It’s not everyday you get to lift a winning sports trophy alongside one of the nation’s greatest, and yet here I am celebrating the t20 win with Paul ‘Nico’ Nixon at my side.

Leicestershire triumphed in the Friends Life Twenty20 Final after beating Somerset when Josh Cobb took four wickets and was named man of the match.

The real story however was Nico, who playing his last ever match for the club, took a flying catch to dismiss Somerset’s danger man, Kieron Pollard.

The Foxes’ fantastic performance has secured them a place in the Champions League t20 in India, and the nation’s favourite wicketkeeper has postponed his retirement to play there.

As proud patrons of Leicestershire County Cricket Club, the hopwood team are absolutely delighted with the result.

Let’s hope there will be another trophy I can lift when the Foxes return!

Last week the first court case to be heard in Leicester’s historic Guildhall for a century took place, and I was a member of the jury.

A company was charged under the Corporate Manslaughter & Homicide Act after a warehouse assistant was hit by a delivery vehicle while trying to cross an access road behind his employer’s food store.

The company was accused of being responsible because pedestrians should not have been allowed in this area.

Fortunately, the victim and the company were fictitious and the trial was a fake. No imaginary people were hurt during the making of this court case. More

Public consultation: Stakeholders engaged!

Being a good listener is a valuable life skill but all it really takes is concentration and self control. Being a good communicator is far more challenging.

I was reminded about the difference at a public consultation event where I was handling the media.

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We generated 50 pieces of print and online media for clients during May and June, including 18 national hits.

 
Highlights included:
Arranging for celebrity designer Jeff Banks, a co-founder of Incorporatewear, to feature in The Sunday Telegraph’s Fame and Fortune column. News about the corporate clothing company hit 19 other national and regional media.

Expanding Leicester insurance broker Brett and Randall made seven appearances in key regional media, including a main article in Business Issues.

Katherine Wood, 16, took a break out of her summer holiday after finishing her GCSEs and joined us for a week’s work experience at hopwood Public Relations. Here is her story.

If I had to sum up my week at Hopwood PR in four words, they would be “unexpected, enlightening, fascinating and welcoming”.

On my first day, I took part in a brainstorm for PR opportunities to support a campaign for teenagers with HIV.
After that, I sat in on a weekly planning meeting with the team. This was really interesting, and gave me a clear indication of just how many clients the firm has, as well as how busy they are!

After lunch, we went to BBC Radio Leicester to have a tour. We were shown around the offices and even the studios, with all their state-of-the-art technology. It was really interesting to hear how radio journalists and PR people work together.

The second day started with me being given a brief for my very own press release!  Next, we went on another tour, this time to a printing company that Hopwood sometimes uses for its clients. It was a completely new experience, as I had never seen any of the machinery before.

After lunch, Duncan, the managing director, spoke to me about PR writing and journalism. I got to know how to build a good relationship with journalists and what the best PR techniques are – it was really informative, and I will never read newspapers in the same way again!

On the third day, I started by doing an interview for my press release. Having gathered together all the information I needed, I put together a draft for Kirsty, Hopwood’s senior account executive for editing and approval. It will now be issued to the local media – my first real-life PR job complete! Next on my agenda was to write another press release.

After an early lunch, I sat in on a meeting with one of Hopwood’s clients, yet another new experience for me. It was quite strange to be sitting in a proper formal meeting, but I got a much better understanding of how PR is used, and even learnt a lot about the housing market!

Hardly any time at all was spent in the office on the fourth day. In the morning we went to Nottingham to visit BBC Nottingham and have a tour – needless to say I was excited!

Here we would find out about the relationship between PR and the BBC, and also learn about loads of different journalistic jobs, some of which I had never heard of before!

In the gallery, we saw everything that was being broadcast on the television (live) and, as our guide explained to us, time is seen very differently when working there, with some material being prepared just seconds before it goes live on air.

Next we went into the studio (which is much smaller than I imagined). Our guide explained to us how the news presenters do not just read the news, but have to write their own scripts, as well as doing other filming during the day.

Overall, the day was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which I’ll never forget. I learnt so much, both about PR, the BBC, and a whole new side of journalism.

Overall, I have really enjoyed my week at Hopwood, and have learnt a lot about what the PR industry encompasses. It has made me look at the media in a different light, and has shown me how important PR is within the news and local media. Hopefully, I will be able to get even more experience of PR in the future.

Katherine Wood

The hopwood team travelled from our Leicester HQ up the M1 to Derby for this year’s Property and Business Investment Show.

Held at the Pride Park stadium, the show played host to a mix of suppliers of products and services to the property sector.

As newbies to this show, we were not sure what to expect, but our instinct to showcase our public consultation experience was clearly the right decision and interest was high throughout the day.

The Government’s Localism Bill has made it even more important than ever to carry out public consultations during the planning stages of a development, making our services and expertise in this area even more valuable.

The show also gave us the chance to showcase our PR and marketing campaigns in residential and commercial property, in Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and beyond.

Having the opportunity to chat to new contacts in the sector, including contractors, developers, planning consultants and journalists, convinced us that the green shoots of recovery in the property sector are definitely up.

There’s a debate (unhealthy, I think) in the PR industry about whether or not it’s appropriate to measure the amount of media coverage we generate in terms of what it would cost to buy the same amount of space or air time as advertising.

It’s a hot topic on twitter under the hashtag #measurepr. Here’s what we think about measuring PR.

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hopwood pr clients featured prominently in more than 90 print and online publications in the first two months of the year. A dozen pieces of national coverage, plus articles in regional newspapers and business magazines, gave our clients more than five million opportunities to be seen. More

It’s hopwood PR’s 20^th anniversary this year, and to celebrate, we’re running a series of fundraising events. In April, I swam 5k for Marie Curie Cancer Care. Now, Laurel is preparing to run the Leicester half marathon and Duncan is currently in rigorous training for the London Triathlon this August. More