Those working in the publicity industries in the Derry-Londonderry and Donegal area are encouraged to get involved in a new group which aims to grow the sector and help businesses to take advantage of the opportunities from UK City of Culture. Representing those in advertising, design, marketing, digital technologies, public relations and the media, the member run group will provide networking and collaboration opportunities as well as training and lobbying for the interests of members.

A focus will be on highlighting the high quality and excellent value of local offerings in the sector to encourage local firms to look again at how they can resource their requirement locally. By supporting local companies, jobs can be created in the region and a vibrant publicity sector can be developed here in the coming years. With the numerous opportunities that will arise from the City of Culture, practitioners must be positioned to deliver the services required for the range of events and opportunities on offer. A consultation exercise with Derry City Council and ILEX for publicity professionals could highlight areas for business opportunities arising from City of Culture. Through identifying opportunities and areas for development, the group hopes to facilitate world-class training in each of these areas. Networking and collaboration will help local companies to work together to increase innovation.

If you are involved in advertising, design, marketing, digital technologies, public relations or the media and are based in Derry~Londonderry and want to get involved in setting up the group come along to Starbucks (Crescent link) on Wednesday 18 August at 6.30pm. For further information email Donal Doherty on donal@conversegroup.com or call 028 7128 6767.

Tuesday’s bomb in Derry is sure is set to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds according to Chief Inspector Chris Yates. Our offices at Converse are directly opposite the site of the bomb and apart from the damage inflicted to our office we have lost a great deal of trade during the week by not being in the office.

The Strand Road continues to be blocked off so my family business, Strand Bingo is losing thousands of pounds every day the road is inaccessible to the public. While Strand Bingo has built up a great regular customer base, it will be a major setback as many become reluctant to visit the area again.
With that said it could have been a lot worse as a number of businesses directly on the road are badly damaged and may have to be demolished all together.

Things have been hard for businesses in the region in this time of recession and I am sure that this the last thing many businesses on the Strand Road need.

Here is a CCTV video of the moment the bomb went off.

NB: The camera is motion sensitive so only records when there’s movement. The gap between the car driving away and the blast is about 8 minutes.

Check out the below event, sounds like a good one.

When: 9am-5:30pm, September 16th, 2010
Venue: Magee Campus, University of Ulster, Derry
Cost: FREE
Website: www.showcaseconf.com

“SHOWCASE is a free one-day conference showcasing fresh ideas in cloud, mobile and web-based apps taking place at the University of Ulster, Magee campus on September 16th - and it’s going to be the biggest technology event in the NW this year.

The event features demonstrations and product launches from twenty of the most exciting developers, startups and growing companies from across the region (and further afield), alongside industry workshops from Microsoft, Ubuntu and others. Even if you’re not involved in the tech industry this is a great chance to learn how people are applying new ideas to industries as diverse as retail, creative media and public services. If you are in the technology industry, it’s unmissable.

To learn more or to book your free place, visit www.showcaseconf.com“

Looking forward to Bizcamp Belfast in November.

Here’s the blurb from their website:

“Bizcamp Belfast is a free business unconference taking place on Saturday the 13th of November 2010! There will be a wide range of talks from entrepreneurs and professionals ready to share their knowledge about business, technology and digital media. There is an emphasis at the bizcamps on networking and making that connection you need, we expect you to leave the Bizcamp feeling buzzed with new friends and new knowledge.

We encourage everyone to talk, as we believe everyone has a story to tell. Expect to hear entrepreneurs, technical talks, social media talks, we even had a mechanical engineer talk about marketing at the Newry event!”

See http://bizcampbelfast.com for more information.

The team behind the UK City of Culture bid have done an incredible job on behalf of everyone in Derry-Londonderry, and with so much public support, it seems that if we win it could be a defining moment in the history of the city.

So what will this mean for the publicity, marketing and public relations (PR) industry in the region?

When I launched PR agency, Converse Communications in 2007, very few practitioners outside of Belfast were offering advertising, PR and marketing services. However, this has changed in recent years, with a number of other agencies and independent consultants setting up to service the market in the North West and further afield, yet job opportunities in the sector are extremely limited. Most graduates with marketing, communications or PR degrees have little or no chance of employment in Derry-Londonderry and the surrounding region. Those that decide to stay in Northern Ireland may find work in Belfast, while many others are forced to find move to England or further afield to secure employment in the field. Others who decide to stay in Derry-Londonderry take a job which has nothing to do with their qualifications or what they dream of working in.

If the bid is successful this could all change with events such as BBC Sports Personality of the Year and The Brit Awards coming to the city in 2013. A potential 2,000 to 3,000 jobs will be created and an additional £500 million ($614 million) could be injected into the local economy.

If jobs can be created in the marketing, media and PR, sector, the next generation will have employment and diaspora will be attracted back to the city bringing a wealth of experience with them.

There is a wealth of potential for local existing companies to develop and for a new wave of entrepreneurs and start-ups in the sector. If procurement decision makers in the private and public sector make a commitment to support the industry and secure the services locally, many more jobs can be created for our indigenous people. As with other projects such as the Peace Bridge, which contain a social clause of targeting recruitment and training, I would suggest that caveats like this should not only be built into contracts arising from winning the bid, but as a general rule for services procured locally. We need to act global and think local. Those organisations outsourcing their marketing and media requirements should consider investing in the local talent to grow jobs in the sector in the city.

I am not however suggesting that local firms can be complacent of course. We all know we are in the worst recession since the depression and when budgets are being cut inevitably marketing, design PR, etc, tends to be on the chopping block first. Therefore, we need to be competitive, not only in consultancy and commission fees, but we must ensure that we are offering the services required for the various projects that will arise if we win the bid. A consultation exercise with the business community may be beneficial, as it would highlight areas that local companies could develop expertise in time for 2013, to ensure local companies can extract maximum benefit.

Organisations also need to be aware of the opportunity this presents for them. Many eyes will be on the banks of the Foyle should we win the bid, and what better chance to showcase local businesses to a mass market. Companies can achieve significant big wins if they can professionalise their marketing in time for 2013 and are sure to benefit from the wide range of opportunities available to them.

If procurement is localised, businesses are geared up to offer the various services required, and the business community uses City of Culture as a vehicle to grow their business, we could see a vibrant marketing and media community develop here over the coming years.

With 500 million of investment heading to the maiden city if it wins UK City of Culture, there’s a wealth of business opportunities for entrepreneurs if the city wins.

Check out the film made and shown as part of the bid over in Newcastle.
Derry-Londonderry City of Culture Film

Invest NI have just launched a new round of Innovation Vouchers. With £2.7m in funding the vouchers worth £4,000 vouchers can be redeemed against the cost of specialist expertise from universities, colleges and publicly funded research institutes.

Applications are open until November 30 with information available at www.innovationvouchers.com.

Don’t miss your chance to enter the Ulster Bank Business Achiever Awards before the end of the week.

The eight award categories are: One-to-Watch; International Business; Social Entrepreneurship; Best Business Start-up; Family Run Business; Green Business; Agriculture, Food and Drink; and Emerging Technology.

The overall winner will receive a prize package that includes an online and print package worth in excess of £10,000 in the Belfast Telegraph if the overall all-island winner is from here.

For more information visit http://businessachieversaward.com.

Last weekend saw the first Barcamp Derry take place in the University of Ulster’s Magee Campus. The unConference style event saw Northern Ireland’s digeratti and social media community come together for the collaborative event. For those not familiar with an unConference, it’s similar to a conference only the agencda is decided on the day and the whole thing is a lot more informal. Participants can register on the site to speak or on arrival they write their topic of choice onto a post it and stick it up on the schedule. The topics are as diverse in nature and the ‘talks’ range in quality. From marketing to achieving venture capital to time travel, no topic seems to be off the agenda. With an impressive 170 something people registered for the event the calibre of the delegates was very impressive indeed. Digital Circle put on a bus from Belfast and people traveled from all over the country to attend.

It is clear from the sentiment at Barcamp Derry that the creative industries and business community want more opportunities to meetup and network in an informal way which costs little or is free. A Bizcamp Derry is planned for the new year and Barcamp and Bizcamp Belfast will also be back next year.
See Barcamp Derry for more information.

The public relations workshop we ran this week went really well with over 20 businesses attending to learn how they can engage in PR to promote and protect their brand.

The panel of local media experts included Martin McGinley, Editor of the Derry Journal, Ciaran O’Neill, Group Editor of Derry News and Londonderry Sentinel, Reporter Eamon Sweeney. They highlighted that it is important to remember that editors are in the business of news so if you have something interesting going on in your business there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be sharing it with the world.

Also if you find yourself the subject of negative press the worst thing you can do is say nothing. If you’ve done something wrong hold your hands up, admit your mistake and let people know what you are going to do to make it right.

Due to the high level of interest I’ll be doing a podcast soon on PR so check back soon for that.

In the meantime to learn more about PR check out these links: