It’s important for a university teaching public relations to be connected with the world in which public relations is practised.
It’s also useful to break out of the silo/ghetto of scheduled teaching delivered on discrete modules. So we’re opening our doors for a public lecture series and welcoming any of our students, and those from neighbouring universities, CIPR regional members and other PR practitioners. Let me know (via the comments feature) if you’d like to attend and I’ll make sure you’re welcomed; also let me know if you’d like to speak at a future event (we have autumn and spring series).
All these talks take place at our Headingley Campus in Leeds from 6.30-7.30pm on Monday evenings.
- Monday 5 February: Laura Mahon, Freud Communications
- Monday 19 February: D-J Collins, Google
- Monday 5 March: Tony Harcup, author of The Ethical Journalist
- Monday 19 March: Rob Cohen and Claire Eldridge: healthcare PR
PR Studies 
I appluad this initiative. Public relations is under pressure to keep up with enormous flux in the media. Opening the doors of public relations education in this way is a great step towards adapting to such change.
I would love to attend the next event and I would be equally keen to speak at one, focussing on online public relations and the increasingly significant crossover between public relations agencies and search marketing agencies.
Great idea. I’ve heard some good speakers at LMU in the past. Definitely coming along to hear DJ Collins – I remember him from when he used to work for Tom Watson MP at the AEEU. Will also try to make Monday, but I’m in London all day Tuesday so might not be able to make it.
For imformation: Any CIPR members attending the lectures can use them to count towards their Continous Professional Development.
Mark Ramsdale, Head of Education Policy at CIPR.
Guerrilla PR – can it crack B2B?
I attended the latest in the Leeds Metropolitan University PR open lecture series last night (see also Richard Bailey’s blog), and very good it was too despite the last-minute change – scheduled speaker D-J Collins from Google couldn’t make it.