A year ago I had the idea to launch a networking group just for PR & Marketing professionals in Kent.
On May 1st at Kent’s iconic Brands Hatch, I saw it launched – with help from someone I met in my very early days of journalism and whose path I’ve crossed many times in the last 18 years.
Jodi Eeles from Floresco Communications came on-board to co-found and launch The PR Crowd with me and we had 16 professionals with us for our first event.
We aim to plug a gap in the industry, bringing together collaboration opportunities between freelancers, in-house professionals, and PR and marketing agencies, who can swap skills and knowledge.
The launch attracted independent PR consultants, boutique agencies and some of Kent’s larger business PR and communication managers, with some great conversations going on and collaborations beginning.
There are so many skilled people in the county working silo with a variety of experience and specialisms, but there wasn’t one place where they could swap and share their ideas, contacts or find help from others in the know!
The PR Crowd is not about competition, but collaboration. As solo consultants, our ‘members’ may have a client that’s just too big and can refer it to an agency colleague. Likewise, an agency may need a temporary extra pair of hands on a project so can recruit from our freelancers. The PR Crowd will provide a pool of talent that’s open to working together to provide clients with the best PR skills in Kent – a ‘virtual team’ of skilled professionals who have the opportunity to swap skills, support and knowledge.
We had a great motivational talk from Bella O’Hara from Feel Good 2 B Productive which covered some mindset switches to aid productivity and focus – how to get back to pitching for new work when you’ve had a disastrous morning – bad school run, traffic, or coffee down your front!
There was a great energy at the launch and we are hoping that this will grow and attract more like-minded professionals.
Thank-you to all who came and everyone who supported me in the launch including:
Jodi Eeles – Floresco Communications
Paul Woodger – Mivvy Creative
Gary Johnson – Racing Events
Bella O’Hara – Feel Great 2 B Productive
Michael Coltham – composer
We plan to hold a networking event twice a year, with the Facebook Group providing the core channel of communications between our members.
Find the group by searching for ‘The PR Crowd’ group on Facebook.
Email me to find out more – sarah@izzypr.co.uk
