So, after an intense two weeks of planning, the Great Berkeley Bake- off finally took place earlier this week. And what an event it was!

At 13:00 on Monday, after a busy Sunday evening of baking, nine tired contestants lined up armed with the fruits of their labour. The selection of cakes was truly amazing, even the head baker at Greggs would be proud! Here’s a list of the contestants, along with their submissions:

• Denis: Chocolate and cola cake
• Lucy: Raspberry and white chocolate muffins (x6)
• Claire: Carrot cake
• Melanie: Rum and banana loaf
• Liam:  Chocolate and orange cake
• Louise: Chocolate fudge cake
• Rhiannon: Rocky Road and meringue topped lemon cupcakes
• Lauren: Chocolate and raspberry torte
• Laura: Flapjacks

But who were the winners? Well, the judging was tough. Chief Exec of Berkeley PR, Chris Hewitt, had the arduous task of tasting all ten creations.

“It was one of the toughest decisions of my life, I have to admit,” said Mr. Hewitt. “But ultimately there had to be one winner, and only one really stood out for me.”

The winner of the Great Berkeley Bake-off was Rhiannon Clarke, whose Rocky Road delighted the tastebuds of everyone involved! Second place went to….Rhiannon (again),  this time for her meringue-topped lemon cupcakes that were worthy of afternoon tea at the Dorchester. And third place? No it wasn’t Rhiannon but instead, Lucy Knighton, whose Raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes were wonderful.

And the wooden spoon of hotly contested event? Well that was shared by two people: yours truly for my chocolate and cola cake, and Melanie Johnson for her rum and banana loaf.

The contest raised £128, all of which will be donated to the Sports Relief appeal which takes place in March. A great success all round, and who knows, this could make its way into Berkeley PR’s annual diary!

(Note from the blog editor: the mountain of crumbs on the carpet and the many empty cake tins lying around suggest that it will!)

@denisdavies

The internet has transformed the way we live.  It is difficult to remember life without it. Yet its greatest strengths – including unfettered access to information, entertainment and communications - also make us vulnerable to new and unexpected dangers and risks.  There is growing awareness of the need to protect young people from these dangers, but what about their parents, and grandparents?

Yesterday’s annual  Safer Internet Day (SID) aimed to address this, with a national theme of ‘Connecting generations and educating each other.’ This is something our client Kaspersky Lab, an internet security provider, supports wholeheartedly – so over the past few weeks we have been working with them to launch a high profile campaign around this theme.

We targeted media at both ends of the generational spectrum – from parenting blogs to retirement magazines, as well as the nationals and broadcast media.  Kaspersky Lab internet security expert  David Emm spoke live on Hayes FM, BBC Radio Jersey, BBC Radio Oxford and Tower FM about cyber bullying and keeping social media accounts safe from hackers, and pre-recorded an interview on the subject with SID Radio. SID-related statistics published by Kaspersky Lab resulted in coverage in the Daily Telegraph, and a competition to win Kaspersky Lab’s brand new consumer product Kaspersky ONE (which provides internet security for devices such as Android phones and tablets as well as computers) secured loads of coverage – including this one on MadeForMums.

Kaspersky Lab supported other SID activity by publishing a list of essential tips to help everyone stay safe online – whether they were nine or 99-years-old.

By the end of the day, we had secured 22 mentions for the company, and, more importantly, helped to spread the message of how to stay safe online.  Happy surfing!

Every PR would be utterly lost without their trusty Gorkana Database or Features Exec login. These resources are vital to the day-to-day working life of a PR, especially when you work in an agency where you have a variety of clients that communicate to a variety of audiences.

Here at Berkeley, we use these tools to create press lists, broken down by industry and sector, so that we make sure that we only email relevant news to targeted publications. We  have received training from both Gorkana and Features Exec to optimise the effectiveness of these tools. Now our lists update automatically when someone leaves a publication, and we have learnt more about how to use these resources to distribute releases and search for planned forward features.

This last feature has highlighted a topic of considerable debate within the PR industry: the decline in the number of publications that publish forward-looking editorial calendars. More and more titles appear to be moving towards a topical approach for both news and features. This is particularly the case for consumer lifestyle and broadcast media.

The PR game is fast-paced – and now we need to be more proactive and targeted  than ever.  With the help of our trust logins!

AmyKStevens

Here at Berkeley PR, we’re big fans of anything that involves pastry. Whether it’s a sausage roll, doughnut or wild mushroom vol-au-vent, we all harbour a secret passion for anything pastry-related. So it came as no surprise to find that half the office avidly followed the Great British Bake-Off on television.

This event, which took place during January, saw twelve homebakers take part in a ‘bake off’ for Sport Relief 2012. The show tested every aspect of their baking skills as they battled it out to be crowned the Great British Bake-Off’s Best Amateur Baker.

Much to her amazement, radio presenter Anita Rani secured victory after producing a particularly tasty and stunning three-tiered chocolate and orange cake with chocolate ganache, and a sugar-paste teapot inspired by the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

In honour of Anita’s creation, we at Berkeley PR have launched our own version of the competition – the Great Berkeley Bake-Off. It’s taking place on Monday 30 January and will be just as competitive as the real thing, if not more so…

Although we won’t be in a tent or having to bake while wearing a blindfold, each contestent will need to prepare a cake of their choice before 13h00.  All cakes will be on sale in our office and in those of neighbouring companies, with slices going for £2 each (and all proceeds going to Sports Relief 2012.) 

If you’re in the Reading area, feel free to pop in!  The entries will be judged by CEO Chris Hewitt, and the winner will be announced next Monday at 15h00, so make sure you tune in for an update on how delicious (or horrid!) the cakes turn out.

Sports Relief 2012 runs between Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th March.

Denis 

January. The month of resolutions.  A friend of mine has dispensed with the diet, fitness, detox approach and is instead resolving to be always ‘on time’, in every area of her life – from getting out of bed on dark January mornings, to the school run, gym classes and work meetings.   She is one of life’s ‘just in time’ people and is determined to take this up to the level of ‘with plenty of time to spare.’

This set me thinking about my own timekeeping.  I’m the complete opposite to my friend, or so I thought.  My ‘on time’ is five minutes early, if not more. Just as I was congratulating myself on this fact I heard myself telling a colleague that the regular weekly internal catch up meeting we had planned would need to be in twenty minutes ‘or so’ – rather than on the hour as scheduled.  I didn’t articulate why, redefine the time effectively or even apologise.  

Now I wouldn’t dream of casually informing a client, journalist or prospect  I would be ‘twenty minutes or so’ late. Why this internal meeting should be any less important than an external appointment, is a question I couldn’t answer, but it made me realise that I that  I  rank my timekeeping according to the perceived importance of the meeting. 

Turning up on time is a sign of good manners, respect and an indication of conscientiousness that sets a precedent.  In some organisations the door is locked at the start time of meetings  and if you’re late, you’re out.  A little extreme perhaps, but I think I understand the point.  If you don’t keep to an agreed time you are assuming the party you are meeting can afford the time to wait for you. 

I am resolving here and now to change.  An appointment time should be kept unless circumstances beyond my control mean it can’t.  Anyone else up for the challenge?

We’re a bit partial to a sweepstake here at Berkeley PR, so you can imagine our excitement at this weekend’s Strictly Come Dancing final. With the loot currently standing at an impressive £14 (enough for a ‘vending machine lunch’ as pointed out by our Director, Paul) we’ll be watching with baited breath to see who takes home that glitter ball trophy.

But although Strictly is now a Saturday night-in stalwart – how many of us will be watching it in 3D? Last week presenters Tess and Brucey announced that the final will be one of the first BBC shows to be transmitted in 3D via Freeview HD.

3D television has been steadily streaming into Britain’s living rooms for a while now, but Strictly is one of the first family entertainment shows to be sprinkled with the 3D magic dust.  Avid cinema goers have been dabbling with 3D for a while now, and even football matches have been given that extra dimension.

Broadcasting live in 3D is still fairly experimental, so it’s a brave move from the BBC to invest in this new technology on one of its biggest viewing nights of the year. But to turn your home from living room to ballroom, you’ll need to invest in the right equipment. That not only means wearing the silly glasses, but also forking out for a telly with 3D capacity.

Many have been sceptical of investing in 3D while the technology is still in its infancy, but it seems to be a development which is in no danger of going away. In recent years, the quest of television manufacturers is to make the images on screen as real and lifelike as possible.

It started with HD, which is now pretty much standard, as are LCD screens. And now that 3D television is becoming less sci-fi and more day-to-day-life, it was really only a matter of time before Saturday night TV got in on the act.

If you have got a 3D television (and the glasses to match) make sure you watch Strictly on the right channel, as it will be being filmed in both 2D and 3D. As for our sweepstake, only Liam and Carolann (supporting Harry and Jason respectively) stand in between me and that £14 bounty.

Who knows, maybe I’ll put my winnings towards a 3D TV? Or, more realistically, just the glasses.

I recently read about a PR agency that has enforced an email ban for one day a week. Every Tuesday, employees are unable to use internal and external mail and are instead encouraged to think of alternative ways to communicate. Rather than pinging over a quick email, they are persuaded to use the phone, Twitter and the like to contact peers, clients and the press.

As a PR person, it took me a while to decide if I thought this was very clever or very crazy move. For example, I know many clients and journalists prefer to communicate via email.  Admittedly you miss out on the all-telling non verbal communication signs that could help you pick up on a potential issue or question, but it’s quick, easy and creates a ‘paper trail’ for future reference.

Then only about ten minutes ago, I found myself drafting an email to one of my colleagues who sits about ten feet away from me. Assoon as I realised what I was doing, the draft was scrapped and I managed to swirl myself round on my chair, make eye contact and ask the question. A bit embarrassing and a sign that it’s too easy to go into automatic pilot ‘email mode’ without thinking.

I think they key is in getting the right balance – a balance which may well be different when dealing with peers, clients and the press. There’s definitely a place for email and social media channels when it comes to getting your point across, but you really can’t beat good old fashioned talking.

Lauren Wood

This last month or so has been extremely busy at Berkeley PR.  A great month, of course, but incredibly busy none the less!

To name but a few of the recent successes the agency has seen:

• Securing a segment on BBC One’s flagship programme ‘The One Show’ on healthy eating at ThoughtWorks offices
• An incredible press launch for new a client, Beyond Analysis, resulting in some fantastic coverage and a very happy client
• A very triumphant Go Ape press launch which led to lots of press coverage and a video feature on the Sunday Times website and iPad edition
• In anticipation of the Cyberspace security conference, the Kaspersky team worked tirelessly to ensure Eugene Kaspersky appeared on Sky News, BBC World News and in the Financial Times
• A new client win

And, breathe…..!

So, in order to congratulate ourselves on these successes (and more) and our hard work, we all decided to let our hair down and visit our local Chinese restaurant come karaoke booth.  Yes, you heard right…

It was a great night, with great company and a lot of laughs (and bad singing!).  Just what the doctor ordered!

I could go on to write about Donna’s rapping skills, Denis’s break dancing or Carolann’s delight at seeing Mariah Carey on the song list, but I won’t…..I’ll just leave you with these pictures and your imagination

Many people are drawn to PR because it gives them a chance to write.  For us, the joy of a page of clear, crisp copy, a compelling headline or a well-argued point in an opinion piece is one of the most rewarding aspects of the job.

And while our focus in PR is always on choosing the cleanest, clearest word and simplest, shortest phrasing, that does not preclude a private passion for literature and poetry.  I am currently reading the poems of Carol Ann Duffy and her mastery of expression when it comes to nature and human emotion is breath-taking.  

PRs are not alone. Yesterday, while doing some analyst research I came across a footer at the bottom of a technical web page, that proudly proclaimed ‘Coding is Poetry.’

Now I’ve done coding.  Well ‘done’ is maybe too strong a word; but while doing my Geology degree we were despatched to learn about coding and had to write a long complicated programme for analysing something.  And I hated it.  For me, there was nothing poetic or creative about it at all. But I love the fact that there are programmers across the world that do think so, and who even now are sitting in front of computers tapping away with their heads in the stars.

Poetry is about capturing the essence of something in a few words, words that can stay with you for the rest of your life even if you had to learn them in detention because you were caught passing notes in English.

PR writing can take a few important things from poetry:  the fact that less is often more, that it is important to make someone care about what you are saying, and that the best PR-writing can transform the way we look at the world. 

Tilly Travers

One of the things I adore about working in PR is that every day is different. I don’t think I could cope with a “boring office job” where the highlight of my day is home time. Last week I got to spend the day monkeying around in the woods at Moors Valley Country Park, Bournemouth with our client, Go Ape!

It was a particularly joyous day for everyone involved as Go Ape! was launching its first tree-top adventure for under 10s, Go Ape! Explorer. It is an exciting time for the business as it is now able to meet the demands of many families with younger children who for years have watched their older friends and relatives release their inner Tarzan on the ‘adult’ course. It was also an exciting launch for the Go Ape! team at  Berkeley PR .

The team did an absolutely fantastic job in getting journalists along to the open day, with journalists from Zest, netmums, Sainsbury’s magazine, Baby World in attendance as well as Matt Rudd from The Sunday Times. It was lovely to give journalists the chance to bring their families along to take part.

I was able to some great photographs which I tweeted to help create a buzz around the launch. At one point I was also asked to be chief sound engineer and presenter for the cameraman and got some footage of a 76 year old grandmother completing Go Ape! Explorer with her grandchildren – proving that Go Ape! is suitable for all from 4 to 104!

The review that The Sunday Times’ Matt and his son Freddie gave Go Ape! Explorer this weekend was so amazing that we couldn’t stop smiling for the whole of Monday morning. We also secured a piece in The Independent on Sunday prior to the launch.

Louise