PR agencies for the event

Well, I must admit, it has been the most challenging and exciting thing I have done so far.

Firstly, I created a dedicated email address superinternwanted@gmail.com as I knew I'd have to look professional, then I came up with the text for my invitation which I kept as brief as possible pointing out the main benefits for the agencies.

I did not not even know where to start as I had never organised a professional event before, so I just turned to the CIPR member's directory to find contact details of top PROs. I was really excited about the event, so my expectations were way high. I had to send out about 50 emails to receive the first positive answer which was from Stuart Skinner, Senior Account Manager at PHA Media. The second enquiry came from Helen Proud, Director of HR at Lansons, and, since I only had 4 weeks left before the event and had to interview the agencies before I sent out my press release, I had to make use of personal contacts and emailed my fellow student from LondonMet Jonny Stark, Digital PR and Media Consultant at Three Monkeys, and Antony Poppleton, PR Director at Phoenix, who used to provide PR support to my current employer PRP Architects who both showed great interest in my event.


Now that I had four agencies interested in the competition I was the happiest event manager in the world! My first interview has been scheduled for 13.20 on Monday 26 April with Stuart Skinner from PHA Media. The main purpose for my visit was to see the environment in which the winner would be working and to meet the PRO in person. Stuart has been more than accommodating. As I work full time I am only available at lunch time or before or after working hours so I appreciated that Stuart made an effort to meet me at lunch time. Their offices are located just on Wardour Street in Soho, so easy to find and a lovely area to be in. The offices were very spacious and light and people were not madly busy which gave me a good feeling. Although I expected only a 5-10 minutes chat the meeting went on for a good half an hour. We sat down in a nice cozy meeting room and went through the details. When I left their offices I had a great feeling that the world of PR is not that impossible to get to as I thought - I had the first agency confirmed!

My next interview was lined up for 17.15 on the same day with Lansons whose office is literally just one-minute walk from my own offices. After waiting in reception for less than 5 minutes I was ushered into a nicely set-out meeting room and was joined by Helen herself, her colleague Lauren and Sophie Lilley, Director, who would represent the agency at the event. Although I had a clear idea of the content and the format of my event in my head I did not expect so much interest and so many questions at the same time:) For the first time, I felt that that my initial idea had a lot of potential and the increasing interest gave me more confidence and power. As we discussed the agenda and technicalities of the judging process I felt that my initial vision of the event concept was developing as we went along. Initially, I did not account for any breaks or for people to take longer time than allocated by the agenda, so it was extremely important that Sophie had pointed it out. Initially, I thought that the so-called awards ceremony would take place in the contest room but Helen and Sophie made a comment that it would make more sense to have the winners announced at the after-party which would kill two birds with one stone: it will give the judges more time to make a decision and those who are not going to be chosen won't get too upset holding a glass of champagne in their hands. When I left the building, I knew I had two fantastic agencies on board and could not wish for better.

The meeting at 08.45 on Tuesday 27 April with Antony Poppleton at Phoenix in Leatherhead, Surrey, was agreed literally at 4 o'clock on Monday afternoon, so I must admit I did appreciate his readiness to accommodate my diary. When I boarded a train at Clapham Junction I sent him a text that I was arriving at 08.05 and was sure I had enough time to walk to their offices which according to Google map were 15 minutes away from the train station. He rang me back straight away offering a lift which I was very happy to accept. He was waiting for me at the station when I arrived and we drove to their offices in no time at all starting our meeting more than half an hour before it was scheduled. Now then, one of the main surprises was waiting for me when I saw their office which happened to be a converted chapel combining the best of the terrific character of the past and modern technology. The main board room was set right at the altar!!! And the ceilings were of course covered in frescoes. Wow! What a view! Antony made me a cup of coffee and we had a friendly chat about the terms and expectations. Another great news was that he was looking for Spanish speakers and I knew that I had at least three registered for this event, so could not wait to break the news to them.

The interview with Jonny Stark at Three Monkeys was scheduled for 1PM on Friday 30 April. He was also going to introduce me to Ben Sewell, Senior Account Manager. He showed me their swanky new offices designed in the format of the main theme - jungle. The black sparkling floor at reception did indeed look impressive. It was the busiest office I had seen so far. My host was stopped by his colleagues at least three times as he was giving me a tour and people were having lunches right in front of their computers. Very briefly he introduced me to Ben and I was out in less than 15 minutes.

I have reiterated to both Phoenix and Three Monkeys that I was going to send their details to the student participants and it would be their choice to select the third agency for the event. As a result, the students had to choose between Lansons offering corporate, financial, international, consumer and public affairs PR, PHA Media focusing on sport and leisure, fashion and beauty, culture and innovation and celebrity PR, Phoenix who were keen to find Spanish speakers for their Barcelona-based client in construction and Three Monkeys who wanted to take on an intern for the Microsoft account team. In the end no matter how much I hated to say no to my fellow student Jonny Stark and despite their high ratings I had to inform Three Monkeys that they were out.

It is a difficult thing to do - to say no to someone who has put in so much effort in already but it had to be done.

Thank you everyone who has taken part in this event so far. I really appreciate your time and effort!

First thoughts

One of the main duties of a CIPR student rep is to organise an event which promotes the image of CIPR and is beneficial to students. To be honest, I have had all sorts of ideas but none of them quite fitted the description. The budget offered by CIPR was £50, which kind of ruled out my initial idea of taking my group on a PR trip to Ibiza. What else could be interesting to my fellow students and is still within the CIPR domain? The next thought I had was a job fair called "How to land your dream job" offering CV writing and interview tips and featuring key PR agencies on the lookout for graduate employees. Unfortunately thematically it clashed with one of the events held by CIPR at roughly the same time and called "Getting started in PR", so I had to come up with an alternative.

The main concern for students is how they are going to secure employment when they graduate, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of organising an event offering students internship opportunities. Life is all about competition, especially in PR, so why not prepare students for their future career by exposing them to this rule from the very beginning? I came up with the idea of conducting an internship competition offering the winners a placement in one of the key PR agencies and started my search for the PR practices that might be interested in my proposal. I used all possible avenues to approach consultancies: through the CIPR membership directory; via personal contacts; by responding to articles in PR Week publishing practitioners’ contact details etc. As it happened, the internship market is rather problematic and agencies are not prepared to commit without knowing the level and experience of the candidates, so I was able to find only four agencies willing to participate: Lansons, PHA Media, Phoenix and Three Monkeys. I visited their offices and met with the practitioners scheduled to present the company at the competition and they all provided me with their company profile overview, internship terms and any other information they considered to be important for attracting most of the students' attention.

The student candidates for the event have also been carefully selected. I targeted BA and MA PR students both in London and outside the capital by way of contacting CIPR student reps asking them to share my proposal with their groups. My PR tutor, Jeremy Baker at the London Metropolitan University, kindly supplied me with contact details for the tutor teaching second year students BA in Communications Technology - Gareth Thompson - and we agreed to have a Skype conference call for me to introduce the students to CIPR and invite them to take part in the competition. This unfortunately never happened due to technical problems. Nevertheless, Gareth has distributed the printouts which I had previously posted to him just in case and as a result a few students from his course have since been in touch.

To document the event a photographer was required, but to make sure that I have the best professional available, I held another competition amongst young student photographers. I informed them that although there was no budget for their fee and their main benefit would be a high profile project and a great client on their CV, plus the opportunity to extend their portfolio further by making use of the amazing venue, meeting high-flying PROs and gaining coverage in local and national media. I sent my proposal to the key London-based photography institutes, courses and departments as well as a few of my own contacts and also posted a note on Facebook. Having reviewed the portfolios and CVs submitted by the interested parties, I identified the perfect photographer - Chen Gao, a freelance from Zibo, China, who also had a BA in Choreography.

The same procedure was followed to find the best event logo design. A competition was held and the best option was chosen. Freelance graphic designer Nick Foster also supplied images for the posters.

The event was held at the Moorgate campus of the London Metropolitan University with the Awards ceremony to follow at the nearby restaurant. I considered a few bar and restaurant options for the after-party, trying to combine proximity to the university, appropriate layout and flexibility in meeting my tiny budget. Having spoken to the management of the nearby venues such as The Globe, Pizza Express, Indian Mehek, O'Neills and The Wall - I have chosen the latter.

Their individual approach from the very first moment did the trick. I walked in without any appointment on a Thursday night at around 7pm and barman Pavel kindly invited me to the quieter upper floor private function room to go through the details of my proposal. I informed him about my major budget restrictions and my event requirements and he assured me that they would contact me the next day to make a booking taking into account our special circumstances. I left with a happy feeling. It had been a long time since someone had treated me in such a dignified manner considering students never have any money.

Next morning, Manager Katherine Atkins contacted me to confirm our booking and finalise the menu. I must admit, I was desperate to get that bar as my heart was already there, so I told her that we were prepared to allow them to use our photographer for their own professional portfolio. I also mentioned that the event would get local and national coverage in the media and I would be happy to mention their name in the feature. And the deal was done. The next day I went to see the allocated function room and I was speechless! We were given a lovely spacious private room on the top second floor with our private bar, bathroom and terrace. The room had a massive screen and computer equipment so we could run the entire event in the same place. Katherine offered a great combination of drinks and food, giving us a 25% discount plus corkage on champagne.

I sent out a confirmation email to the successful students asking them to choose the three agencies for the event.

On Tuesday I got back in touch with the agencies to confirm who was selected for the next stage.

I was really exciting about this event! It was an unbelievable joy to see all these little puzzles fall into place.