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.

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.

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.

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.

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.