Morgan PR on The Best of Newbury

Morgan PR has gained some well deserved exposure on the flourishing directory of all things Newbury - for the recent presentation I delivered to the Oxygen business group in Oxford.

The Best of Newbury serves its clients well, as an affordable and increasingly comprehensive directory of local businesses it is certainly a key part of our strategy in keeping a presence high up on Google.

So being splashed on its news pages will be of great benefit and the site is always on the look out for news stories; so send yours in - or ask if you need any help.

Oxygen - A Breath of Fresh Air

I love the smell of bacon in the mornings, actually it can be a pretty enticing aroma at any time of the day - however, the aforementioned food group was just a bonus for turning out early this morning to meet the business professionals at Oxygen, a networking group that meets in Oxford.

I had been invited to reveal 'The Secrets of Great Public Relations' as part of the education slot by my business guru from Action Coach, Sally Rainbow Ockwell (Click here for a free Business Health Check with Sally and here to register for her newsletter) and found everyone attentive and keen to learn some useful pointers on making the most out of PR for their respective businesses.

A mix-up meant that my carefully crafted PowerPoint presentation remained locked on a memory key and I had to improvise, but it seemed not to matter with everyone paying attention and nodding reassuringly and laughing in most of the right place. They followed up with some good questions and finished off with applause. Which was rewarding for some hasty busking based around sparse notes and memory!

What I found rewarding was how many of the 30 second presentations (this is networking 30 seconds, not radio broadcasting so think closer to 90 seconds!) that each member did illustrated my point that much of PR simply reflects what they do. Not rocket science - although there was an electrician with a shaggy dog story that was nearly a frazzled dog story about two black labradors chewing through a cable - but simply tales of everyday existence that would work with a wider audience.

I am due to deliver the same kind of presentation to another business group soon, hopefully with PowerPoint included and I am happy to offer it to any groups out there who are enticed by 'The Secrets of Great Public Relations'.

Shirtworks Shop re-opens in Oxford

I had a fun morning in Oxford today, photographing the official launch of a client’s revamped shop on the Cowley Road. I had not visited the old Shirtworks store, but everyone seems united in their conviction that the all new look is a tremendous improvement.

They had taken my idea for a giant tee-shirt and equally outsized pair of scissors for the symbolic focus of the opening ceremony and it looked fabulous. Well, I would say that wouldn’t I! The Shirtworks team are pictured here.

The shop has been re-designed by Jan Lund of Jan Lund Design and she joined in the festivities today, clearly very proud of her efforts - and it really does seem like a bright, modern shop that deserves your custom for printed and embroidered tee-shirts and workwear!

We’d invited the various local media to cover the event, but in the reality I suspect the fringe nature of the event tempted them to wait and see what the photos were like we promised to send them.

In a competitive news environment it always pays to take your own photographs of a media event, not least so that you have some you can use without needing to credit a newspaper. However, cameras go wrong and accidents happen – so you never know when your photos might become the photos!