Today has been a day for spreading some love and joy. I know it’s not December (there is in fact a heat wave here in Bristol), but I do feel like it’s the season of goodwill. I’ve been emailing the men and women who have been shortlisted for the CIPR’s Young Communicator of the Year award in the South West. They come from a huge variety of backgrounds, small agencies, large agencies, in house and they are come from right across the region, which is great.
Ensuring that young people enter the PR and communications profession is vital and being able to send them good news has been a joy. I am passionate about our profession and my involvement in the CIPR SW Committee, as chair, is one of the most important things I do. We have to step up to the plate as professional communicators and ensure we help the organisations we work with, or for, become more serious and more professional themselves about their reputations.
So on November 22nd at the CIPR SW PRide awards, we will announce the winner. It’s going to be really tough as the shortlisted bunch are all so talented and hard working. But, we have to chose the best. I am delighted to have two excellent panel members to help with the task, the brilliant Shelley Fletcher herself a past winner of the accolade and now the owner of one of Cornwall’s most dynamic small agencies, Firegrass Communications and Dieter Lloyd, an inspiring business man, who with his wife Pam has built a hugely successful business, Pam Lloyd PR (they won agency of the year last year at the CIPR SW PRide Awards). He also does a good line in dancing on his knees, but that’s another story.