

Well, I am. And I think I must be mad.

I have Susanne Dansey from Purple Cow Ideas Management to thank for this - but despite the pain I am putting myself through, it is going to be worth it.

I am doing it for a reason - I won't bang on about it here - but if you visit my Justgiving page you will see why. It is a very good cause and one that sadly will impact a lot of lives.

If anyone can spare any sum, however small - I will be eternally grateful and will thank you every step of the way on 11 March.

Some have donated already - and I send you a huge thank you for your generosity. It really means a lot.

Dear Channelweb readers

I must apologise for my absence in the first working week back of the year - unfortunately my 2011 ended with some unpleasant personal challenges and these continued into 2012.

But I'm pleased to say things are finally on the up now and I'll be back atmy desk next week and raring to go.

It is looking like an extremely busy year ahead for CRN - we have all the old favourites such as CRN Fight Night and the channel Awards to come, but also many new projects and exciting events in the pipeline.

I'm looking forward to being back and getting back in touch with all my old contacts and friends in the industry..

I hope you have all had a bearable first week back at work and I hope 2012 is a positive year for you all.

See you all very soon.

OK so the Christmas tree picture is a little cliched - but hey - it is only one time a year.

It really doesn't seem like five minutes since last Christmas - but it has been an eventful year inbetweet.

We've watched the economy stagnate while inflation goes through the roof, the Eurozone crisis kick off full pelt ad a wave of natural disasters rock places like Japan and Thailand - both of which have had an adverse impact on the  - industry as well.  then of course we have had riots, strikes and globally the Arab Spring which saw several dictators toppled after decades in power.

On a note closer to home, CRN has as usual held a range of events throughout the year aimed at getting people togetherand it seems to be working - our Channel Conference was the most successful yet and the Channel Awards smashed all our previous records and was certainly a night to remember for many reasons.

Next year is one of the same - we will continue to innovate as much as we can and strive to ensure the idustry has a voice and plenty of events to discuss issues most important to the channel. Of course we have the backdrop of economic uncertainty as well - but many have said those that innovate their way through recession are the ones that survive.

I would like to thank all our readers and sponsors for their continued support of CRN throughout 2011 - I hope you have found our events useful, and if you have not been to one yet, will consider coming along next year.

Merry Christmas and a peaceful and happy New Year to you all.

See you in 2012.

Don't trust a stranger with your laptop when you go to the toilet in a public place.

That is one of the genius bits of advice from security vendor AVG in an aptly titled press release sent this morning - Lessons from the security professionals to SMBs.

As we all know, many companies have suffered from data breaches this year and maybe they should be reading this simplistic advice. But I seriously hope most employees have a little more common sense.

Another gem is to 'count the items you take out of your bag when travelling - and count them back in' - really?

Are we addressing a bunch of toddlers, or supposed serious business professionals here? You wouldn't get any funny looks from fellow train or bus passengers if you counted every item in your bag out loud would you?

Also think about where you are sitting so people can't look at your screen - personally I like to set up a projector and screen so everybody can see what I'm doing. Is that wrong?

Use password protection and ensure you have a fully updated anti-virus suite installed - gosh I wonder if there is a vendor that can provide this.....oh, hang on.

There are some other points of advice, but I'll let you find those out for yourself.

There is even a video to watch on how to protect your business on the move which can be watched here.

I know I may mock (in a gentle way, I hasten to add), but I'm sure there are plenty of careless employees out there who leave USB sticks in the back of taxis, on trains etc who really should watch this.

But I just couldn't resist having a pop.

It should be entitled: Key advice for corporate dimwits on the move.

If you are a high street shop with no online presence look away now.  It is over for you. Apparently.

According to the latest report from Shopow (altogether now, who?), a whopping £7.76bn is expected to be spend online in the run up to Christmas as high street chains seek to quell losses over unsold stock.

And this is starting a new trend - social shopping. Again, apparently.

For those of you wondering who Shopow is - it is a site that "empowers online shoppers" and taps into the 'growing phenomenon' of social shopping.

The rest of the press release was one long marketing spiel about the wonders of sharing your shopping experiences over Twitter, Facebook etc - so I won't be going there. I'll leave you to discover Shopow for yourself. Enjoy.

But high street figures do make gloomy reading. According to the latest British Retail Consortium report, sales fell 1.6 per cent on a like for like basis (compared with 2010) for November, and hopes that consumers would start to treat themselves in December already seem to be fading with a few stores issuing profit warnings already.

Unfortunately people are just too worried about the doom and gloom over the economy, to be thinking about splashing out on expensive Christmas presents.

With things set to get even more difficult next year, it is little wonder.

2012 is definitely going to be an interesting year, although not necessarily in a good way.

I'm off to find all those online bargains that are just waiting for me to come along and buy them.

Wish me luck!