Leeds
Some really interesting business blog links
Jan 10th
I’m not a fan of link posts, but for once I’m going to indulge in it myself:
OpenSkies is a new airline from British Airways and it has launched not with a traditional website, but with flyopenskies a business blog where they invite you to “join the conversation” and say they want to try and be open about the process of starting the new business.
My old friend Simon Collister has an interesting post about his just completed CIPR diploma dissertation on “whether political bloggers in the UK have an influence on the media agenda of broadsheet newspapers”. I look forward to reading the full dissertation which Simon is going to publish as a PDF.
Chris Edwards, chief executive of Education Leeds, is someone I know and admire from the days when I was a local councillor. He is now a very prolific blogger at his Interesting Times! blog. After spending the day at BETT with a client I read that Education Leeds and Bluewave SWIFT were winners of the prestigious BETT award for ‘Supporting Institutional Leadership and Management Solutions’.
The always interesting Colin Byrne, CEO of Weber Shandwick, has a good post on online politics about both the Labour Party and the Conservatives appointing advertising agencies, both of which are looking digital marketing strategies. I can’t help but wonder if ad agencies are the right people to assist with this and if public relations consultants might not be better qualified.
PR Week reports (behind a pay wall) that “public affairs chief” Steve Morgan of Morgan Allen Moore is “commuting between London and the US to work for Hillary Clinton”. Given what’s happening with Labour deputy leadership contender Peter Hain I suspect some people think he should be spending some more time in the UK.
Full Disclosure: I was director of communications for Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Health, and the deputy leadership contender who narrowly lost to Harriet Harman.
Technorati Tags: openskies, business blog, British Airways, Education Leeds, Alan Johnson, Peter Hain, Harriet Harman, Steve Morgan, Weber Shandwick, Labour deputy leader
Google’s DJ Collins to speak at Leeds Met University
Oct 5th
Richard Bailey reports that DJ Collins – Head of Corporate Communications for Google in the UK, Ireland and Benelux – is giving a guest lecture at Leeds Metropolitan University on October 15. It will be good to meet DJ as we share mutual fiends/acquaintances and have met a long time ago, but don’t actually ‘know’ each other
See you there?
Manchester recreates city in Second Life
Feb 19th
The Manchester Evening News reports that Manchester is set to open a virtual version of itself in Second Life. The aim is promote the Manchester ‘brand’ and raise awareness of the city in the real world. The move is a collaboration between the Urbis museum, Manchester’s Digital Development Agency (DDA) and consultants Clicks and Links.
I’m not a big fan of Second Life, but I do recognise its potential and this is a good way of benefiting from the opportunity. Second Life citizens (audiences) might be tiny, but they and Second Life carry influence way beyond their size.
Why can’t Marketing Leeds be this creative? I live in Leeds and know it is a vibrant, dynamic city heaving with creative, financial, legal, scientific, technological and marketing talent. You’d never guess any of this from Marketing Leeds’ efforts, which make the city look like its stuck in the 1990s.
As an aside I’m speaking about social media at a Manchester Digital event on March 7 – I’ll post more later.
