Summit Notebook

Using the recession to teach kids key life lessons

Nina Kampler said yes to a pair of sneakers, but no to a new prom dress.

Kampler, executive vice president of strategic retail and corporate solutions at Hilco, said she has cut back on some spending during the recession, but hasn’t skimped on items that her four children really need or experiences that educate or enrich their lives.

While the other members of her family nixed the annual Spring vacation to a resort, they will be taking a trip to Africa this summer. “One is an educational and growing experience, the other is sitting in the sun. It’s very different,” Kampler said during the Reuters Global Retail Summit in New York.

When asked about ways she or her family have changed their spending habits during the recession, Kampler said she has bought less clothing and did not buy an extra car for her kids who were coming home from college.

Although they may be able to afford the extra car, Kampler said she felt it was important to teach her kids to understand they can’t buy everything they want all the time.  Plus, they needed to learn to communicate with each other and coordinate who shares the existing cars. 

from LEGACY Reuters Summits:

The best geologists want to be in Tullow’s team

Tullow Oil is the Manchester United of the energy world -- at least when it comes to recruiting the finest talent.
The oil industry has long complained of the difficulty of recruiting enough highly-qualified staff, but as Europe's largest independent oil explorer by market value, Tullow says it is a magnet for all those geologists ambitious to add discovering a new field to their CVs.
"If you are successful, you will always attract... like everyone wants to play for Manchester United," Aidan Heavey, chief executive of Tullow Oil, told the Reuters Global Energy Summit.
Many oil companies, he said, have ceased exploring, partly because of a difficult financial climate, partly because of a lack of opportunities.
Tullow's exploration successes include major finds in Uganda and offshore Ghana.
Apart from snapping up the finest geologists, Tullow has also been busy grabbing credit. Heavey said banks had made available $2 billion in credit in March this year.
"It's a huge achievement in the current market," Heavey said. "It's probably soaked up most of the credit available for small oil companies."