The folks at Berkeley HQ were very pleasantly surprised this morning when, amongst the usual mailers, subscription renewals and invoices – appeared a miniature birthday cake from our friends over at IT Pro. It seems hard to fathom that this highly respected online publication, regularly targeted for many Berkeley clients, is only celebrating its second birthday. How time flies when you’re having fun…

But then something else occurred to me – how strange it is to be on the receiving end of corporate gifts and favours. PR people are programmed to build relationships with journos and go the extra mile to ensure they feel special and valued – and rightly so. This very often means marking birthdays in the old outlook calendar and sending cards, chit chatting about holidays and, of course, buying a round of G&Ts at any given opportunity. But I could probably count on one hand how many times this has been reciprocated and, I can honestly say, it has put a huge smile on my face!

Bethan Wadeson