I provide straight-talking PR support for clients in food & drink, hospitality, environment and sustainability.Recent & current clients include: Pasture Restaurant Group, The DEPOT Group, Silver Circle Distillery, Matsudai Ramen, Soil Association, Coed Cadw (The Woodland Trust in Wales), City to Sea, Food Cardiff & Food Vale (both part of the Sustainable Food Places network). Throughout the pandemic, I also supported the Welsh Independent Restaurant Collective with media relations on behalf of their 400+ member businesses in Wales.

As a sideline to my full-time employment (and thanks to my interest food blogging) I have been asked to contribute to a number of food & travel publications over the years in a freelance capacity; Nine.com.au, Visit Wales, WOW 247 and Wales Online.

I was headhunted by the Golley Slater Cardiff office and asked to develop a dedicated content and social media discipline which sits in the middle of three integrated departments (media, advertising and PR). My role involved:* Defining and developing the social media and content offering at Golley Slater Cardiff and helping the wider team communicate this to clients, both new and retained.* Devising and implementing the content strategy for all of Golley Slater Cardiff’s owned social media channels.* Working closely with the PR team on integrated client accounts and new business pitches.* Business development via award entries, industry networking, speaking opportunities, partnerships and proactive PR for the Cardiff agency itself.* Managing and developing a growing social media & content team.

Main responsibilities / results:* Working with internal stakeholders and external suppliers to create engaging and shareable content for the Cardiff Met website and social media channels. This included video, photography and copy for both digital and print formats. * Copywriting for the annual prospectus and other associated literature.* Co-managing various media partnerships with Trinity Mirror throughout the calendar year. * Overseeing the design, content and distribution of a new print publication, #CardiffMetMag, aimed at engaging with prospective students and showcasing the strengths of the University.* Project managing the design, build and maintenance of a new 'student blog' and recruiting and managing an ever-evolving team of student bloggers (cardiffmet.ac.uk/studentblogs). In September 2016, the student blog website and associated content marketing activity picked up two CIPR Pride Awards; Gold for Best Low Budget Campaign and Silver for Best Education Campaign.

Highlights included:* Working closely with the WRU and Glamorgan Cricket to manage sponsorship activation in Wales for SSE SWALEC. This included traditional PR, social media planning, event planning and maximizing the return from existing media partnerships with Trinity Mirror.* Content marketing, using SSE SWALEC sports ambassadors Ryan Jones and Robert Croft.* Managing the PR and providing social media support for the Gower Brewery in Swansea to promote their £1m expansion.* Copy writing, media relations and social media set-up and strategy for Hybu Cig Cymru's website Porc.Wales, which showcases the Welsh pork industry. * Identifying the opportunity, pitching, and securing Be At One as a client; they subsequently appointed Golley Slater Cardiff to deliver PR & crisis support for their national portfolio of 30 cocktail bars.

My position covered sabbatical leave and reported directly to the Head of Media and Communications. Main duties included:* Working on PR campaigns; writing press releases and pitching to media to secure coverage for Lonely Planet’s products and services, including coordinating the PR for two brand new titles - The Food Book and The World's Best Spicy Food - and launching these in EMEA* Actively building and maintaining relationships with existing and new media contacts in Europe, Middle East and Africa; helping to drive Lonely Planet’s commercial success in EMEA* Acting as the first point of contact for incoming media inquiries and working closely with authors and spokespeople, arranging interviews and briefings, supervising as required* Acting as a support in communications around issues which may affect Lonely Planet’s reputation* Managing regular outgoing communications, including the monthly email bulletin to journalists, (as well as internal communications such as the weekly Media Highlights email), and co-managing the UK Twitter account* Acting as the UK press office lead contact for a period of 2 weeks whilst the Head of Media and Communications took annual leave.

I worked primarily on consumer technology accounts for Microsoft (these included working with separate teams to promote Outlook.com, Office 2013, MSN, Surface and Windows 8). Highlights included: * The coordination and execution of numerous top-tier media events* Facilitating 40+ 1:1 client media briefings, * Product seeding programs with celebrity VIPs* Handling the UK media relations for multiple global product launches * Managing the subsequent media loans programs and ongoing blogger engagement.

Over a 12 month period (until I was made redundant due to the closure of the division), I planned and implemented the logistics for 11 different consumer event concepts and managed over 50 separate events with a team of 12 part time staff:* Part of a two-person team who launched the LivingSocial Adventures vertical in the UK - the first outside of the USA* Assisted with building event concepts with a variety of vendors to promote their business locally* Responsible for all logistics and on-site event management* Liaised with the editorial and production teams, assisted in proof-reading website copy and briefing videographers to ensure consistency and use of key messages* Responsible for collating and responding to ongoing customer feedback from every event and improving future events as a result* Recruited, trained and managed a team of 12 part-time staff - which involved full responsibility of the staff schedule, planning and executing monthly training sessions, compiling the weekly newsletter, and motivating the team to perform to an exceptionally high standard