highland safaris go wild day 2011 - line up revealed and great new charity beneficiary

I am delighted to announce that I am sponsoring the falconry display at my client Highland Safaris Go Wild Day 2011 taking place on Thursday4th August at the Safari Lodge. This annual event is a great day out for locals and visitors to the area alike and this year has a great new charity benefitting from the cause - Tayside Mountain Rescue. Many peope will not realise that the TMR are a registered charity, I know I didn't and it is assumed that this vital service is paid for by the Government but that is not the case and a 25-30 amn team takes £30,000 a year to run and it operates 24/7 365 days a year - a really important service saving many lives! Donald and Julie at Highland Safaris have decided that the TMR are this year's charity benefitting from Go Wild Day and a very worthy one they are indeed and I hope that my sponsorship money helps them out even a little bit - I have suggested to Donald that some other companies may want to come in and sponsor specific elements of the day - there is the Gold and Gem Panning Championships too and Bushcraft Workshops, Highland Warriers Display and lots more - as well as stalls from the RSPB anf Help for Heroes. Children will be delighted with the BBQ and bouncy Castles and of course everyone can try out BikeTRAX this year - the new Mountain bike skills loop. I am really looking forward to it and taking my own family along.

Trip to the offices of the scotsman/edinburgh evening news

Well I am delighted to say that my trip to the Edinburgh Evening News with the senior media students from Dunfermline High School on Monday went very well - the ten students who attended found it very interesting and there are a few amongst them who are very serious about a career in journalism. We were shown round the spacious and airy offices by Tom Little, the Editor of the Evening News - our thanks go to him for putting so much time and effort into the trip. His informative staff also each talked about their own specialities - so we had an insight into the picture desk; newsdesk; sports desk and production and so on. I am keen to arrange other trips for the students to other publications, maybe even some TV and radio stations too, who knows? It is something that I am enjoying myself very much and it is great to see the students getting a love of the subject and discovering like me that media studies can open up some great career opportunities for the future.

Congrats to Pitlochry Festival Theatre from Atholl Palace Hotel

The Atholl Palace Hotel handed over a gorgeous decorated cake on the theme of My Fair Lady to the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry to celebrate the theatre's 60th Birthday. That was the original story with my client Dougal going over there with the plan of having some pictures taken - but then we found out that the actor Joss Ackland was going to be there as they were having a special Anniversary Gala Dinner. Mr Ackland was then given the cake in front of the audience and cut it up to be enjoyed by cast and crew. It turned into a great story and my thanks to everyone at the theatre especially Giles Conisbee and of course the lady who made the cake - it photographed very well and I am sure it was delicious too! Mr Ackland was then staying at the Atholl Palace for the night so I hope he enjoyed that too.

ECOOLDESIGNS!! THEY ARE COOL

I am waiting and hoping to hear in July if I have the go-ahead to commence PR for an exciting new client called Ecooldesigns who have some fabulous products I would be happy to have in my own home - any excuse! I particularly love their dice tea light holder - it is gorgeous and is going to be massive. Their products are all very innovative with great PR mileage as many are made from recycled materials - yet they are chic and stylish, nothing shabby there - I am already thinking about feature opportunities for them - it is very exciting when something new comes along, especially a client who has never used PR before but has already had the very good sense to identify that here is a cost effective way to gain profile - rather than just rushing to book advertising. I know they won't be disppapointed if they do appoint me - watch this space.

I have also recently put in a price for a lovely project next February - the snowdrop festival at Cambo Estate which would be a great seasonal campaign to work on - and right on my own patch in Fife.

And I have recently pitched for some work at Cardona Hotel in Peebles - another lovely part of the world where I seem to spend a lot of time! The Hotel is beautiful, once again the setting blew me away just like Atholl Palace.

FIRST WINNER OF MY INAUGURAL PR TROPHY AT DUNFERMLINE HIGH SCHOOL

I am delighted to say that the first winner of my Excellence in the Higher Media Class trophy at Dunfermline High School is Ian McLaren who was presented with his trophy last night at the school. A very worthy winner, Ian tells me he is going to study at Stirling University - just like I did. I thoroughly enjoyed the Awards presentation and am glad to say that there a great many more awards given out in all different subjects nowadays - including Media Studies now of course, a truly great and extremely interesting subject. I wish Ian all the very best and I am always here for advice if he ever wants to email or call me to get in touch as his career progresses.

Trip to the offices of the scotsman

This coming Monday 20th June I am taking ten senior pupils from Dunfermline High School to the offices of the Scotsman and Edinburgh Evening News - it's part of the sponsorship work I have been doing with the school since I put forward the new prize for Excellence in the Higher Media Class. My thanks go to the Editor of the EEN Tom Little who has agreed to show us around the offices and answer a few questions. I am hoping it will be a very informative trip for those students perhaps wanting to enter journalism as a career or even PR because as we all know us PR people have to do all we can to get to know journalists personally and not just be the annoying voice on the phone! So there are more than a few people I myself will want to meet.