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December 2nd 2011

Working with the Media – Our First Networking Event 2012


On Thursday 23rd February 2012, 1 Events Media will be launching its 2012 programme of networking events with a special presentation on the subject of public relations. In association with LloydsTSB, the session will run between 4.30pm and 7.00pm in Blackburn at Euro Garages Head Office.

The speaker for the evening will be Robin Gregson, a Chartered Marketer with more than 20 years of experience in the PR and marketing industry and a specialist in helping small and medium sized enterprises to improve their profitability and competitiveness. His presentation is entitled Making PR Work for Your Business and it will demonstrate how, given a reasonable understanding of how the media industry operates, companies can secure credible, sustainable and high quality publicity without incurring the expenses associated with advertising or hiring an agency to write and distribute news stories on their behalf.

 “The principles of media relations are essentially very simple,” he says. “Any company can take advantage of PR as a tool for publicity and brand building, provided that it understands how to engage with journalists, what job they are there to do and what sort of material they are looking for. News is the life blood of all kinds of media – both printed and online – so if small businesses can deliver interesting stories in a form that journalists can use, they have every chance of being able to achieve valuable free exposure.”

Robin is well placed to give delegates a practical insight into public relations and how best to work with journalists. Since 1988, he has worked in some of the region’s leading PR and marketing agencies, as an in-house marketing manager and, on occasion, as a freelance journalist. Moreover, he has spent the last thirteen years working as a marketing consultant, specialising in delivering support to SMEs across the North West, so he has  a keen understanding of the value of PR and how it can transform the fortunes of companies that have very limited budgets but interesting stories to tell.

Event organiser Mubarak Chati says: “Public relations is so often overlooked by businesses as a promotional tool. Many companies opt immediately for more expensive techniques such as advertising because it has never really occurred to them that they could achieve more credible coverage, free of charge, simply by talking to an editor rather than an advertising sales manager. I’m very glad that Robin will be giving this presentation and showing delegates that there can be a much more cost effective alternative.”

Registration for the event is open.