The Yorkshire blogging mafia were out in force yesterday as Leeds Met's CIPR Public Relations Student Society hosted an informal social media gathering.

The event was coordinated by third year student Raj Harjai and featured a joint presentation from GREEN Communication's Ian Green and Simon Collister who stressed the edge that social media skills undoubtedly give to all PR students looking for a career in what is a highly competitive industry.

It was good to catch up with PR lecturer Richard Bailey and a very casual, denim clad Stuart Bruce. I also finally got to meet PR turned lecturer Lucy Laville who will be speaking at our first own branded event The Don't Panic Guide To Crisis Communications in Manchester next month. Blogs are great for a bit of shameless self publicity too!

Anyway, it was an enjoyable afternoon with over 50 students taking advantage of the networking / liquid refreshments and we were really pleased to be involved in a small way as sponsors. Leeds Met is certainly up there with the best when it comes to its PR courses and I guess many of the students at this event will have a very bright future ahead of them...

Last night we were at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School to run our second CIPR Blogging Basics Workshop, this time on behalf of the North West region.

We were really pleased to have Simon Collister of GREEN Communications as our trainer for the evening especially as he's currently juggling the completion of his CIPR diploma and making preparations to take a new job providing online PR expertise for London-based Edelman.

He'd probably be the first to agree that his PR blog Simonsays was instrumental in raising his profile in the UK and ultimately played a major part in being offered such a prestigious career move.

Simon did a great job of guiding everyone through the process of setting up their first blogs and offered some very good advice on how to best apply their potential as a PR tool.

I think we've truly reached a point now where social media skills have become essential for all forward thinkers in the PR industry and there was certainly a real enthusiasm from our delegates to take this opportunity to get some hands on experience.

We'd learnt from our last event in Yorkshire that less is sometimes more so we purposefully limited the available delegate places to a dozen to ensure we could give everyone the kind of hands on assistance needed to get the most out of the evening.

Judging by the evaluation forms I think we got most things right and hopefully we'll soon see a number of new bloggers in the area!

Finally a few quick notes about the venue. MMU's Business School is ideally situated in Manchester city centre and is close to Piccadilly train station and the Metrolink tram network. There's also plenty of free on street parking after 6pm.

We were using one of their computer rooms and despite a few technical problems their staff soon resolved the issues and made sure everything was running smoothly for us long before our delegates arrived.

One word of warning - computer labs get very warm but you can't take drink into them!

Simon has kindly agreed to make his presentation available as a PDF for our delegates and anyone else who may be interested in blogging as a PR tool.

To view or download Simon's presentation please click this link.

THE DON’T PANIC GUIDE TO CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS

FRIDAY 18 MAY 2007

Nothing focuses the mind and calls on our communication skills more than a crisis.

A product recall or tampering; major fraud; IT collapse; mystery explosion; scandal; pressure group onslaught; a media report claiming your product harms children… these are make-or-break moments when brands, reputations – and even our careers – hang in the balance.

The Don’t Panic Guide to Crisis Communications is a one day conference which will explore the skills needed to successfully respond, manage and survive a crisis and protect the reputation of your company or organisation. The event takes place at the prestigious Bridgewater Hall in Manchester city centre and brings together an unmissable line up of communications professionals including –

Michael Bland, Michael Bland Communication Consultancy Our keynote speaker is internationally renowned as a crisis and reputation management expert and will be delivering his brand new presentation on the subject.

Kevin Bocquet, former BBC journalist Kevin is an experienced and respected broadcast journalist who will provide an insight into the media requirements of a developing story with a perspective on some of the major incidents, events and tragedies he has reported on.

Stephen Davies, PRblogger.com Stephen is one of the UK’s most influential PR bloggers and his presentation will examine a number of crises or ‘blog storms’ which have broken or escalated online and the varying degrees of success or otherwise of the chosen response strategies.

Heather Edwards, Head of Communications, Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust After a career in journalism Heather joined the NHS ten years ago and was formerly on the national committee of the Association of Healthcare Communicators. Heather will give a case study presentation of a hospital crisis that required wide ranging and sensitive handling.

Sarah Dean Forrester, Unique Creative Communications Sarah was previously Head of Press for Greater Manchester Police and now uses her vast experience of major incident handling to provide media training and strategic communications advice on behalf of Unique Creative Communications to a portfolio of emergency service clients.

Andy Green, Green Communications In a crisis the need for creative, flexible thinking is paramount. Andy Green will highlight how a crisis can also offer opportunities not just to minimise the negative but also to transform the situation into your best possible opportunities.

Paul Kelly, CEO, Trimedia Harrison Cowley Heading up one of the UK’s largest PR agency’s, Paul is a specialist in communications strategy and has particular expertise in crisis and issues management. He will be delivering a presentation on managing client crisis situations.

Lucy Laville, Leeds Metropolitan University Lucy was Head of Communications at Leeds Metropolitan University following the London Bombings of 7 July and will provide an insight into the challenges she faced as the university was thrust into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Rob Skinner, Chief Press Officer, first direct Rob has been Head of PR for first direct and Marks & Spencer Money since May 2005 and has managed his fair share of crises over the years including terrorism (the IRA once blew up his office), mass murder, the fire walk that went wrong… and the strange case of the shrinking duck pond.

Sally Sykes, Head of UK Communications, AstraZeneca Sally leads a 28-strong team responsible for the effective delivery of AstraZeneca’s communications and corporate responsibility within the UK and was formerly Head of Press and Public Relations at Manchester Airport. No stranger to a crisis, delegates will benefit from case studies of her experiences.

Daniel Zammit, Chief Executive, Dacorum Borough Council The Buncefield Oil Terminal explosion created the largest fire in Europe since World War Two. How did Dacorum Borough Council respond to not only Europe's largest peacetime fire but also, to the sudden arrival of the international media? Chief Executive, Daniel Zammit talks about the media and communication pressures on his authority both during and after the incident.

Tickets for the conference are priced at £250 + VAT or £195 + VAT for CIPR members or charities. For event booking and further information please contact Nicky or Andrew at Don’t Panic on 01706 828855 or alternatively places can be securely booked online at www.dontpanicprojects.com/booking.htm

The event is sponsored by VMA Group, the UK's leading specialist search and selection company in PR and Corporate Communications and Media Measurement, leaders in the provision of media analysis and PR evaluation. The event is being supported by both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations North West and the Chartered Institute of Marketing North West.

Download or view the full conference brochure

We love Leeds Metropolitan University and are always keen to help in putting something back whenever we can so it was with interest that we received the following invite from Rajiv Harjai -

‘I am the CIPR student rep for the Masters PR students at Leeds Met University. I am having an informal networking event for all the Public Relations students of Leeds Met University (MA + BA) on the theme of social media.

The day I have chosen for this is Wednesday 25 April and the time is around 1:00 PM. The reason I have picked this day is that all the Public Relations bachelor students will be in the university as they have to submit their portfolio by noon. This will be an informal gathering on the theme of social media.

In the coming month I will try to compile a goody bag in which we’ll be putting a CIPR Application for students, a CIPR pen and any other freebies anybody is willing to donate.

My idea is that students are going to give a presentation and have small stalls where they would have practitioners and students have their blogs on display. The presentation will be showing how students can benefit from Social Media, and how important Social Media is becoming today.’

As many of you undoubtedly know, Leeds Met has a vibrant PR department which has really embraced the potential of social media and the importance of these new tools to student’s future careers.

The university already has a substantial number of student bloggers including Rajiv who blogs at the excellent Indian and Global PR Student Blog. It’s an extremely well written student perspective on PR and we wholeheartedly agree with his mantra of Dare + Passion + Creativity = Success!!! Do check it out.

Anyway, we’re throwing this out to bloggers in the region to join us in supporting this event so Stuart Bruce, Simon Collister, Jane Smith, Jonathan Bowers please have a look at your diaries and see if you can help.

Likewise some of the Yorkshire PR agencies might also want to consider having a presence. If so, do let me know and I’ll pass your details on to Rajiv.