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Week Eleven: 30 Nov - 1 Dec

For the final two days of the internship, the six interns headed to Yorkshire where the team from Harrogate-based Northern Lights PR had arranged a series of visits. The aim was to introduce the team to some of Yorkshire’s business and communication leaders, and to discuss the PR challenges and issues of diversity in the county.

This is the eleventh blog entry from the 2009 Brunswick Six, click here to return to the blog index

By Brunswick Interns

Pace plc, Saltaire (Param)

Our visit to Yorkshire began at the headquarters of Pace plc. Pace create a range of intelligent and innovative products and services that have fuelled the development of digital TV. They have one of the world’s most experienced specialist engineering teams who work with top pay-TV operators and in retail markets all over the world.

We met with Helen Kettleborough, the Director of Communications at Pace, who took us through a presentation on the operations of the company, and the aims and challenges faced by the communications team. It was amazing to see Helen’s team so eager and passionate about their company.

It was also intriguing to talk about the positives Helen sees in her company being based in Yorkshire. My preconceptions were that the PR team of any big organisation based here may have difficulties engaging the national media, as a result of not being in or near London. But instead Helen told us that being located in Yorkshire has proven to be a great attraction with stakeholders, especially international clients and businesses, who like to visit here because of the beautiful scenery and calm atmosphere.

We then had a tour with Paul, an engineer at Pace, who showed us the company’s products. He went through the recent changes in digital TV boxes, and discussed future developments, and how Pace planned to hold its competitive advantage in the technology market.

We then went on to have lunch at the ‘hub’ and had further conversations on digital media. Helen seems interested in using online media as a communication tool for Pace more, however is slightly apprehensive about how she would go about doing this. We all felt there were a number of effective ways of embracing online media, but agreed you have to be careful when using these tools for the first time.

Our visit ended with a look around the David Hockney Gallery, which is next door to Pace. For the uninitiated, Hockney is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who, Wikipedia will tell you, is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire. An important contributor to the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century.

The gallery exhibits a number of Hockney’s works, housed in a converted industrial building called Salts Mill in Saltaire. All of us interns were very impressed by his works and felt inspired to be more creative. Overall our morning was a great start to our time in Yorkshire!

Bradford University School Of Management (Jenard)

After a great morning session at the Pace headquarters in Saltaire, we were driven to the Bradford University School Of Management, where we had a truly inspirational session with Dr Nigel Lockett. He delivered a master class on innovation.

During the class he showed us the different ways he might conduct sessions like this. For example, he used techniques like role-playing to promote interaction between the people in the class and himself as the lecturer.

But more importantly, he gave us an unique insight into “innovative thinking”, demonstrating such thinking wasn’t something that only a special few could take part in. Rather, it was about strategically looking at the world around you, and having the gusto to go ahead and put new ideas into action.

He gave us some great examples of how just one person in a company can recognise an improvement or innovation that can be made, and how that person – even if they fear others disagree – can push ahead, make a change, and initiate growth for both their company and themselves. I definitely took away the idea that I can be a leader too.

Bradford City Council (Claude)

Next, we had the pleasure of meeting with Tony Reeves the Chief Executive of The City Of Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

This session began with us being given a brief overview of Bradford’s various communities, and the issues surrounding diversity within Yorkshire. I was very inspired by Tony’s knowledge with regards to this area, and the progressive attitude of him, his team and many other similar bodies in Yorkshire regarding diversity.

Tony clearly understood that fostering diversity in all contexts is beneficial to any local economy, or business, and that ignoring any significant part of a community will only stop the region from making progress.

Another aspect of his session that I found especially interesting was his opinion that we should accurately identify distinct communities, as opposed to assuming that all people collectively share an opinion.

This session was great, and sparked a lot of debate over dinner. And whilst the issue of diversity is a national issue, there are probably different ways to tackle it in different areas, and I was pleased that Tony seemed to have identified the challenges specific to this part of the country.

Dinner at the School of Management (Junior)

Tonight, dinner at the Bradford School Of Management, and as much as the food was fantastic, it was the discussions that stood out.

The topics of conversation included how great this internship had been for us, and our thoughts on ethnicity in Yorkshire compared to London. And the more general issue of diversity – whether it was in PR or in general – and what works to encourage diversity in business should aim to achieve. Lots of differing views were expressed, but overall I think we felt that diversity was not just about ethnicity, but also about tackling sexism and discrimination towards disability in the work place

We also discussed the issue of being labelled as a token ethnic employee, should we succeed in business, and about the paranoia of your achievements being based on skin colour alone. So, all in all, as much food for thought as on our plates!

Monday night in Harrogate (Charlotte)

Next to Harrogate, where we were to be put up by the team from Northern Lights.

To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about staying with Northern Lights founder Victoria Tomlinson at first. We were going to a place we had never been to before, staying in a house we had never seen, with someone we had previously only met briefly.

Being pleasantly surprised is an understatement! Victoria greeted us at her local station. We were all stunned by the beautiful scenery and fresh northern air. It really was Emmerdale farm!

Victoria’s home was beautiful, and her family made us feel so welcome. Claude stayed at the home of Northern Lights’ Carol Arthur; me, Param and Tina had a beautiful room in Victoria’s attic; Ashka from Unicorn had the luxury of her own room; while Junior and Jenard flipped a coin, as they had the room with only one double bed. Junior got the short straw!

In the morning, we had breakfast with the Northern Lights team at Victoria’s house, and shared our thoughts and experiences on the internship programme. It was so nice, and we left with hugs, not air kisses.

Breakfast with Northern Lights (Tina)

After sleeping very comfortably at Victoria’s house, we woke up to an alluring breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages beans, toast and tomatoes.

We were joined by the rest of the all-female Northern Lights PR team. Victoria had previously mentioned that someone had once referred to her colleagues as the Nordic Lights team, and we could see why; they were all beautiful blonde women!

Sandy, Carol, Ruth and Ruthie were fun, charismatic and very interesting, and with diverse PR backgrounds. Unfortunately there wasn’t time to talk to all of them in-depth, but I did get to have a more detailed conversation with Ruth and Carol.

Carol had done some PR for a number of charities and voluntary groups, which interested me in particular because I am planning on offering some PR help to my old students’ union. Ruthie had worked for Citigate Dewe Rogerson in London, and originally moved back to Yorkshire to open their offices in Leeds.

After we all ate, Victoria went into more detail about her plans to launch an internship programme like ours in Yorkshire. We all got involved and brain-stormed, while Victoria spoke to us about the links she had and the people she was planning to involve to make this programme happen.

It was absolutely amazing when she revealed one of those people had been of two minds regarding the programme, but was now 100% on board having met us! It was a lovely meeting, and we all agreed to stay connected using a Facebook group we plan to set up.

Yorkshire Forward (Junior)

In our first session of the second day, we met Lucy Allen, press officer at the offices of Yorkshire Forward. Unfortunately Gary Verity was unable to join us but Lucy gave an inspirational talk about the region and all it has to offer for visitors – both tourists and business tourists. We were given a chance to discuss our perceptions of Yorkshire before we had left London. It was interesting to see that, while the group’s opinions were quite similar, they were also quite far from the truth.

Having discussed our preconceptions, Lucy gave us an introduction to Yorkshire, its people and traditions. It was a short session, but gave us a better understanding of the county we were currently in.

Northern Opera and the Leeds Grand (Claude)

Next we met Amy Dutton, who is Head Of Marketing for the Northern Ballet.

It was interesting to hear my fellow interns’ opinions on ballet, and on performance art outside London in general. And also Amy’s views on the PR challenges facing a company like Northern Ballet.

My fellow interns were actually quite open to the genre of ballet, but said that high ticket prices put them off. Amy pointed out her company’s prices were actually very competitive. She also explained that the majority of Northern Ballet’s work had a strong narrative, which should appeal to a wider audience. We discussed the challenges of communicating that to potential ticket buyers.

Staying on a theatrical theme, next we were given a tour by Alex Dalton of Leeds Grand Theatre, which was very interesting. We were told of the history of the venue, which was designed by James Robinson Watson and opened on the 18 November 1878.

The theatre’s design is based around a traditional proscenium arch, and it houses 1500 people, although we were told that in the Victorian era people would literally be packed into the venue extending its capacity to 3000! The Grand is both a ‘receiving theatre’, but also the home of Opera North and the Northern Ballet.

Back to Yorkshire Forward (Jenard)

On our final afternoon in Yorkshire we met Theresa Lindsay, the Assistant Director of Marketing & Business Development for Yorkshire Forward. We spoke about the challenges that the region faces, and the strategies they have adopted to attract large international companies to Yorkshire.

Coming from London, you don’t really think of anywhere else having international business other than the capital. But she showed her pride and belief in Yorkshire, and demonstrated how they were attracting companies to do business here.

Although originally from East London herself, Theresa is clearly perfect for this job, waxing lyrical about the county and enthusing us all. It was great to hear how Yorkshire Forward were using the strengths of the region to attract the types of business that will help the county solidify its place on the business location map.

Our final session was with Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Forward. He began by telling us of his younger years in Yorkshire, his university years in Oxford, and how he began his career in London. He explained how his experiences combined with a love for his home county helped him achieve Yorkshire Forward’s aim of moving the region forward in terms of economy and business.

His views on diversity were wonderful to hear, and the fact he’s joined forces with entrepreneur and ‘Dragons Den’ panelist James Caan to help emerging business leaders in the community was further proof that he is the right man to take the region forward to success.

But as with anything in life, we all know there are challenges ahead, so we all wish him luck. It was a wonderfully inspiring way to end our time in Yorkshire, just before we boarded the train to go back to home. London doesn’t seem to look the same to me anymore!

Conclusion

We really enjoyed our trip to Yorkshire, and were very impressed with all the region has to offer. We would like to thank Victoria Tomlinson and her team for organising this great excursion, it was a great conclusion to our internship.