Inspirations…

I saw the other week a mention on PRBlogger saying that he had been tagged by Don’t Panic asking him to list his three communicators living or dead who have most influenced the his way of thinking professionally and perhaps personally too.  Who do you think the real innovators are and who has been most responsible for kicking the industry forward?

He listed Muhammad Ali, Richard Branson and the blogosphere.  At this stage he then tagged three other people who then in turn tagged another three and so on until it finally reached little ol me at the weekend.  First off I have to say what an excellent idea to generate interest in an event and I have enjoyed reading all the other lists appearing across our community.

Thanks to Giles Shorthouse for tagging me and apologies to him for taking such a long time to post my three.  It isn’t as easy as you would actually think it is.

First I will list Alex Ferguson.  Love him or hate him the man is a genius if for nothing else getting a player such as David May a Champions League winning medal.  I have always admired how he protects his teams, pushes them to achieve their goals and is driven to win.  In a different way I like to think that my colleagues trust that I will always help them anyway I can and will always to offer guidance and enthusiasm to hit out targets.

John Lennon – an inspiration to a whole generation who’s music is still as fantastic as it was when he first released it.  John was also a master of using the media to generate interest in issues close to his heart and knew how to use his celebrity for these causes.

Finally, I will say my family.  They are all hilarious in their own way but the one over riding trait of them all is that they are grafters.  They are never afraid of rolling up their sleeves to get a job done and are my biggest single inspiration.  When ever I start a task I always try to give it my all so I can make them proud when I tell them about our latest results…..even if they don’t fully understand what I actually do.

There are countless others that I could list but lets see what the next three will come up with.  I would like to tag my old mate Phil, the brilliant Dan Leach and the always entertaining Drew B.

Over to you gents….

Getting the most out of your hospitality event

I have worked on inviting the media to a number of hospitality events over the past few months and now that I have completed the last of them I have been wondering just how effective they actually are?  I have always been of the school of thought, that hospitality events are an excellent way to build relationships with the media.  They offer a great foot in the door when trying to meet someone for the first time or to build a relationship but I am increasingly finding them hard work.  Is this just me or are any of you guys and gals out there experiencing a similar trend?

I have worked on generating interest with the media to attend some fantastic events recently which I am sure that a few years ago I would have found journalists biting my hand off to attend.  Is it just a simple fact that journalists now have to be far more accountable for their existence as a staff writer and are now less interested in going to the latest big match / cocktail party to meet new contacts or just bad timing?

I would love to hear some of your experiences / opinions.