CIPR Northern Conference
{ Tags: cipr, conference \ Jun14 } 
Thursday 21 June 2007
KEYNOTES
Paul Corley, Managing Director, GMTV
Graham Goodkind, Chairman, Frank PR
WORKSHOPS
* Professional Services: A typical week in the media spotlight - Oriana Pound , Director Public Relations, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Katy Gallimore , Northern Media Relations Manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers
* Technology PR - From unknown to star of the show in just three weeks - Kevin Taylor, Director, Companycare
* Healthcare PR - Ailsa Rutter, Director, Fresh - Campaign for a Smoke Free North East
* Arts PR - A Panel Discussion - Claire Byers, Director of Communications, BALTIC and Kathryn Goodfellow, Marketing Manager, Gala Theatre and Cinema
* New Media - Stephen Davies, PRBlogger.com (That’s me!)
* Corporate Social Responsibility and PR - Dave Allen, Media & Communications Manager for Middlesbrough Football Club
* Integrated campaigns - the power PR with marketing, Nick Blythe PR Director and Amie Pascoe, Account Director, Propaganda
* Public Sector PR - Simon Wakeman, Marketing and PR Manager, Medway Council
Ticket Prices: £145.00 + VAT for CIPR members / £195.00 + VAT for non-members
More info on the CIPR website.
See you there!
Bonus link: Met my mate Ged Carroll of Wag Ed for lunch yesterday. Since I’ve been in London we’ve met up a few times to have a chit chat. Ged’s a top bloke and knows his stuff about the whole PR stratosphere.
Our meetings tend to entail me firing loads of questions at him. 
Stephen is managing director of 3W PR, a UK based online PR consultancy. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
Geoff White
Hi Stephen
Enjoyed your ‘bit’ today. Got to say your style of presentation is very different but that’s you and it’s what everyone likes you best for! I had a quick chat with Adam afterwards about how corporate blogs should be written. As a PR person who regularly write articles that appear under client’s bylines, I don’t think it’s against the code for me to write a blog for a client (they have input and ultimate approval). What do you think?
Stephen
Hi Geoff,
Glad you enjoyed it mate.
Well, to be honest, I think it goes against the nature of what blogs supposed to be. They (blogs) are supposed to be much more personal and direct than quotes in a news release/article because of the conversational factors.
I know I’d be a bit p*ssed off if I was communicating with someone on their blog and it turned out it wasn’t actually the person I thought it was writing it.
Blogs are a medium which are supposed create two-way dialogue; quite the opposed to the ‘top down’ approach by traditional media channels.
That said, I’m sure there are one or two PR people writing blogs for clients. But the key thing here is ‘disclosure’. If it’s clearly stated that the blog is written by someone else then that’s fine I guess. Although, because of this, it wouldn’t have any credibility whatsoever.
Not to say that PR people couldn’t advise the client on what to write - just like a solicitor could advise on legality issues. In fact, I’m not sure if I see a problem with PR people actually proof reading a blog post for grammatical errors.
It’s a touchy subject and one which angers the social media purists - hence why they don’t like us being in this space.
Lindsey Ramsay
Hi Stephen,
I also wanted to thank you for the presentation yesterday, it was insightful and diplomatic - something that is hard to find when it comes to this particular subject.
Your thoughts have stirred me to thinking more openly about the subject although I do still have my reservations, particularly when we see the wealth of people ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ as self professed ‘blog masters’.
Anyway, great discussion and I hope to speak to you again soon - either virtually or god forbid, in the real world!
Stephen
Hi Lindsay,
Great to meet you yesterday and glad you were there to stir it up a bit as it made a good debate.
Likewise, hope to speak again. Keep in touch.
P.S. Your agency’s HQ looks very cool!