Alongside Bonfire night, Beethoven’s Symphony in C minor and Chanel No.5, the University of Sunderland’s final Delivering the New PR conference can surely be added to the list of memorable fifths.
What began as a one off event in Sunderland twelve months ago became a hugely successful conference series which subsequently visited Manchester, London and Edinburgh before returning to the capital for our final event last Friday.
It’s something we’ve been very proud to be involved in and the series has truly mirrored and maybe even played a small role in driving the phenomenal rise of social media usage in the UK. I couldn’t put a number on the amount of blogs and podcasts these events have inspired but you’re reading one of them for sure.
Our London finale took place at the Regents Park Marriott Hotel and featured presentations from the DTNPR gang of Philip Young, Tom Murphy, Neville Hobson, Stuart Bruce and Chris Rushton. Sadly impending motherhood meant that Elizabeth Albrycht wasn’t able to join us on this occasion but we’re sure that just like the conference, she’ll be back!
The event attracted 120 A list delegates all keen to get an insight into how social media is becoming an essential part of the communications mix and it’s always a pleasure to see and meet so many people fired up by the possibilities. It was also a great networking opportunity and a chance to meet up with fellow bloggers Lydia Mallison-Jones, Simon Wakeman, Richard Millington, David Phillips and Rob Skinner.
Perhaps the biggest topic of debate on the day was caused by Neville’s advocacy of Second Life as a place to work and play. As many of you know his new company crayon launched last month in both the real world and the virtual land of avatars. I couldn’t help but feel amused by the equal measures of interest and outrage the concept invoked. Something tells me we’ll be exploring this cross between the Sims and a wild west goldrush further in the future but for now I’m left wondering what a virtual cappuccino actually tastes like.
Thanks go out to our sponsors Indigo Red and Media Measurement without whom we seriously couldn’t have given our delegates the best value social media event in town and also to Gary and Darren from LAS our ever reliable stage, lighting and technical crew who announced their arrival with a phone call saying how cold it was outside the venue in Edinburgh...
As always we couldn’t have done it without Don’t Panic’s favourite hired hand and soon to be international traveller Kyla Steane who was joined on this occasion by next year’s PR graduate to watch - Victoria Newlands. Vicky worked her ticket to see the show and is now apparently frantically rewriting her dissertation on social media!
The Marriott Hotel, Regents Park deserves a special mention too. We’ve used the venue on both occasions we’ve taken this conference to London and would recommend it to anyone looking to stage an event in the capital. Again we used the Adelaide Suite which with rear projection comfortably accommodates up to 200 delegates theatre style and is charged on a minimum day delegate rate of 125 including lunch and refreshments. The level of service is impeccable, the quality and choice of food is second to none and both Jennifer and Clara from their events team are a joy to deal with.
As event managers our job is to make our speakers lives as easy as possible. They’re busy guys and therefore smoothing out the travel and accommodation arrangements, feeding them regularly as well as picking up the bar bills and supplying the odd aspirin is all part of the service.
Perhaps even more importantly we value our delegates experience and for any of you who may have attended the Delivering the New PR series we’d just like to say thanks for coming and for all your positive feedback.
A year is a very long time in social media and as Chris Rushton announced on Friday we will be touring a completely revised show next year to take this into account. We’ve read and analysed all your evaluation forms and these will help us shape the sequel events to ensure we keep delivering the content you feel you need.
Over the next few weeks I will be contacting a selection of former delegates to seek some more in depth views of what we got right and what we could do better for series two. Alternatively, if anyone has any specific thoughts, advice or content requirements please feel free to email me at andrew@dontpanicprojects.com or give me a call at Don’t Panic on 01706 828855.
Finally a reminder to all delegates to visit the DTNPR blog where you’ll be able to download the conference presentations in the next few days and hopefully post your comments and news of your own forays into social media. The site's password protected and you'll find the details on the speaker biography pages in your delegate pack.
UPDATE - you can now listen to Neville Hobson's click and play podcast from the event by clicking this link. The conversation was recorded at lunchtime and features the views of conference architect Philip Young, Jeremy Swann of Cicero Consulting and University of Lincoln third year PR student Victoria Newlands.
Delivering the New PR - London
Just arrived back from Delivering the New PR in London today - an excellent conference on using social media tools in public relations.
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