How to test whether you are qualified to comment on a technology trend

Many analyst houses and big consultancies have released their top technology focus areas for 2015.  The Economist and PWC are suggesting private cloud, data mining and analytics, and cyber security will top the agenda for 2015. Gartner is also tipping cloud as a major focus area, among other t...

5 tips in 5 minutes – making sure media interviews run to plan

Media interviews are a much-vaunted, much-loved staple of any PR programme worth its salt, but, like anything in PR, they can go horribly wrong. But even when an interview isn’t a complete car crash, as any PR pro will know, a lot of interviews can end up being merely a so-so experience – instead...

Having no news is not an excuse for having no coverage: Get some facts, STAT

One of the biggest challenges in B2B Tech PR is the issue of news, or lack thereof. We are not in the business of having flashy new handsets to release, and while this does help us to avoid getting embroiled in any ‘bend-gate’-like sagas, it does mean that we have to be more inventive.

There are a...

Six top tips for organising and managing an international press trip

Recently, I was tasked with organising press attendees and interviews for a client customer event in Barcelona. Now, I’m usually comfortable with organising and staffing press interviews. But doing this in another country, without immediate support from the Spark team, did test my comfort zone. Ne...

Driving Tech PR Success Using Topical Issues

One of the things that attracted me to PR (aside from the glamour and jet-setting lifestyle that’s taken me as far as the Birmingham NEC) was the fact that nothing stands still. Client messages change over time; markets evolve; and new stories give new ways to present client messages to the world...