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The World in 2010

Stephen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:21:52 +0000

Every year, on the run up to the New Year, my favourite publication, The Economist, publishes a special magazine titled ‘The World in…” which details a plethora of predictions – usually about world affairs – made by its team of staff and guest contributors. It’s a great read and gives some excellent insights in to where these super smart journalists and analysts think the world is heading in the coming year. They’re not always right, of course, and a couple of editions ago they failed to predict the then-looming financial crisis. That said, aside from Peter Schiff and Dr Doom himself, Nouriel Roubini, who else did?

So, as we approach 2010 and the anticipation of The Economist’s latest ‘World in 2010’ (because I know, like me, you can’t wait either) I thought I’d have a stab at crystal ball gazing myself.

Nothing to do with social media

If you’re anything like me you’re probably sick of the end-of-year surplus supply of ‘what’s next in social media’ predictions being bandied about by the gurus. I prefer to use the social media that’s with us here and now in the real world. Navel gaze about that stuff all you like but it’s not going to help your clients much.

Recovery, recovery, recovery

It’s safe to say that the worst of the financial crisis is behind us. That’s not to say we don’t have a tough time ahead however. Government debt is rampant, deficits are high and unemployment is improving, but only in the sense that the rate of unemployment has plateaued. All that said, and despite the delicacy of the situation, we’ll begin to see an improvement in confidence as private companies begin to unbatten the hatches, make investments and begin to take on new staff. The public sector (in Britain at least) will be face cuts as governments try to repair their heavily damaged balance sheets.

Prediction:

A ‘V’ shaped recovery. The time it takes to get back where we were, though, will be long.

BRICs get a greater say

As world power continues to shift from West to East (it’s happening) emerging economies including the so called BRIC countries (the moniker given to the rise of Brazil, Russia, India and China by Goldman Sachs) will get a seat at the table and a greater say in world events. Some countries like China have already raised concerns of the unfair workings of the G20 system.

Prediction:

China begins to accept its world/super power status and stops thinking of itself as an emerging economy.

Britain and Russia seek to warm cold ties

Over the last few years the relationship between Britain and Russia has been, to put it mildly, somewhat cold. A number of controversial incidents in recent times have caused the two nations to do battle in political rhetoric and undiplomatic gestures. An alleged assassination by an ex-KGB operative, the war against Georgia and the deportation of British diplomats in Moscow are considered the three main catalysts for these sour relations.

Lately, however, both countries are engaging on friendlier terms as both share a common interest in preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear power. In a joint press conference at the beginning of November, both Britain’s Foreign Secretary and Russia’s Foreign Minister made a joint demand to Iran to respond to the United Nations on questions regarding its nuclear fuel.

Prediction:

Relations between the two countries continue to improve as both realise their joint vested interests.

Europe: not exactly water tight

At a time when it soon elects its first permanent President of the European Council, British opposition leader, David Cameron, concedes defeat on the Lisbon Treaty and the two of its wealthiest nations, Germany and France, show unity during the financial crisis, you could say the European Union is stronger than ever. And you’d be right. That’s not to say it’s in perfect harmony though.

There are still underlying issues as one might expect when trying to unify a group of nations with self interests. Britain perhaps the most maverick of member states has often been the least cooperative as it seeks to protect its interests in the financial industry. Nevertheless progress has been made and the announcement of the new president in January will only help solidify the European Union’s status as a superpower.

Prediction:

The President of the United States will have a single number to call when he wants to speak to Europe.

Facebook flaw? (look away now)

Stephen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:56:22 +0000

Facebook has a really bad flaw. It’s so bad it could break up marriages and relationships. It’s not exactly a flaw of Facebook’s to be honest; it’s more of an application flaw but ultimately the fault lies with Facebook.

There’s a Facebook application called Zoosk, which is essentially a dating site within Facebook. You add the application to your profile, upload some nice pics of yourself and before you know it you’re cyber-flirting and have the ability to email other users of the application. Easy eh? And free too. If you don’t mind using Facebook as a dating tool, that is.

Like all Facebook applications, before you add it you can see which of your friends are currently using it. And this is where it gets a bit iffy and doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the point I’m trying to make.

Before you make any presumptions, however, bear in mind that people get invited to add applications from their friends all the time without paying any attention to them whatsoever. They never use them or look at them again. They just simply added it because they received a request from their friend.

But, still, if this is the case, Facebook should warn people about the application they’re about to install. I can’t imagine it being too pleasant seeing your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/whomever listed as a ‘friend’ using it.

Ouch!

Presentation on social media

Stephen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:26:50 +0000

Because you’ve never seen one of those, right?

This is one I delivered in Newcastle at a NEPA (North East Publicity Association) event on Monday night. It contains one or two UK social media examples in. Enjoy!

RSS subscribers please click through to see the presentation if it isn’t visible from your reader.

Social Media Marketing

View more presentations from Stephen Davies.

Bye bye PRBLOGGER.COM

Stephen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:06:15 +0000

Hello stedavies.com. After four and a half years of the PR blogger moniker it’s time for a rebrand. Thanks to Milo the old URL has 301 redirects set up to ensure any loss of Google Juice is minimal. Fingers crossed you won’t have to subscribe to the new feed as it’s been transferred over also.

For anyone who has me kindly linked to their blogroll I’d appreciate it if, for SEO purposes, you change it to the new URL. I’ll probably email a few people about it as well.

Onwards and upwards.

UK Journos now on Twitter List

Stephen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:59:51 +0000

Last night Twitter (finally) gave me permission to access its new List feature that’s been buzzing around the Twittersphere lately. In a nutshell, Twitter Lists allows a users to create lists of other users … in fact, that’s not in a nutshell; that’s pretty much what the feature does.

Basic, but at the same time quite handy.

Needless to say, the Twitter community has been creating lists like there’s no tomorrow. There’s also a new site called Listoria which showcases the best Twitter lists (apparently, it seems US-centric to me) and where you can submit your own.

Given that on Wednesday I published a blog post which essentially is a list of UK journalists on Twitter it seemed apt to add it use it to create a Twitter List. You can find the UK journalists Twitter List here.

I considered creating individual lists for, say, broadsheet journos, tabloid journos and the like. Thing is, though, people move around and switch jobs so it would quickly go out of date. It would be easy to create a list for individual publications too; such as a Guardian List, Times List, Telegraph List, Sun List and so on but, again, people move around and the publications themselves should own those lists to keep it accurate.

UK journalists on Twitter Update

Stephen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:04:36 +0000

About a year ago I carried out a piece of research that looked at UK journalists using Twitter which was positively received from both PRs and journos. In fact, I’m going to stick my neck out and say it probably helped a couple of people in our respective industries establish relationships with one another over on Twitter. I know it helped me.

With this in mind, and because everyone likes a list, I’ve created this follow up post almost one year on. By no means is it exhaustive and it’s very likely I have missed some people out (I mean, really, it’d be quite difficult to find every UK journo given Twitter’s so mainstream these days).

Before you start here’s a short Q&A:

Q: How come I’m not included in the list?

A: Sorry, the research was done manually and I am only human. Send me an email, leave a comment or ping me an @reply on Twitter itself and I’ll happily add you.

Q: Why have you included me in the list? I don’t want to be, thank you very much.

A: Sorry, my bad, but all this is publicly available. Send me an email, leave a comment or ping me an @reply on Twitter itself and I’ll happily remove you.

Q: Why am I in the ‘Other’ section?

A: Simply because you are the only person on Twitter that works at your publication (or that I could find).

Q: You idiot, I left Acme News Journal six months ago! Why am I still down as working there?

A: Sorry! I did check, but it was late and I was tired. Let me know and I’ll change it.

Q: Anything changed since the last time?

A: Aside from an increase in numbers which, given Twitter’s growth and exposure this past year is obvious anyway, I suppose the most noticeable thing is the uptake of tabloid journalists using it. Last year there were none.

Q: Woohoo! I’m a PR person and now I can start following all these journos and push out spammy tweets about my clients to them!

A: Er, no you can’t. Read this blog post first to see how some journos feel about being approached on Twitter. If you do you’re an idiot and the other 99.9% of the UK PR industry that practice good Twitter etiquette will laugh at you when you’re outed.

————————————————————————————————-

BBC

Birmingham Post

Marc Reeves – http://twitter.com/marcreeves
Richard Padgett – http://twitter.com/richardpadgett
Mike Hughes – http://twitter.com/mikehughes
Tom Scotney – http://twitter.com/TomScotney
Andy Walker - http://twitter.com/andywalker82
Jonathan Walker – http://twitter.com/jonwalker121

Channel 4 News

Garry Gibbon – http://twitter.com/GaryGibbonBlog
Oliver King – http://twitter.com/oliverjamesking
Benjamin Cohen – http://twitter.com/benjamincohen
Cathy Newman – http://twitter.com/cathynewman
Alex Thomson – http://twitter.com/alextomo
Ben King – http://twitter.com/kumquatkid
Krishnan Guru-Murthy – http://twitter.com/krishgm
Ed Fraser – http://twitter.com/frasere

Company Magazine

Kirsty Hathaway – http://twitter.com/kirstyhathaway
Tracy Ramsden – http://twitter.com/Tracy_Ramsden

Computerworld UK

Mike Simons – http://twitter.com/ITjournalist
Siobhan Chapman – http://twitter.com/SiobhanBon

Computing

Bryan Glick – http://twitter.com/bryanglick
Angelica Mari – http://twitter.com/angelicamari
Mark Hillary – http://twitter.com/markhillary

Cosmopolitan

Rosie Mullender – http://twitter.com/mullies
Clare Smith – http://twitter.com/claresmith84
Natasha Guitto – http://twitter.com/natashaguiotto
Bridget March – http://twitter.com/bridgetmarch
Kate Creasey – http://twitter.com/katecreasey
Fiona Cowood – http://twitter.com/deskface
Lizzi Hosking – http://twitter.com/lizzihosking
Jacqui Meddings – http://twitter.com/j_meddler

Daily Express

Gabriel Milland – http://twitter.com/gabrielmilland
Paul Vale – http://twitter.com/PaulVale
Richard Palmer – http://twitter.com/RoyalReporter

Daily Mail & Mail on Sunday

Kirsty Walker – http://twitter.com/kirstywalker1
James Chapman – http://twitter.com/jameschappers
Suzanne Moore – http://twitter.com/suzannemoore197
Daniel Martin – http://twitter.com/MCLegolas

Daily Star

Nigel Pauley – http://twitter.com/nigelpauley
Mick Booker – http://twitter.com/MickBooker
Mike Ward – http://twitter.com/mikewardtv
Susan Hill – http://twitter.com/SuseHill
Mick Booker – http://twitter.com/MickBooker
Gemma Wheatley – http://twitter.com/GemmaWheatley

Digital Arts

Alice Ross – http://twitter.com/almostidealist
Neil Bennett – http://twitter.com/neilbennett

Engadget

Vlad Savov – http://twitter.com/vladsavov
Richard Lai – http://twitter.com/richardlai

E-consultancy

Chris Lake – http://twitter.com/lakey
Linus Gregoriadis – http://twitter.com/linusgreg
Graham Charlton – http://twitter.com/gcharlton
Patricio Robles – http://twitter.com/probles

ELLE

Lorraine Candy – http://twitter.com/lorraineELLE
Laura Davies – http://twitter.com/lauradavies

Financial Times

Tim Bradshaw – http://twitter.com/tim
Chris Nuttall – http://twitter.com/ftchris
Peter Whitehead – http://twitter.com/peterwhitehead
Richard Waters – http://twitter.com/richardwaters
Kate Mackenzie – http://twitter.com/kmac
Gideon Rachman – http://twitter.com/gideonrachman
Stefan stern – http://twitter.com/stefanstern
Ben Fenton – http://twitter.com/benfenton

Handbag

Debbie Djordjevic – http://twitter.com/scaredcrows
Anheke Hak – http://twitter.com/AnnekeHak

ITV News

Lucy Manning – http://twitter.com/lucymanning
Alex Forrest – http://twitter.com/alexforrestitv
Daisy McAndrew – http://twitter.com/daisymcandrew
Toby Castle – http://twitter.com/tobycastle

Journalism.co.uk

J Townend – http://twitter.com/JTownend
Laura Oliver – http://twitter.com/LauraOliver

Loaded

Andy Sherwood – http://twitter.com/AndySherwood
Jeff Maysh – http://twitter.com/jeffmaysh
Andrew Woods – http://twitter.com/woodsyloaded

London Evening Standard

Paul Waugh – http://twitter.com/paulwaugh
Mark Prigg – http://twitter.com/markprigg
Henry Hitchings – http://twitter.com/henryhitchings
Sri Carmichael – http://twitter.com/sricarmichael
Danny Brierley – http://twitter.com/dannybananas
Ellen Widdup – http://twitter.com/EllenWiddup

Macworld

Mark Hattersley – http://twitter.com/markhattersley
Karen Haslam – http://twitter.com/kazzzee

Management Today

Matthew Gwyther – http://twitter.com/MatthewGwyther
Hannah Prevett – http://twitter.com/hannahprevett

Marketing

Lucy Barratt – http://twitter.com/marketingeditor
Richard Abbott – http://twitter.com/RichardAbbott

MSN UK

Newcastle Evening Chronicle

Lee Ryder – http://twitter.com/lee_ryder
Ronnie Gill – http://twitter.com/Ronnie_Gill
Colin George – http://twitter.com/Colbear
Tom Mullen – http://twitter.com/thomasamullen

News of the World

Sophy Ridge – http://twitter.com/sophyridge
Simon Ward – http://twitter.com/simonjward
Robbie Collin – http://twitter.com/robbiereviews
Dan Wootton – http://twitter.com/danwootton
Paul McCarthy – http://twitter.com/maccahammer

NMA

Justin Pearse – http://twitter.com/justinpearse
Will Cooper – http://twitter.com/willcooper
Charlotte McElny – http://twitter.com/charlottemc
Alex Farber – http://twitter.com/alexfarber
Suzanne Bearne – http://twitter.com/suzannebearne
Vikki Chowney – http://twitter.com/vikkichowney (Reputation Online)

NME

Jamie Fullerton – http://twitter.com/jamiefullerton1
David Moynihan – http://twitter.com/DavidMoynihan
Ben Cardew – http://twitter.com/BenCardew
Claire Curran – http://twitter.com/Claire1982
Lyndsey Parker – http://twitter.com/lyndseyparker
Katie Torrie – http://twitter.com/TheTorrie
Luke Lewis – http://twitter.com/lukelewis

PC Advisor

Simon Jary – http://twitter.com/simonjary
Paul Trotter – http://twitter.com/paultrotter
Matt Egan – http://twitter.com/MattJEgan
Rosemary Hattersley – http://twitter.com/RosieHattersley
David Price – http://twitter.com/pricivius
Carrie-Ann Skinner – http://twitter.com/CarrieSkinner

Pocket Lint

Duncan Geere – http://twitter.com/radioedit
Stuart Miles – http://twitter.com/stuartmiles
Chris Hall – http://twitter.com/christhall
Dan Sung – http://twitter.com/dansung

PR Week

Retail Week

George MacDonald – http://twitter.com/GeorgeMacD
Martin Stabe – http://twitter.com/martinstabe

Revolution Magazine

Gareth Jones – http://twitter.com/gj
Andrew McCormick – http://twitter.com/andrewmccormick

Reuters

Mark Jones – http://twitter.com/markjones
Richard Baum – http://twitter.com/rbaum

Sky News

Stuff Magazine

Will Findlater – http://twitter.com/willfindlater
Tom Dunmore – http://twitter.com/tomdunmorestuff
Zara Rabinowicz – http://twitter.com/AlmostZara
Fraser MacDonald – http://twitter.com/FraserMacStuff
Mark Wilson – http://twitter.com/markydwilson

Tech Radar

James Rivington – http://twitter.com/rungsberry
Patrick Goss – http://twitter.com/patrickgoss
Paul Douglas – http://twitter.com/pdouglas
Gareth Beavis – http://twitter.com/superbeav
Mark Chacksfield – http://twitter.com/mchax
Dan Grabham – http://twitter.com/dangrabham

The Catholic Herald

Luke Coppen – http://twitter.com/lukecoppen
Anna Arco – http://twitter.com/annaarco

The Daily Record

Iain Hepburn – http://twitter.com/iainmhepburn
Beverley Lyons – http://twitter.com/bevlyons
Iain Pope – http://twitter.com/iainpope73
Alasdair Baird – http://twitter.com/alasdairbaird
John McKie – http://twitter.com/johnmckie
Lindsay Cochrane – http://twitter.com/teentalklindsay
Shari Low – http://twitter.com/sharilow

The Economist

Robert Butler – http://twitter.com/ashdenizen
Martin Schoessler – http://twitter.com/MrSchoessler

The Guardian

The Independent

Michael Savage – http://twitter.com/michaelsavage
Jane Merrick – http://twitter.com/janemerrick23
Guy Adams – http://twitter.com/guyadams
Simon Read – http://twitter.com/simonnread
Johann Hari – http://twitter.com/johannhari101
John Rentoul – http://twitter.com/johnrentoul
Amol Rajan – http://twitter.com/amolrajan
Jack Riley – http://twitter.com/_JackRiley

The Mirror

James Lyons – http://twitter.com/MirrorJames
Kevin Maguire – http://twitter.com/Kevin_Maguire
Vincent Moss – http://twitter.com/vincentmoss
Jon Kaila – http://twitter.com/jonkaila
Simon Bird – http://twitter.com/simonbirdmirror
John Cross – http://twitter.com/johncrossmirror
Ann Gripper – http://twitter.com/anngripper
Cecile Metcalf – http://twitter.com/Cecile_Metcalf
Tom Bryant – http://twitter.com/MirrorTom

The Northern Echo

Paul Fraser – http://twitter.com/paulfraserecho
Scott Wilson – http://twitter.com/Scottwilsonecho
Peter Barron – http://twitter.com/EchoPeterBarron
Paul Cook – http://twitter.com/PaulCookEcho

The Observer

Gaby Hinsliff – http://twitter.com/gabyhinsliff
Lisa Bachelor – http://twitter.com/lisabachelor
Henry McDonald – http://twitter.com/henry_mcdonald
Tim Atkin – http://twitter.com/Timatkin

The Scotsman

Gerri Peev – http://twitter.com/GerriPeev
David Maddox – http://twitter.com/DavidPBMaddox

The Sun

The Telegraph

The Times

Michael Moran – http://twitter.com/blockbusterbuzz
Joanna Geary – http://twitter.com/timesjoanna
Ruth Gledhill – http://twitter.com/RuthieGledhill
Sam Coates – http://twitter.com/theredbox
Daniel Finkelstein – http://twitter.com/Dannythefink
George Caulkin – http://twitter.com/CaulkinTheTimes
India Knight – http://twitter.com/indiaknight
Hugo Rifkind – http://twitter.com/HugoRifkind
Nic Fildes – http://twitter.com/LovesickHank
Lucia Adams – http://twitter.com/luciatimes

The Times Educational Supplement

Ed Dorrell – http://twitter.com/Ed_Dorrell
Ann Mroz – http://twitter.com/annmroz
Phil Baty & Sarah Cunnane – http://twitter.com/timeshighered

Worcester News

Murray Keslo – http://twitter.com/murraykelsoWN
Kevin Ward – http://twitter.com/kevinwardWN

Freelance

Other

Paul Cockerton – http://twitter.com/paulcockerton (Lancashire Telegraph)
Jo Wadsworth – http://twitter.com/jowadsworth (Brighton Argus)
Chris Henwood – http://twitter.com/chris_henwood – (Birmingham Mail)
Sam Shepherd – http://twitter.com/SamShepherd (Bournemouth Daily Echo)
Alan Burkitt-Grey – http://twitter.com/alanburkittgray (Global Telecoms Business)
Mark Ogier – http://twitter.com/MarkOgier (Guernsey Press)
Charlie Elise – http://twitter.com/charlie_elise (HRzone.co.uk)
Katherine Hannaford – http://twitter.com/clashcityrocker (T3)
Andrew Lim – http://twitter.com/andylim (recombu.com)
Rachel Wilson – http://twitter.com/rachaelwilson (Environmental News Online)
Patrick Smith – http://twitter.com/psmith (paidcontent)
Alison Gow – http://twitter.com/alisongow (Liverpool Daily Post)
George Hopkin – http://twitter.com/GeorgeHopkin (Johnston Press Plc)
Steve O’Hear – http://twitter.com/sohear (last100.com)
Jack Marshall – http://twitter.com/JackMarshall (ClickZ.com)
David Woodward – http://twitter.com/davidjwoodward (Director Magazine)
Neil McIntosh - http://twitter.com/nmcintosh (Wall Street Journal, Europe)
Tomos Livingstone – http://twitter.com/TomosL (Western Mail)
Matt Chorley – http://twitter.com/MattChorley (Western Morning News)
Sally Gainsbury – http://twitter.com/sallygainsbury (Health Service Journal & Nursing Times)
Torcuil Crichton – http://twitter.com/Torcuil (The Herald)
Roger Highfield – http://twitter.com/RogerHighfield (New Scientist)
David Stringer – http://twitter.com/David_Stringer (Associated Press)
Nigel Nelson – http://twitter.com/NigelNelson (The People)
Emma Donnan – http://twitter.com/emmadonnan (Star Magazine)
Pete Hoskin – http://twitter.com/pete_hoskin (The Spectator)
Victoria Garofabulous – http://twitter.com/Garofabulous (ZOO magazine)
Boyd Hilton – http://twitter.com/boydhilton (Heat)
Tom Warren – http://twitter.com/tom_warren (Neowin.net)
Dan Raywood – http://twitter.com/DanRaywood (SC Magazine)
Mike Shaw – http://twitter.com/mikeshaw101 (The Void)
Warren Chrismas – http://twitter.com/warrenchrismas (Yahoo)
Sparky – http://twitter.com/sparky000 (Real Business)
Gordon MacMillan – http://twitter.com/GordonMacMillan (Brand Media)
Chas Hallett – http://twitter.com/chashallett (Autocar)
Steve Fowler – http://twitter.com/SteveFowler (What Car?)
Clare Newsome – http://twitter.com/ClareNewsome
Jon Noble – http://twitter.com/noblef1 (Autospoort)
James Roberts – http://twitter.com/JRobertsF1 (F1 Racing)
Gary Parkingson – http://twitter.com/GaryParkinsonexclusively (FourFourTwo)
David Quainton - http://twitter.com/Davidlost (Event magazine)
Sarah Booker – http://twitter.com/Sarah_Booker (Worthing Herald and Chichester Observer)
Lee Hall – http://twitter.com/LeeHallTweets (Sunderland Echo)
Tom Pegg http://twitter.com/tomatthechad (Mansfield Chad)
Richard Kendall – http://twitter.com/richardkendall (Peterborough Evening Telegraph)
Richard Aucock – http://twitter.com/richardaucock (Motoring Research Ltd)
Phil Cox – http://twitter.com/WhatBoat (What Boat?)
Richard Cobbett – http://twitter.com/richardcobbett (PC Plus)
Linda Fox – http://twitter.com/Foxychops (Traveloution)
Nathan Midgley – http://twitter.com/twblog (Travel Weekly)
Kevin May – http://twitter.com/Kevinlukemay (Tnooz)
Lucy Huxley – http://twitter.com/lucy_huxley (Travel Trade Gazette)
Davey Winder – http://twitter.com/happygeek – (PC Pro)
Annica Wainright – http://twitter.com/squaremealvande (Square Meal)
Helen Barrett – http://twitter.com/helenbarrett (Third Sector)
Daisy Greenwell – http://twitter.com/daisygreenwell (Big Issue)
James Mills – http://twitter.com/jasonmillsitv (ITV News at Ten)
Naiomi Madden – http://twitter.com/Naiomi (The Welwyn and Hatfield Times)
David MacLean – http://twitter.com/davidmaclean (Shields Gazette)
Julie Martin – http://twitter.com/jules_27 (Middlesbrough Evening Gazette)
Victoria Raimes – http://twitter.com/victoriaraimes (Edinburgh Evening News)

Social Media Counter

Stephen — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:22:53 +0000

Via Antony Mayfield

Party conferences + Twitter = Twinge

Stephen — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:34:18 +0000

My friend Alex Pearmain has given me the heads up on an initiative his employer, PR agency, Fishburn Hedges, is involved in along with Channel 4 News which involves using Twitter to engage the public during party conferences.

From the announcement:

“The Twitter fringe, or ‘Twinge’, is set to change the traditional fringe meeting format using Twitter, the microblogging network, to widen the audience so that people outside the meeting, from all over the world, can also participate in the discussion.

“Panellists at the event, chaired by Channel 4 News anchor, Krishnan Guru-Murthy will be able to respond to questions and comments tweeted onto a Twitterwall at the event by Twitter users as well as those posed by the audience in the room.

“The event, entitled You tweet if you want to: the web is for opposition, not for governing will take place on the Monday evenings of both conferences. The debate will focus on the interaction of social media on politics, from Gordon Brown on YouTube to Barrack Obama’s online campaign, the lessons that can be learnt and the new opportunities it brings.

“The event has already secured top speakers including David Miliband MP, Ed Balls MP, Douglas Carswell MP, Daniel Hannan MEP, Sadiq Khan MP and Twitter Tsar Kerry McCarthy MP as well as well known bloggers such as Iain Dale, Tim Montgomerie and Alex Hilton.”

See the hashtag here too.

Should PR agencies stop pitching?

Stephen — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:06:00 +0000

There’s a canny discussion taking place over on Mark Pinsent’s blog (no, not that one) about whether PR agencies should stop pitching to inhouse teams. Mark says, “Pitches should be banned. Agencies should get much better at presenting credentials and references and have the confidence to decline to pitch valuable creative ideas that in the main (and even if you win, for crying out loud!) you’re almost certain not to get paid for.”

Check out the comments. Solid reasons for both sides of the argument. There’s even a Twitter poll (but you don’t need to be on Twitter to vote) asking the simple yes or no question: Should PR pitches be banned? Go vote.

Me? Still unsure. However, do you think professional firms like PriceWaterhouseCoopers spend days/weeks/months preparing new biz pitch documents? I don’t either (unless @adparker can tell me different). You might say that’s because accountancy isn’t part of the creative industries (although there is creative accounting). Well, yeah, but often PR doesn’t have a creative element to it either.

Maybe the whole pitch process is why PR is not and never will be taken as serious as other professions like accounting or law?

Just a thought.

Did you know 4.0?

Stephen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:42:17 +0000