Thirty years ago last September I started working (as an editorial assistant on a government-focussed magazine). So I’m already some way into my 31st year in the world of work and 2022 was a landmark year. I marked two years in business as Lucecannon PR; I had some great clients and great colleagues for the year in ITN, Channel 4 News, Activate Performing Arts, The HALO Trust and others. So I’m starting 2023 with a spring in my step, eager to see what the year brings and who I can help to raise their profile in a world where everyone is time poor and overloaded with information.
Do get in touch if you need long or short term support with your PR, communications, social media or anything else reputation-related.
In other news
The government has officially abandoned plans (made by Boris Johnson when he was PM and Nadine Dorries when she was Culture Secretary) to privatise Channel 4. Hooray! Needless to say, those in the know, working in the TV industry, thought the idea was a catastrophically bad one. So this is a victory for all those who argued that Channel 4 in public ownership yet funded by advertising is at the heart of a thriving, creative television economy.
There was some great PR for the energy drink Prime which caused queues in supermarkets as kids and others rushed to get hold of it, after it was endorsed by some YouTubers who I’d never heard of.
I feel duty bound to mention Prince Harry’s book, Spare, and the mahoosive amount of publicity it has generated. Commentators and people I’ve spoken to are divided between those who wish he’d shut up, and stop being so hypocritical – wanting privacy and then making millions through shameless self-publicity, plus trouncing the privacy of his family members – and those who think he has a right to say how he feels.
I’m largely on the fence, although I do enjoy the gossip element of the whole saga. The broken necklace and dog bowl in the fisticuffs with his brother story were particular highlights.
This was interesting in the Guardian about Shopify (and other big companies) purging meetings from the diary. Having just been in a (Zoom) meeting at the start of January about arranging various meetings, this struck a chord. As a meetings tourist (a term I learnt from this article, describing the way I observe meetings as a freelancer and only contribute my penn’orth when asked), lots of meetings are quite pointless or rather they go on too long and are unfocussed. And having too many meetings in the diary does, of course, distract people from actually doing any work.
But the social aspect of meetings will never go away. Depending on who is in the meeting, there is often time for some small talk, chit chat, a joke or two and it’s a bonding moment for teams before getting down to work.
Especially as a freelancer working from home, I would feel very cut off if I had no meetings at all with the people I work with. Meetings are essential, but I do like the Zoom etiquette of starting exactly when we say we’ll start and being able to log off and breathe a huge sigh of relief in private when the meeting is over.
That’s it. My update for January is over. And we still have two weeks of January to go… Truly, it is the month that feels as if it lasts three years. See you in February.
Lucy Rouse PR Blog 