Speakers

Ali Gee
Director of Planning, Edelman UK
Ali Gee has 17 years’ experience developing and delivering integrated communications campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands. As Director of Planning she provides senior counsel to clients and builds insight-lead communication strategies to deliver business objectives. Ali’s skills cover the worlds of corporate, business to business and consumer PR. Clients she has developed strategies for include Microsoft, Motorola, Coca Cola, The UK Government (OFT and DTI), Halifax and J&J. Her in-house roles have included time as Head of PR for Orange (Multimedia) and Transport for London.

Stephen Davies
Independent online PR consultant
Stephen currently consults with a broad range of clients and has worked on a number of online PR and social media campaigns for national and multinational companies. He regularly speaks on the topic of social media in the UK, Europe, Russia and the UAE. His blog – http://stedavies.com – has been recognised by industry professionals worldwide and in 2009 and 2010 he was added to the PR Week PowerBook which claims to contain the top 1% most “powerful and inspirational” UK PR people. An ex PR student himself Stephen went through the same pre-graduation career decisions you will have to make.

Ben Matthews
Founder, Bright One
Ben founded Bright One, a communications agency for charities and not-for-profits run by volunteers from the PR industry. Ben is also a Programme Manager at 33 Digital, responsible for providing clients with trend setting digital PR campaigns. Ben’s expertise lies in using online PR and social media tools to provide visible and measurable value to clients, including O2, Microsoft and the Financial Times. He is also the founder of Twestival, a ‘tweetup’ that takes place in over 200 cities worldwide to raise money for charity, and is a board member of CharityComms, the trade body for charity communicators.

Chris Reed
Managing Partner, Brew
Trained in journalism and with a background in media relations, primarily in the media sector, Chris embraced digital technology at every opportunity. He started blogging in 2000 (before it even had a name) and has been helping clients build websites and use social media effectively ever since. Chris joined Fishburn Hedges from the BBC in December 2001 and has since worked for clients including TV Licensing, Transport for London, FRANK, thetrainline.com, Digital UK and the Carbon Trust. He specialises in PR and social media.

Steve Ballinger
Press Officer, Amnesty International UK
Steve is the first port of call for journalists contacting Amnesty about UK counter-terrorism measures and their impact on human rights. He is also responsible for media enquiries regarding refugees and asylum seekers, online and emerging campaigns, Festivals and comedy.

Stefan Stern
Director of Strategy, Edelman UK
Stefan Stern has been writing and commenting on business and management for the past two decades.
He began his journalistic career at Euromoney, the financial publisher, where he became editor of Corporate Finance magazine. His next job was as features writer for International Management magazine, after which he joined the BBC, where he worked as a researcher for The Money Programme. He was head of media relations for The Industrial Society, a training and leadership development organisation, for three years, prior to returning to journalism as features editor for Management Today magazine. After a year on a fledgling management web site, FTdynamo.com, in 2001, he worked as a freelance management writer for several years, before becoming the Financial Times’ management columnist in early 2006. He wrote that column for over four years before joining Edelman in August 2010 as its new director of strategy.

Sarah Stimson
Director, Unicorn Jobs
Sarah has nearly ten years of communications recruitment experience. Having previously worked in IT consultancy for IBM and Goldman Sachs, she joined Taylor Bennett and has since worked at Prospect Resourcing and Indigo Red. She then moved to Taylor Bennett’s sister company Unicorn Jobs in September 2007 to found the company’s recruitment offering. In late 2009 she made the move from recruitment services to editorial and training delivery and is now leads their innovative PR internship programme and is Editor of their weekly PR e-bulletin, esPResso.

Nicole Eiselle
Senior Programme Manager, Hotwire PR
Nicole is part of the banking & finance practice of Hotwire PR in the UK and has public relations experience in the corporate, technology, fintech, insurance and consumer markets. Nicole has worked on campaigns for clients including VocaLink, ACI Worldwide, Experian Payments, Tieto, 3D Currency Management, Deloitte, Atkins and Unisys.

Jaz Cummins,
Community Coordinator, The Guardian
Jaz has five years experience in communications, initally working in press and events and then specialising in digital B2C – social media, SEO and PR. Clients have included Microsoft, Jaguar, Sky, the FSA and Nestle, as well as a year as Head of Digital at Amnesty International UK. Jaz’s current position involves managing the social media and digital communities on The Guardian’s Global Develoment platform, as well as feeding into editorial work. She is an active professional volunteer, both with Bright One for Refugee Week, with the Refugee Council, and on communications for the social media fundraiser Twestival.

Nicola Jones
Communications Officer, The Social Investment Business
Nicola is the Communications Officer at The Social Investment Business, the fastest growing social investor in the UK. She has been part of a team setting up a new press office in the organisation, delivering day-to-day press activities as well as providing input in strategic direction. Additionally, Nicola volunteers as the Community Manager of Bright One. Nicola was previously Communications Manager at UnLtdWorld, an online platform for social entrepreneurs, where she grew the company from start-up phase to over 10,000 members over the course of 18 months. Nicola gained a BSc (Hons) in Modern Languages and Marketing studies from the University of Salford and has worked at Deutsche Post and Goldman Sachs.

Rob Hinchcliffe
Freelance Community Manager
Rob Hinchcliffe is an online communities development and management consultant, based in London. He gets nerdy when he starts talking about things like social marketing, community-facing content strategies, and bridging the gap between online and offline environments.You can find out more about him over at www.robhinchcliffe.co.uk.

Rob Dyson
PR Manager, Whizz-Kidz
Rob founded the Third Sector PR and Communications Network on Facebook and Twitter – to connect not-for-profit comms, fundraisers, journalists and social media types with one another. He sits on the board of sector body CharityComms, writes for AskCharity, has a regular column in Civil Society IT Magazine, and will be a contributor The Guardian’s new ‘Voluntary’ microsite. Rob is currently PR Manager, including social media, at UK charity Whizz-Kidz. His personal blog is http://robdysonpr.wordpress.com/