At this weeks thupr event, amongst the stand out things was a live call to explorer, Mark Wood, in Kathmandu.
As a PR consultant, this kind of ‘live link’ is terrifying – you know that it can all go horribly wrong whenever you’re reliant on various pices of technology which may, or may not, perform on the day. First rule of PR: always have a Plan B.
But using Mark Smith of ipadio’s mobile, Mark Wood in Kathmandu’s satellite phone (notoriously narrowband technology, prone to foibles), ipadio and speakers, they pulled it off. Live.
You can hear the interview here, including the afterchat we didn’t hear over the speakers. (Second rule of PR – make sure the microphones are off: remember Glenn Hoddle?)
Most of you by now will have heard about the new Waves intern, Halima, who’s making a great splash here and has taken on the thupr events.
Although things are looking bright for the next thupr,a mobile apps event, it’s what happens from there on in that matters. Thupr has, frankly, been run on a wing and a prayer: it’s been pretty much a textbook case of how not to run a community. It’s not been a predictable format, it’s not on a predictable date cycle, and the event subject matter has been narrow enough to ensure a very different bunch of people each time.
I’ve been guilty of trying to please those who shouted loudest and not listening to my gut feel. And in many ways, I’d had enough and was ready to throw in the towel.
Until Stephen Haggard, who has taken on supplier outreach, asked me a question: if we didn’t do thupr, would someone else want to do it?
And when we chewed it through, and my somewhat jaded eyes were opened: the answer is yes! There’s not another event in London that puts together the tools suppliers and the people who use them in anything except a sales type environment. There’s not another forum that allows discussion around those tools, be it the ethics, the practicalities, the chance to experiment.
My enthusiasm is renewed. Halima is taking some of the strain of organising and making herself some great contacts in the process. (She’s even had the offer of work – other would be PR grads take note). Stephen is intelligent and considered, and great to work with – a balance to my need for constant change – and between the three of us we’ve gone back to the roots of thupr, but with input that makes it easier to do and sustainable.
Well, our new intern Halima is having a massive positive effect and is just the shot in the arm that the group (thupr) needed.
She and I met with Stephen Haggard yesterday, with a really positive result: with Stephen’s ideas around making supplier outreach more sustainable, and Halima’s positive energy nd enthusiasm (even on two hours of sleep!) I am now really excited about the changes we have in store.
It’s great working with two such smart people, and funny how three such very different people can end up agreeing on so much.
Over time, I’ve been pulled away from our original remit, which was to link tool (and service) suppliers with the comms/PR professionals who use them, and discuss the best ways of using – and not using – them, sharing and learning from each other. There’s not another group that does this, and the first events were, if a little rough and ready, great fun.
Halima’s going to blog a little more about her impressions and ideas, and will be reaching out directly to everyone in the thupr group once some of our plans are hatched, but suffice to say I think you’ll like it.
This blog is almost impossible to write with anything other than a ‘personal experience’ tone, although the lessons extracted will, I hope, help others.
First a little background:
I have always tried really hard not to play the numbers game on Twitter, and have kept my Twitter accounts fairly separate, trying to keep my PR/social media tweets to @claireatwaves. (I do have a WavesPR account, but it’s really only there to help anyone to find us. people are more likely to engage with me rather than the company, even if we are one and the same).
Thupr tweets tend to be very PR industry focussed, so there’s some crossover, but I’m conscuious that on my own account I have far more social media engagement, it’s more industry focussed @thupr.
And my personal life aboard a boat is on @waterwytche
A noted change
I noted that my Twitter account was reducing slightly. I put this down to a couple of things.
Suddenly and unexplainedly my Twitter account started gathering literally hundreds of followers – something like ten an hour – a few months back. At first I thought I’d been mentioned somewhere, and then it became worrying. It eventually stopped, but whatever the viral was then affected some of my followers too and whilst some might have, I suppose, been grateful, it made my account look spammy. So apart from losing anyone who was, at the time, concerned, I imagine that all of those apparently fake accounts had to fall off.
communications, PR practise, thupr | claireatwaves | 
September 18, 2011 12:40 pm | 
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