Sequels are often difficult things to pull off unless you're Arnold Schwarzenegger but yesterday's Newcastle debut for version two of the University of Sunderland's Delivering the New PR conference managed it beautifully.

Social media's impact on PR is growing fast and it was always important that this event remained fresh and continued to reflect the latest developments. As a result, delegates enjoyed all new content from our speakers including more case studies and additional sessions on media law and measurement and ROI.

The next date for the conference will be in London in June and we'll add further details when a date and venue are confirmed.

Perhaps the most talked about presentation of the day came from our Second Life disciple Neville Hobson. There was obviously major interest from our delegates in the potential of virtual worlds and it's great that previous conference attendees the NSPCC have already taken the opportunity to reach out to young people in their online hangout Habbo Hotel.

Many of our speakers were also bigging up the significance of Twitter, a sort of voluntary form of electronic tagging which keeps the rest of the world informed of your every move and action with self posted snapshot messages.

The Prison Service were having a get together in the room next door and could well have been discussing the idea of issuing complimentary PDA's with all new ASBO's...

They certainly liked the Don't Panic branding and took advantage of a stack of our versatile postcards and a fair few spare folders!

Finally thanks go out to third year PR student Kirsty Dunn who worked her ticket by helping out on event reception. We've got our fingers crossed for her forthcoming interviews as she sets out to secure her first job in PR.

At Don't Panic we pride ourselves in the presentation of everything we do and that extends to printed literature, electronic flyers and brochures, joining instructions, holding slides and event branding on behalf of our clients.

We've already been mentioned in dispatches by CIPR HQ for our designs on behalf of their regional groups and believe our attention to detail and ability to offer a full graphical service sets us above many of our competitors.

To this end we've set up D-sign to look after our clients design needs and ensure everything we're involved in has an unmistakable, quality look and feel.

This desire for memorable visuals extends to the imminent 'Don't Panic Guide' series of own branded events which opens with a guide to Crisis Communications in Manchester this May.

The chevron designs were originally developed for the University of Sunderland's 2007 social media sequel events and included colour schemes and variations on the theme for all four projected dates including e-flyer covers and online button designs.

On this occasion the client felt the designs weren't suitable for the series but rather than waste the concept we developed the ideas for our own event instead. The image on the right is a poster we will be producing for our May conference.

The above designs are examples of how we can work within an organisation's corporate guidelines and adhere to the fonts, formats and colour palettes which have already been laid down.

As well as offering these services to our event clients we're now expanding to develop the graphic design side of our business. Watch this space for examples in the near future...

The dictionary defines a crisis as ‘a stage in a sequence of events at which the trend of all future events, for better or worse is determined’. We’re hoping it’s going to be for the better as we launch a series of own branded events with a conference on the subject.

The Don’t Panic Guide To Crisis Communications takes place on Friday 18 May at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, a breathtaking venue very much in keeping with our philosophy of attention to detail in every aspect of our delegates experience. Likewise in an events world that seems hell bent on astronomical over pricing we’re committed to offering great content at a fair price.

The conference brings together an unmissable line up of speakers who will be providing an essential mix of case studies, advice and inspiration to help delegates focus and refine their crisis management skills and strategies.

Our speaker list is as follows –

Michael Bland – Michael Bland Communication Consultancy

Daniel Zammit - Chief Executive, Dacorum Borough Council

For ticket enquiries or further information on the event please contact us on 01706 828855. Alternatively, places can be booked online by visiting the Don't Panic website booking page.

We’ll soon be announcing further conference themes which we also intend to tour across the UK this year.

A piece on a campaign to promote Guinness World Records Day caught my eye in the latest edition of PR Week and instantly took me back to childhood Xmases in the Seventies. The Guinness Book of Records was always a mainstay of my annual stocking fillers and although little more than the cover seemed to change each year we’d always have fun finding the most ridiculous record holders.

Way back then we even had a televised equivalent in the Roy Castle hosted Record Breakers and a week never seemed to go by without a screen full of starry eyed hopefuls attempting to mass tap dance their way into the book. Personally I was always far more impressed by the mindlessly entertaining efforts to see how many people you could cram into a Mini or a telephone box…

Sadly no one from Guinness was on hand to verify the record crowd numbers at our joint CIPR / Manchester Digital Online PR event last week but we’re maintaining that we could have filled MDDA’s venue twice over due to the great speaker line up and the hotness of the topic.

Thanks go out to newly elected CIPR North West Chair Dave Sanders and Manchester Digital Committee Member Simon Wharton for providing the welcome and hosting the event and also to our sponsors Lexis Nexis who came bearing gifts of chocolate and sheep shaped stress relievers!

The evening opened with an overview of the value of social media tools from Jane Smith of Smith & Smith PR who blogs at pr in a jar. Jane provided a great introduction to the subject and primed our audience for the presentations which followed.

Our second speaker was renowned Leeds based public relations and social media blogger Stuart Bruce who examined the broad spectrum of organisations who are already benefiting from an online PR presence and why everyone should be extending the reach of their traditional PR and marketing with social media tools.

Stuart is currently assisting Alan Johnson’s bid to become Deputy PM as Communications Director of the MP’s campaign. It should be interesting to see how he brings his obvious passion and love of innovation to the way the Secretary of State for Education and Skills engages with voters through traditional and emerging communications channels.

You can read more about Stuart’s take on PR and Social media at his blog A PR Guy’s Musings.

Our final presentation was delivered by Jonathan Bowers, Communications Manager of award winning Manchester based internet service provider UKFast.

Jonathan focussed on the use of podcasts as an effective method to broadcast your message and often entertain your target audience. Our delegate’s ears were treated to a wide and varied selection of audio clips including the South Yorkshire Police 'plodcast' and the cult natural gardening and worm fancier’s Wiggly podcast.

Jonathan also blogs on all things technical at the UKFast blog and, in a nice example of serendipity, UKFast also sponsor Sale Sharks rugby club who are the current Guinness Premiership League Champions.

Despite being dragged around the Dublin brewery as a youngster I never developed a taste for the dark stuff but I’m sure everyone will have a particular soft spot for the company’s iconic advertising.