- Your needs: project management, consultancy, coaching, research, strategic support, workshop or event facilitation, or training?
- Particularly in marketing, communications (PR, external affairs, media), copywriting, business and social enterprise development?
Then please get in touch…for service with reliability, honesty, integrity, tenacity, and a positive, can-do attitude.
Current and recent projects include:
Co-ordinated UK’s first “community share issue” into media, open to investors from April to August 2014. This helped Sheffield Community Media Ltd, a society for community benefit, raise £165,000 for the development of community owned media in the UK: Sheffield Live! TV and Sheffield Live! radio, of which £95,000 was from community shareholders.
An internal staff consultation survey for a well known business, in 2014, including analysis and strategic recommendations to the management team.
External Affairs support to Towns Alive, the national charity which provides market and small towns, (and now larger towns and cities) local authorities and other organisations with policy advice, national advocacy, best practice information and a range of products and events.
- At Towns Alive, I’ve researched, programmed, organised and run, and secured sponsorship for their successful TownFunder Conference – a national event in Birmingham in 2013 and Sheffield in 2014; Neighbourhood Planning Symposium – a national event in London; and Practical Localism conference;
- generated new and wide ranging media coverage (in national magazines and newspapers, radio, and TV), and have acted as a spokesperson, in live radio and TV interviews;
- I’ve helped Towns Alive to achieve an 85%+ membership renewal rate and have been responsible for their annual Impact Survey and for writing their members’ number 1 membership benefit, their newsletter.
In summer 2012 Sheffield Live Television asked me to help with business and audience research and bid development in preparation to submitting a bid to Ofcom in August 2012 for the Sheffield local television license. 2 other competing bids were submitted and our (SLTV) bid was chosen as the successful bid by Ofcom on October 2012. I’m now providing advice as an advisor to the SLTV board (this included running the Community Share Offer, as above).
Through the Sheffield Community Network, between 2012 and 2014 I provided mentoring and strategic support to businesses and social enterprises – helping with business planning, company formation, sales and marketing strategies, and social impact measurement.
In 2011-12 the Community Development Finance Association (CDFA) commissioned me to help with their Innovation Awards and JUST Finance launch. I created a series of short films about their Award winners – here’s one of them, the others you can view via the links here. And during 2012 I provided interim Head of Comms / External affairs support to CDFA, which included writing profiles, generating press coverage in national media such as the Guardian, Financial Times and Management Today; and providing training to CDFA staff.
I’ve delivered training sessions in ‘Social Media for Business’ to an international software company; ‘how to write for a community newsletter’ on behalf of Sheffield’s community radio station, Sheffield Live! and my Social Media for Community Development Finance Businesses workshop was a highlight of the CDFA 2011 Annual Conference.
Robert Ashton, one of the UK’s biggest selling business authors, commissioned me to provide some magazine publishing and business development support for a Barefoot PR project, working on a national magazine.
In 2011 I worked with the exciting and ambitious social enterprise, Youth Can Achieve and secured them a new sponsorship deal with Sheffield’s Leopold Hotel and press coverage.
In 2010 I co-designed, managed, and analysed a programme of research into local authorities’ attitudes to commissioning external services for the national environmental regeneration charity Groundwork UK (project lead: Urban Pollinators).
Social Enterprise North West asked me to write a tight, specific and focused project brief and an Invitation to Tender, to enable them to commission a supplier to organise their 2010 Social Enterprise Trade Fair. I completely re-wrote their project brief and handed over a complete procurement process which enabled them to successfully engage a supplier with whom they were delighted.
My work with the Sheffield social enterprise Eventus Ltd included an external procurement project, a business feasibility study, business planning, launching a corporate training product, and securing HSBC as their first client for the new product.
In 1999 I co-founded New Start magazine (now owned by CLES) and was its Managing Director from December 2007-October 2010. My role covered strategy, operations, management and development and involved working with public, private and social enterprise clients.
I launched, programmed and secured sponsorship for various national events and conferences, some with Minister-level speakers and Government department / private sector sponsorship.
I have 20 years of experience in media and publishing, firstly running commercial teams and launching products (magazines and exhibitions) at Inside Communications, latterly part of Trinity Mirror where I was twice named “sales person of the year”; then launching, co-directing and running New Start Publishing Ltd, now as a consultant.
Co-founder of Social Enterprise magazine in 2002 (which is now run by London Fields Publishing).
Former judging panel member for the BURA (British Urban Regeneration Association) Community Inspired Regeneration Awards and for the Periodical Publishers’ Association Awards.
The work I take on includes project management, consultancy, interim management, research, business development, marketing.
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