Nine month secondment.

I have gained insight into the Australian market and developed relationships with high profile publications. I have broadened my expertise in communications working in pharmaceutical, finance, technology and business.Key responsibilities:Account management - ensuring timely and concise updates to clients on project timelines, budget management and issues which may impact the outcome of the campaign.Stakeholder management - researching and developing relationships with key stakeholders to create meaningful relationships with mutual outcomes including with charities, key opinion leaders and celebrities.Strategy development - researching and developing evidence-based communication strategies with set KPIs.Event management - organising and facilitating events with medical professionals to launch new client services, researching and coordinating speaking opportunities for key client executives.Media relations - managing proactive and reactive media outreach including crisis communications when necessary, building relationships with journalists at both a national and regional level, thought leadership, and reputation management.Content development - creating clear communications to ensure clients, stakeholders and the general public understand often complex services or new treatments for online, social and print media platforms.New business generation - researching and developing new business opportunities to expand the companies opportunities for work.Staff development - developing and supporting internal staff training opportunities including developing a new model of training combined with new standards of practice.

Munro & Forster Agency, UKI worked across a number of accounts from CMV Action Week, National Apprenticeship Week, Local Area Alcohol Action groups and launched a new government service called Fit for Work (FfW), which supported those on long-term sick leave to get back to work. During my time I secured multiple national coverage in the Daily Mail and Good Morning Britain which led to high OTS rates and increased referrals to the FfW service across the country. Key Responsibilities:Account management - reporting to clients to make sure they were up to date with coverage and work being done each weekStakeholder management - briefing and securing meetings with high-level stakeholders and Royal CollegesProject management - coordinating both Fit for Work England and Fit for Work Scotland to enable collective coverage for both separate entities leading to uptake of the service Media relations - pitching and securing stories in all media to gain maximum coverage for clientsContent creation - up to date content development which was used for dissemination of key messages to targeted audiencesEvent management - organising and securing venues for roadshow events to inform employer representing organisations of the new serviceEvaluation - evaluating the impact of the work we were doing to make sure that it was achieving the KPIs set by the client Team management - overseeing two junior members of the team with their work to make sure all deadlines were made and to assure quality control

With strong insight into how the national and government news agendas fit together and how to influence that news agenda, I briefed often sceptical journalists on complex policy issues and led various major government policy announcements. Following the high profile Francis report and the findings from the NHS Complaints Review I worked with journalists and secured national headlines as well as coverage in local and trade media. I was also often the Department’s first contact for journalists on out of hour’s issues.Key responsibilities: Media interviews - briefing, advising and accompanying Ministers and other senior spokespeople, including the Secretary of State for Health, on media bids, speeches and eventsMedia relations - pitching stories to national and regional media and liaising with journalists in order to gain maximum coverage. This included proactively planning lines to take and strategies for negative storiesResearch and evaluation - researching strategies and policy documents to gather information and key messages. As well as using insight from evaluations to prepare proactive press campaigns for announcements on government health policies. I also provided advice to senior officials and ministers on the presentation of policies to ensure interest from the media, including finding creative news anglesCrisis communications - responding to criticisms of the NHS and government including rebutting stories at very short notice and taking part in a rota to provide a 24/7 media out of hours service.Stakeholder communications - managing the client/customer relationship by balancing the needs of the Department against the needs of the media

Three month secondment from Press Office to the Digital Team.Digital communications - Social Media listening and evaluation for both the Department's reputation and the Secretary of State for Health. Recording and editing videos of Ministers for both web and conference dissemination. Helping to organise digital aspects of the Global Dementia Legacy event and content uploading to help the success of the Care Act regulations consultation

I developed the organisation’s new media presence on Facebook and within the space of 6 monthshad attracted over 900 followers and friends from the local community, building engagement with the hospital’s brand ahead of it applying for Foundation trust status.During the election campaign in 2010, I helped organise and facilitate separate political visits fromboth David Cameron and Nick Clegg on two consecutive weekends, including ensuring that ‘purdah’rules were followed. I was responsible for ensuring the visits ran smoothly and liaised with theirpolitical team and personal assistants.Key responsibilities:Media communication – first point of contact for all media enquiries, researched stories anddrafted press releases, set up a rolling diary to track opportunities, such as specific healthweeks, and prepared proactive press campaigns around theseExternal communication – liaised with hospital staff and outside agencies to acquire accuratecurrent data for public dissemination and used Quark Xpress to design patient informationleaflets and postersDigital communication – assisted in the creation of the new hospital website and ensuring itscontent was always current and managed the new media output for the teamInternal communication – organised and ran events for both staff and prospective members ofthe future Foundation Trust, wrote and distributed weekly internal staff emails and newsletter,researched and wrote targeted articles for three separate hospital publications aimed at staff,GPs and prospective FT members

I worked as an unpaid intern at a music events company where I headed up the public relations forthe company. Whilst doing this I also had to run events, making sure the media attended musiclaunches and parties. The organisation took the unusual step of extending my internship by over 6months.Key Responsibilities:- Generated media interest by selling in stories- Monitored and logged press stories for evaluation- Developing and liaising with contacts in the media- Contacting key journalists to set up and chair press conferences and briefings- Writing and distributing pre- and post-event press releases- Liaising with journalists who attended the event to achieve maximum publicity- Drawing up a guest list of over 200 celebrities and liaising with their agents.

I was tasked with promoting events for the Students Union including the Summer Ball. As part of a team of three we successfully promoted multiple events and led to increased ticket sales for the Summer Ball.