New Horizon

We're just recovering from our busiest week of the year so far but thought we'd take some time to share our latest news.

To begin with we're pleased to announce that the first in the University of Sunderland's Delivering the New PR 2.0 series of conferences will be taking place in Newcastle in March. The event will see the old team reunited to deliver all new content and insight into the fast moving world of social media and its increasing impact on PR and communications. You can find lots more information on the event by following this link.

Regular visitors will know that the blog you're reading now was inspired by the first series of conferences and this week eventualities celebrated its first birthday. Event management is such a niche area but we've been astounded by the amount of people who've dropped by and it's a great way for us to talk about what we do and share the passion we have for our business.

Last Tuesday we were at Manchester Conference Centre for the Chartered Institute of Marketing's The Pitch '07 student competition. Seven teams from across the region had received a brief to research the potential target audience and create a viral campaign for a four in one fax/photocopier/scanner/printer from the event's sponsors Brother.

It was a long day of co-ordinating student presentations throughout the afternoon and managing the competition and awards at the evening event but the smiles on the faces of the winning team from UCLAN made it all worthwhile.

All the teams who participated did a fantastic job and showed a depth of determination and knowledge which bodes well for the next generation of marketers in our region.

The day after we were in Warrington for an extremely well attended joint CIM/CIPR event on Unlocking the True Value of PR. The seminar featured some great presentations from CIPR North West Chair Sally Sykes, Tangerine PR's Sarah Halton and Lisa Ashurst from Urban Splash.

Perhaps our biggest news this week is that we are about to branch out into promoting a series of our own branded events. The Don't Panic Guides will offer delegates unrivalled content and expertise from the UK's leading speakers in their field.

Our first event will take place in Manchester in May and focus on the essential subject of crisis communications. We're not announcing the speaker line up just yet but we do want to thank everyone who has supported our vision and agreed to participate in what will undoubtedly be the hottest conference on the subject in the UK...