CHINWAG LIVE – PR UNSPUN

If you’re in or around London on the 24 April at 6pm and work in PR then you’d do yourself no harm attending the Chinwag Live – PR Unspun event. No fancy Power Point presentations, no top down drivel, just a good old fashioned, ahem, chinwag, on how social media is affecting the communications industry. The details but more on the Chinwag website:

* Date: Tuesday 24th April 2007 @ 6pm (discussion starts 6.30pm sharp)
* Place: The Slug & Lettuce (Downstairs), 80-82 Wardour St, London, W1F 0TG
* Cost: £40 – EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT only £20 until 19th April 2007
* Includes: great speakers, engaging conversation plus drinks & snacks
* Booking: Online with your favourite credit card or Paypal

I was asked to join the panel but unfortunately can’t make it. People are attending from as far away as the muddy hills of the North East I found after to speaking to my friend from Webitpr. Should be a good one.

THE DON’T PANIC GUIDE TO CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

I’ve been asked to speak at the first of many (I believe) ‘Don’t Panic Guide To’ conferences ran by the lovely people at Don’t Panic Event Management. If you haven’t already guessed by the title, this one is on crisis communications held at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Friday 18 May from 9am to 4.30pm. Loads of speakers covering the many different elements of crisis comms. No clues to what I’ll be talking about. Speakers include:

* Michael Bland of Michael Bland Communications Consultancy
* Kevin Bocquet – former BBC correspondent
* Heather Edwards of NHS Trust
* Sarah Dean Forrester of Unique Creative Communications
* Andy Green of GREEN Communications
* Paul Kelly of Trimedia Harrison Cowley
* Lucy Laville of Leeds Met Uni
* Rob Skinner of First Direct
* Sally Sykes of AstraZeneca
* Daniel Zammit of Dacorum Borough Council

Tickets for the conference are priced at £250 + VAT or £195 + VAT for CIPR members or charities.

For event booking and further information you can contact Nicky or Andrew at Don’t Panic on 01706 828855 or alternatively places can be securely booked online at
www.dontpanicprojects.com/booking.htm

More info on the e-flyer

FORWARD MOVING

Podcast master, Paull Young, interviewed me for the Forward podcast last Saturday. For those that don’t know, Forward is an online resource for PR students and PR people early on in their careers and is the brain child of my ex-colleague, Erin Caldwell, from Edelman’s D.C office. Paull and Erin are genuine good eggs. I’ve been told on more than one occasion I have a face for podcasting.

It was done over Skype using my new X-Series mobile. If you want to hear a genuine pitmatic accent … give it a listen.

PFA FOOTBALL AWARDS

I’m off to the PFA footy awards and after party on Saturday night thanks to my mate Miller blagging me a ticket. Means only one thing though… I have to get a picture for Frank PR’s mascott and the only dog with a blog, Flying Frank. Looking at Flying Frank’s recent coverage it’s gonna be a tough one!

Who said PR isn’t glamorous?