A Day in the Life: A dog day in PR

My day

At Firebird there is no such thing as a typical day. With five people in the office taking care of our 12 clients the day-to-day programme can change at any minute. One such example of a very busy and even more exciting day would be last Thursday.

9am: Everyone is in the office, including our two dogs. After ploughing through the emails we sit down for a team meeting to make sure preparations for the approaching big events are underway. Never underestimate team updates when it comes to the launch of a nationwide festival celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Lancelot “Capability” Brown or the unveiling of a brand new state-of-the-art gibbon habitat at Twycross Zoo.

11am: It is time to join a conference call with another of our clients, People’s Trust for Endangered Species, to discuss plans for its strategic away-day which we co-ordinate tomorrow. Fortunately, we started talking about this early in advance, so this is only a quick check to confirm that everything is ready.

11:30am: Half-way through the conference call, the phones start ringing with journalists’ requests for interviews following a briefing note we sent yesterday. We have great clients, such as in this case the Whitley Awards, who always have exciting stories to tell. Yet it also means that we need to carefully plan when we send out information to the press so that we are always available to answer their queries.

12noon: As I leave the office, my colleagues start sending out media invitations to the launch of Capability Brown Festival. This is always extremely exciting and even after many years in the PR industry, I feel a rush of adrenaline before clicking send. Today I leave it to others because it is time for me to travel to London to do a recce of our event venue.

1:30pm: Lunchtime today consists of a quick snack on the train and travel to the venue at Westminster. Once there I quiz the venue manager with many questions to make sure the event will run smoothly. We talk about a hundred things that need checking as I have learnt in the past.

3pm: For my next meeting I get to the National Theatre where an author, her publishers, their PR agency and our client discuss the marketing and PR plans for the launch of a new children’s book. The author and publishers are interested in a joint promotion with our client PTES and the proposed activities sound great.

4:30pm: I start heading back to the office, first checking with my colleagues in the office that there are no emergencies. Our invitation to the launch of Capability Brown Festival has already been picked up and on second thoughts I realise we might need a bigger venue than the one I just saw. Then I use the train journey to respond to the daily emails and add a few more points to my agenda for tomorrow.

5:30pm: By the time I get back the rest of the team has started wrapping up. We discuss our individual plans for the evening and then head home to recharge our batteries. Whatever tomorrow brings, one thing is clear, the day will start with at least two members of our team walking their dogs before work.

Article written by Jane Bevan, managing director of Firebird PR.