On the face of it, you'd think that e-learning's contribution to the low impact workplace would be a pretty easy case to make: it's available anywhere, so all the classic carbon burning activities like travel and hotel costs can be convincingly factored out. Similarly: paper tests, manuals, their oh so frequent reprints, and today, even final accreditation certificates can be easily digitalised to trump the crude eco arguments that were hastily made by the world's paper, ink and cartridge manufacturers last week.

Yet for the most part, promoters of e-learning opted not to capitalise on the eco issue served out by World Earth Day.

While some industries have grasped the opportunity to shape comment for, and capitalise from, the big picture events that routinely colour the wider business agenda, many in the learning and development sector lag behind. They steer clear of the high-end debating opportunities created out of the fusion of social and classic media and are still more prone to look inwards than outwards when it comes to communications. An opportunity is identified when a new customer is won, new technology is launched or new (hopefully heavyweight) people are acquired.  Sure, all of these communications play a critical role in any growing company's marketing output, but more often than not, these base tactics fail to really exploit the wider opportunities that come with a broader outlook.

During the UK's record breaking snowfalls earlier in the year, the CBI ploughed itself straight into the heart of the media agenda with the startling news that productivity lost due to the harsh climate was estimated at a blizzarding £.5 bil each day. What they didn't stress was that the estimate may be based on some pretty simple maths (Some years ago, it's alleged, the CBI worked out that a new UK public holiday would result in a productivity drop costing about £6 bil and have been using this base figure to produce highly topical statistics to suit whatever media agenda prevails on the day ever since).

True or anecdotal, the point here is that any sound bite crafted for the day generally comes with high appeal and can almost always be created simply by repurposing messaging that already exists within the business. Cloud computing companies like OCZ Technology or Apple, Acer and Fujitsu - who are all promoting the eco advantages of their energy saving laptops this week - got this on World Earth Day and grasped the opportunity, yet across the e-learning industry, even the major players failed to really capitalise.

OK. So World Earth Day is just one of the countless targets that e-learning media players could be aiming for this year and other events are higher on the agenda right?. Let's take the small matter of the up-and-coming UK general election: Clearly as you gear your marketing machine up for comment opportunities likely to fall out of events on and around May 6, you've read the manifestoes of the three big parties, know their position on training in the workplace and have already started to shape your response to whatever outcome the British electorate delivers next month. No?  Not to worry then - some else will!