On Wednesday the 15th of February we managed the 'Delivering the New PR - How blogs, RSS and podcasts can work for you' event on behalf of the University of Sunderland at Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester.

The venue and staff at LCCC were fantastic and we'd highly recommend them for any events you might be considering for the North West of England. The cricket ground is just to the south of the city and has substantial free car parking for delegates who choose to drive, as well as an adjacent Metrolink tram stop which provides a swift, short journey from the city's major railway stations. The venue is also only 20 minutes by cab from Manchester Airport.

There are a number of rooms available accommodating audiences of all sizes from twenty through to 300. We opted for the Members Suite which holds up to 150 however with the additional staging by the reliable and highly rated LAS boys, we seated an audience of 110 quite comfortably. The only downside we found was that the room temperature soon rose but LCCC staff quickly rectified the problem by opening a few of the patio doors for us which lead out to a balcony with an inspirational view across the ground.

Food and drinks were excellent and served punctually at three points throughout the day. There are a variety of menus to choose from however we'd recommend the danish pastries for your tea and coffee breaks and the buffet style lunch with the curly fries which proved extremely popular with delegates!

The conference itself has been blogged about quite extensively so we won't dwell on the content here however blogging, RSS and podcasting are becoming a very hot topic with public relations professionals who are quickly realising the value of these new communications tools. So much so that we're working once again with the university to take the conference down to London in May.

The following links may be useful -

Lancashire County Cricket Club website
LAS event production website

Speaker blogs -

Philip Young Mediations
Tom Murphy PR Opinions
Neville Hobson NevOn & NevilleHobson.com
Stuart Bruce A PR Guru's Musings
Elizabeth Albrycht Corporate PR

And finally, a reminder to delegates that the speaker presentations are downloadable from the conference website. There's also plenty of chat about the event and an opportunity to post your comments on the day. The site's password protected but you'll find the access details in your conference packs.