What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 24 June 2013

Welcome to another week and its PRCA DARE again this week with the remaining three events in Slough, Bristol and then Birmingham.

It’s a really innovative programme and the great thing about DARE is its not just an awards event, its also a learning experience with guest lectures and an interactive experiences.

As DARE is in its inaugural year, its been very much about bedding the programme in and laying the foundations for 2014, when we have no doubt it will be an incredibly successful and dynamic addition to the industry calendar for the communications genre.

So look out for next year, we can promise you it will be even more amazing!

Even though next week you think it will be a little easier here at Cloud 9 Towers, that certainly wont be the case, as it will be time to pop on our Fresh hats and get ready for the craziness that is The Fresh Awards 2013!

The official closing date for entries was last Friday 21^st June, but as we are such a generous lot here at Fresh we have extended the deadline to 5^th July.

Fresh is celebrating its 10^th Birthday this year so we are holding a Freshtival event between 25-28th September up in Manchester and we will be introducing a new networking platform called Poken.

Please watch the short video clip below to find out more about this technology-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEHs7Llsb9Q

The Poken Platform is specifically designed to enhance your event experience, to encourage networking and to allow you to collect everything you need ‘with a touch’, all while using an exciting new NFC -enabled technology. 

When you register at the Fresh Awards you will be given your very own sleek Poken device which will look a little something like the below-

Using this device, you can collect information from special stickers that we call ‘tags’, which means you don’t have to carry brochures and bags throughout the event!

You can also swap your own digital business card with other people by touching your Pokens together in a ‘high-four’.

Using the Poken online community portal at www.poken.com , you can log-in and create your digital business card, complete with your own profile picture, contact information and social network profiles. This is the profile you will swap with other delegates when you ‘high-four’ at the event.

By logging in to your own portal after the event, you will be able to see the profiles of those you have networked with, the information you have collected and some additional information from the event, all of which can be downloaded, shared and saved.

Keep an eye out for your Poken log-in details which will be sent to you soon. Much like LinkedIn or Twitter, the richer you can make your profile the more inclined other delegates will be to engage with you post event.

So great technology and a fantastic line up in place, what more could you want apart from cross dressing PR, Creative and Media industry leaders – but more of that to come!

Finally this week, we need to remind you that the closing date for the Bristol Media Brand You Awards, in conjunction with Social Heads and Synergist, is looming!

Entries need to be with us by next Monday 1^st July 2013 and there are some great categories open to individuals from the South West region:

1.  Advertising
2.  Animation & VFX
3.  Client Services & Account Management
4.  Broadcast
5.  Design
6.  Digital including Mobile & Web Design
7.  Direct Mail
8.  Events & Experiential
9.  Games & Apps
10.  Marketing
11.  Print & Publishing
12.  Photography
13.  Public Relations
14.  Social Media
15.  Video Viral Online

You can find out all about Brand You via the Bristol Media website, so make sure you take a look and get your entries in by next Monday.

Have a great week!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 17 June 2013

Welcome to another week and we have our PR hats on this week as Wednesday is the CIPR Northern Conference in Newcastle, followed by the first PRCA DARE Awards in Leeds on Thursday and DARE Scotland in Edinburgh on Friday.

So busy busy busy and lots of focus around the Public Relations and Communications Industry both this week and next, when the DARE Programme continues in Slough, Bristol and Birmingham.

Whilst we are pretty much sorted for all of the forthcoming events, you can see that it’s a whirlwind of travel, trains, planes and motorways and even though we always love going to some of these fabulous cities, we rarely get the time to enjoy anything more than a perfunctory look out of a window.

We never really get to see any sights other than the inside of a function room, which may be why this year we have opted for several unusual venues and not the usual hotel banqueting suites (which all start to look the same eventually!).

The CIPR Northern Conference Venue is the fantastic Great North Museum which incorporates collections from the Hancock Museum and Newcastle University’s Museum of Antiquities, the Shefton Museum and the Hatton Gallery.

Highlights of the £26million museum include a large-scale, interactive model of Hadrian's Wall, major new displays showing the wonder and diversity of the animal kingdom, spectacular objects from the Ancient Greeks and mummies from Ancient Egypt, a planetarium and a life-size T-Rex dinosaur replica skeleton.

 The Living Planet display houses hundreds of creatures and by using a mixture of touch screen technology and hands-on investigations, visitors can investigate these animals and find out where they live and how they survive in such extreme places as the arctic and desert.

 

Live animal tanks and aquaria are integrated into this major display where visitors can see wolf fish, pythons and lizards to name a few. Star objects include a full size model of an elephant, a great white shark, a virtual aquarium, live animal displays, a polar bear, a giraffe and moa skeleton.

So in addition to the fantastic schedule at the CIPR Northern Conference, the delegates will certainly have lots to look at!

With DARE North, the only Hotel we have picked as part of the DARE Schedule, it’s the Queens Hotel in Leeds, which is a personal favourite of ours and steeped in history.

From there we are off to The Hub in Edinburgh. This historic, category A listed building forms an integral part of the architectural fabric of Edinburgh. The Hub’s spire is the highest point in central Edinburgh.

It was constructed between 1842 and 1845 as the Victoria Hall to house the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The architects were James Gillespie Graham and Augustus Welby Pugin. Curiously the building was never consecrated as a Church. In 1929 the Church of Scotland ceased to use the building and it became a temporary home for a variety of congregations. It was named the Highland Tolbooth St John’s Church in 1956, before falling into disuse in the 1980s.

In 1999, the building was transformed into The Hub, the offices and a performance space for the Edinburgh International Festival. The building is a stunning combination of award winning contemporary design and classic Victorian architecture.

The next week we are resuming DARE firstly in Slough at the Spirit Conference Centre. The Centre Conference Venue opened its doors to the businesses and people of Slough and the surrounding areas in1998, the vast number of meeting rooms, 12 in total, and the magnificent size of the main banqueting suites means it has the capacity and flexibility that any one could need for their meetings, conferences, training workshops and events. Perfect for DARE…

From there we move to Bristol and the iconic Engineers House, is a Grade II listed conference centre in Clifton Down, a prestigious suburb of Bristol.It was built in 1831 by Charles Dyer, a leading Bristol architect. The most famous owner of the house was Charles Pinney, who was the Mayor of Bristol during the Bristol City Riots, and although it is sometimes referred to as ‘The Mayor’s House’, it was actually the private home of the Pinney family between 1835 and 1867. 

The building has a 19th century elegance and charm and the picturesque grounds overlook Westbury Park. Whilst the venue itself is steeped in history, the IT and conference facilities are absolutely state-of-the-art. Engineers’ House is AIM accredited, an indication of the quality of service and facilities you can expect to find.

To conclude the DARE tour we are off to Birmingham and Birmingham City Football Club and the Jasper Carrott Suite which is a fantastic space overlooking the football pitch.

Its fun and funky, a little like the comedian in whose honour the suite is named after!

As some of our tour will involve car travel, we pray for no traffic jams and no accidents that will require a claim of any kind.

But should we have a problem, we can always refer to some of the great Insurance Claim

Forms that Mr Carrott often referred to in his act, just in case we need any inspiration :

"Going to work at 7am this morning I drove out of my drive straight into a bus. The bus was 5 minutes early.." (Thanks N Bradley)

"I was driving along when I saw two kangaroos copulating in the middle of the road causing me to ejaculate through the sun roof." (from an Australian claim form - Thanks N Shepherd)

"I started to slow down but the traffic was more stationary than I thought."

Q: Could either driver have done anything to avoid the accident? A: Travelled by bus?

The claimant had collided with a cow. The questions and answers on the claim form were - Q: What warning was given by you? A: Horn. Q: What warning was given by the other party? A: Moo.

"I was going at about 70 or 80 mph when my girlfriend on the pillion reached over and grabbed my testicles so I lost control."

"I didn't think the speed limit applied after midnight"

"I knew the dog was possessive about the car but I would not have asked her to drive it if I had thought there was any risk."

"First car stopped suddenly, second car hit first car and a haggis ran into the rear of second car."

"Windscreen broken. Cause unknown. Probably Voodoo."

"The car in front hit the pedestrian but he got up so I hit him again"

"I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law and headed over the embankment."

"I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way"

"In an attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole."

"An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished."

"I was thrown from the car as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by some stray cows."

"Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have."

"I thought my window was down, but I found it was up when I put my head through it."

"The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him."

"I had been driving for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident."

"As I approached an intersection a sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before."

"To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front I struck a pedestrian."

"My car was legally parked as it backed into another vehicle."

"I told the police that I was not injured, but on removing my hat found that I had a fractured skull."

"I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the road when I struck him."

"The pedestrian had no idea which way to run as I ran over him."

"I saw a slow moving, sad faced old gentleman as he bounced off the roof of my car."

"The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth."

"No one was to blame for the accident but it would never have happened if the other driver had been alert."

"The pedestrian ran for the pavement, but I got him."

"The accident was caused by me waving to the man I hit last week."

"I knocked over a man; he admitted it was his fault for he had been knocked down before."

Made you smile? It did us!

Enjoy your week.

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 10 June 2013

Welcome to another week and it’s the start of a manic time for us here at Cloud 9 Towers with events a plenty over the next couple of weeks.

First up is the Midlands Media Awards which are set for this Thursday at Aston Villa Football Club. Over 250 guests will gather to recognise the stars of the Media Industry with categories that reward outstanding talent Journalism, Broadcasting and Photography.

We are certainly doing all we can to ensure Thursday is a fantastic night and you will be able to follow the results on Twitter from around 9pm using #MidlandsMediaAwards.

 

The Awards have been running for over 10 years but this our first time running the event so we are hoping to bring that Cloud 9 feeling to each and everyone of the guests.

 

The Birmingham Press Club is the oldest press club in the world, and the story of the club begins on a foggy winter night in 1865 when a small group of journalists met at a hotel in the centre of Birmingham.

The original minutes' book (still in excellent state of preservation) records: "At a meeting, held for the purpose of establishing a Club for promoting social enjoyment and literary recreation among Reporters and others connected with the Newspaper Press of Birmingham, held at Suffield's Hotel, Union Passage, on Saturday, the 16th of December, 1865..."

The club, to be called The Junior Pickwick Club, was duly formed on that day and date. Among its first rules was the edict that the reporters connected with the Daily Post, the Daily Gazette and the Midland Counties Herald should be its first members. Curiously, on that memorable occasion no one seemed bothered about financial matters. That came at the second meeting in January 1866, when it was resolved that there should be an entrance fee of one shilling. The subscription was set at five shillings a year.

Subsequent meetings were often held quarterly, usually over dinner accompanied by speeches and the reading of literary papers. One brief entry of such an occasion in the minutes' book records simply: "Everything so jolly that no minutes were taken."

By 1870 the Junior Pickwick Club had become known as The Birmingham Press Club. Few records remain about the club's activities between then and 1910, when an account of its history was published.

Entitled "A Thirty Year's Retrospect", this tells a story of convivial social occasions and "complaints as to defects in the service, and of remonstrance with the manageress" of the Midlands Hotel where members had their own exclusive club room. A search for other premises eventually resulted in a move to rooms in Castle Street off the High Street.

The history also tells of the first of the various financial crises faced by the club, this being in 1883.

Notice was given to the manageress and a decision taken to realise the assets of the club with a view to meeting its liabilities - however, temporary respite was found by relocating to a new home in a basement in Temple Row at the end of 1884.

The financial problems continued, however. At one point bailiffs armed with a distress warrant visited the club, but were paid off by those members then on the premises.

In 1890 the Birmingham Press Club moved back to the Midland Hotel. Aided by the generosity of Sir Algernon Borthwick, the club's President, a room was rented for £55 a year and the annual accounts showed a healthy surplus again.
 

At the turn of the century yet another crisis had members once more facing the prospect of having to move or wind-up the affairs of the club. Rooms were rented in Martineau Street where, for the first time, a full-size billiard table was installed.

At the annual dinner in 1910, the president spoke of his confidence that "we have passed through the valley of tribulation and are now steadily climbing to the pleasant uplands of assured prosperity" - a sentiment that, in the light of later events, seems a little misplaced.

Two years later, members voted for the club to become a limited liability company, The Birmingham Press Club Ltd. But by November 1912, the executive committee faced such a serious financial situation that a special meeting of the members voted to wind-up the affairs of the club unless a rescue plan could be agreed. Membership had fallen from 150 to below 100 and a new committee, formed to retrieve the situation, continued to manage the club until the end of the war.

The club prospered again and in 1923 an offer of larger premises at 9 Bull Street in the city centre was accepted. By the end of June, the move from Martineau Street had been completed. Membership now stood at 130, the annual subscription was increased to two guineas and the future of the Birmingham Press Club in Bull Street - the club's home for the next 43 years - seemed assured.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, special arrangements were made for members "to enter the Club during an air raid warning after closing the bar." The post-war years saw a return of the financial troubles that had so nearly led to the club being wound up some forty years earlier. In an attempt to supplement falling bar receipts, a fruit machine was installed - and soon became one of the principal sources of income.

1965 was the year the Birmingham Press Club should have been celebrating its centenary. Instead it was so preoccupied with negotiations for new premises that it contrived to miss the great occasion - surely the only club of any kind to do so!

The city council's plans for compulsory purchase of the Bull Street site for redevelopment forced the move to Corporation Street on Januay 28th, 1966, the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Wilson, officially opened the club's new premises.

That same year another momentous step was taken when directors agreed to the

admission of women to the club as guests for a trial period. Two years later the first women were admitted to full membership, and H R H Princess Alexandra became the first woman life member in 1972.

During the 1980s, increasing overheads and declining use of the Corporation Street premises made another move inevitable and the club moved to premises in the basement of the Grand Hotel, which were officially opened on 8th April 1997 by the Prime Minister, John Major.

The recurring theme of financial difficulties soon raised its head, and the club was soon forced to relinquish its lease on these premises. Thanks mainly to the efforts of the chairman, Andrew Sparrow, the club avoided being wound up, and today is thriving once more.

Yet another new home has been secured, at the Old Royal in Church Street. This is in a sense has been the club's spiritual home in the modern era, as it has been the venue for many dinners and other social events during past years, and is set to be so again for the foreseeable future.

Towards the end of 2005 the club was lucky enough to secure a major sponsorship deal with Royal Mail, who pledged their support for an initial 12 months. It is largely due to this that the club has been able to revamp its events calendar, which will now annually feature a number of celebrity lunches, the club's traditional Christmas lunch, a summer ball, the Midlands Media Awards and a monthly 'drinks evening' at the Old Royal and other venues.

So there you go, a history of the Press Club. We look forward to the Awards on Thursday and hope to see you there but whatever your plans this week, enjoy!

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 3 June 2013

Welcome to another a week and now we are in June, our event season goes a little crackers!

Our first event in June is the much anticipated Midlands Media Awards which is our first black tie event of the year and always a good excuse for ladies to get on their glad rags!

Men’s evening wear may play a starring role in enhancing its wearer but its role in enhancing a special occasion is very much a supporting one.  Echoing a romantic chivalry of days gone by, the black-and-white uniform is deliberately designed to act as an unassuming backdrop for the radiant couture and sensuous décolletage displayed by guests of the fairer sex.

 

When it comes to black-tie attire, the Debrett’s book notes that for women this dress code today “is infinitely more complicated, as its presence on a card can signify any level of dress, ranging from a little lycra number to just sub-white-tie levels of splendour.  The old clearly defined distinctions between dinner and dance dresses have largely disappeared and their place has been taken merely by confusion.”  The book’s subsequent advice is equally applicable on either side of the Atlantic:

   

Thus it is important to ascertain from the hostess what dress she is expecting.  Good hostesses could follow the lead of a well-known duchess, who sends a written invitation to friends that includes a few short lines dispelling any dress confusion: 'Saturday night is black tie, but palazzo pants will be absolutely fine.’ 

The invitation itself will also give clues.  A simple drinks party from 6:30 to 8:30 will require only a little black dress, while a more lavish affair to celebrate someone’s twenty-first, which consists of drinks, dinner and dancing, needs a much grander dress.  As an inveterate party-going friend says: ‘The greater the effort of the hostess, the greater the level of formality expected of the guest.’

The choice of long or short dress can also be vexing.  Traditionally long is

more formal than short, but these distinctions are fast disappearing . . .

 The choice today is largely based on what suits the wearer, her legs and her relative age.  Long is the preferred comfortable option of older women, while young girls invariably feel more suited to short.   However, a long dress or skirt remains the safest option for all, as it is always special, and appropriate to any black tie event grander than a cocktail party.  Best jewels, with plenty of sparklers, can be worn, but obviously tiaras are inappropriate.

Online, the Debrett’s experts add that the dress need not be black and if it is short it must not be “too short”.

So there you have it, and either way a good excuse to get all dressed up in style!  

Short and sweet this week...enjoy!