PR Manager – District 71 2015-2016
TRADE SHOWS
My year as PR Manager will be topped and tailed with a trade show - a great way to raise awareness of Toastmasters in the public domain. In September toastmaster volunteers helped to man a stand for three days at the National Ploughing Championships in the heart of Ireland which had a footfall of over 281,000 people. This is Europe’s largest outdoor exhibition. On the 17th – 18th May more toastmaster volunteers will man a stand at the Buy Yorkshire exhibition, Yorkshire’s biggest business conference. There were also trade shows in Inverness - the Highland Show, in Division A and in Dublin on World Teacher’s Day. At this conference we were able to promote the benefits of Toastmasters to teachers AND also the benefits of running a Youth Leadership Program in schools.
OPEN NIGHT
As well as raising the awareness of Toastmasters in the public domain it is part of the role of the PR Manager to give the club Vice Presidents for Public Relations the tools to help them promote their clubs. I sent every club an “open night” package which contained my 10 tips on how to run a successful open night and suggestions gleaned from Division Directors and Area Directors on promoting an open night, running an open night and following up afterwards. By way of extra encouragement there was an incentive of three sets of ribbons for all clubs that signed up at least one new member as a result of an open night. This was a very popular incentive. Hats off to all our clubs who showed how creative they are with their promotional material, their use of social media and their use of sites such as Meetup and LinkedIn to promote their clubs.
SPEECHCRAFT
Successful Speechcraft programs have been run in Cranfield University, Bank of Ireland, National College for the Blind in Ireland, Dundalk Institute of Technology and the National Maternity Hospital Holles Street. Thanks to all toastmasters who run Speechcraft programs throughout the District.
NEWSLETTER & PRESS COVERAGE
Two newsletters have been published to date and both received favourable reviews. The incentive of a free entry to the Black Cat Conference was won by Laura Bruce, Inverness TM with her article “Why three is the magic number when it comes to business presentations”
A free entry to the Limerick Conference was won by Aaron Hanway, Gorey TM, with his articles “How to learn five essential business skills with just one activity”
AND “How to be remarkable in front of an audience”. Although Jane Cameron’s article was first published before the 1/7/15, it was published in a couple of publications after I took up office and deserves a mention – “Is your mouth saying one thing and your body something else?”
Our PR professional, Chantal Cooke, has succeeded in publishing articles relating to Toastmasters in over 70 publications. In total, the estimated reach to date is 9.8 million views, with a combined editorial value of £344,000.
MEDIA COVERAGE
I set up an interview with Pat Kenny, Newstalk 106-108 fm for Mohammed Murad, Immediate Past International President of Toastmasters. Ahead of the interview Newstalk played a recording of a visit to Dublin Toastmasters.
I set up a second interview for Mohammed with Gerry Kelly on LMFM’s Late Lunch.
Patricia O’ReillyDistrict 71 Public Relations Manager