Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse - Adlai Stevenson
I’ve either gone blind or the Sunday Tribune’s blogosphere column has gone up in smoke. I’ve flicked through the various sections and it seems to have disappeared. If they’ve made the decision to can the [...]

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office - Aesop
Richard Bailey makes a great point about the controversy surrounding the Conservative leadership battle. One of the Tory candidate’s David Cameron has been called on to give an answer to the ever stupid question “Did you take drugs as a [...]

At TechCamp I got to meet Padrig McGourty from Nooked. Fergus Burns couldn’t attend because he was down with the flu, but sent on his colleague instead.
While chatting with him I found out the the CSO are offering RSS subscription feeds so you can now subscribe to their press releases, publications, survey [...]

Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it - Lily Tomlin
There’s a feedback section on the TechCamp wiki now entitled ‘TechCamp Afters‘. Bernie Goldbach has started the ball rolling already.
I thought the day went well, in fact if there was a problem it was that people got too caught [...]

You have to be in it to win it!
One that makes NewsTalk 106 stand out for company’s looking to run a radio promotion is their Text Back service. When the listener texts in to enter the competition, they get a text message back saying thanks for entering the competition and a message from the [...]

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them - Abigail Adams
Brian O’Neill has offered some great insight during our discussion on how technology improves our lives here at TechCamp. For all our talk about blogs, RSS, podcasts or whatever the latest buzzword of the day is, imagine [...]

‘Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt - Abraham Lincoln
When people mention politicians blogging, I always tend to say that they should podcast instead. My main reasoning behind this is that most of them wouldn’t have the time to get bogged down in online [...]

I love it when a plan comes together - Hannibal Smith
Everything is going well so far. We’ve got an attendance of about thirty so far and after a quiet five minute start, the conversation is up and rolling. I’ll throw up updates and links to presentations as the day progresses on this entry.
Check [...]

I am a star. I’m a star, I’m a star, I’m a star. I am a big, bright, shining star - Dirk Diggler (Boogie Nights)
Just noticed that I’m linked to on the Irish Times Weblog links on their website at the moment. It’s quite funny - isn’t it meant to be the other way [...]

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible - Jonathan Swift
I have to admit that I’m not that familiar with Google Maps, but I’ve kept my ears open about it. One of the best posts recently to illustrate its Irish promise is from Johnny K, who recently published a Google Map for recycling resources [...]

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises - Demosthenes
If you listen to some people, by starting a blog you’ll earn millions, whip up customer enthusiasm and be an all-round nice guy. To be perfectly honest, if you’ve got nothing to talk about then no-one is going to listen.
Companies are far better offer [...]

It’s so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite - Sam Levenson
I’m happily sitting down in front of my laptop, actually not going out drinking in the first Friday night in God knows how long and guess what happens - I get an unsolicited text message from [...]

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans - John Lennon
Apologies for the lack of posting, but myself and Ed have been putting the final touches together in our TechCamp preparations for tomorrow. Although I’m not giving a presentation, I’ve got to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day.
Something [...]

These are exciting times we live in
I’m cursing myself for magically fixing my iPod by squeezing it now. I think I’ll have to stamp on it a few times to justify forking out on the new video iPod. Check out Cnet’s report - $1.99 for ad free episodes of shows like ‘Lost’? [...]

Advice is one of those things it is far more blessed to give than to receive - Carolyn Wells
I seem to be talking a lot about blogging and other Internet tools lately, but with the Empathy Marketing Morning Conference fresh in my mind there are a lot of regular news stories that make me think [...]

A picture is worth a thousand words
I don’t know about the rest of the world but the AA in Ireland run traffic updates on some of the major radio stations. I happened to come across this story about aspiring mobile phone weather presenters gathering for auditions for a video based mobile phone service.
Only in [...]

Computers can figure out all kinds of problems, except the things in the world that just don’t add up - James Magary
Just a quick note to say that I’ve been having hosting problems of late. Ed Byrne, my tech messiah, is looking after things as usual, so a quick word of thanks to him. [...]

TechCamp will soon be upon us and the final preparations are underway for Saturday’s event. The event’s structure has been slightly altered to make it more of a collaborative event as it now consists moderated group discussions and presentations.
There are some great attendees lined up and Hosting365 are generously sponsoring the facility costs and [...]

The dumbest people I know are those who know it all - Malcolm Forbes
Instant Punditry has an interesting piece about how disasters are reported. The main focus is about how disasters which are closer to home get more prominence than some country that the world’s media doesn’t think will sell a few newspapers.
The bit [...]

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist - The Usual Suspects
Most people have a distrust of the PR profession. In Ireland there has been lots of focus of government retained Public Relations consultants and the resounding question the public has asked is ‘Why do they need a [...]

To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer - Farmers’ Almanac 1978
One of the main reasons why I love Apple products is their mantra ‘It just works.’ I haven’t been having the best of luck of late though because my PowerBook and iPod have been acting up of late.
It started [...]

The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate - Joseph Priestley
Greg McAweeney, General Manager, RaboDirect gave a presentation about his company at the Empathy Marketing Morning Conference. It was disappointing in places because it came across as more of a sales pitch in places rather than give an example of a [...]

When it’s a question of money, everybody is of the same religion - Voltaire
RTE report the the new Metro freesheet has won the legal battle over its name with Independent Newspapers, so it will be with us sooner rather than later.
There’s been plenty of rumours about the freesheet of late and I’d say most Dubliners [...]

RTE reported on a deal that 3, a mobile phone company in Ireland, have struck with them that will see 3’s users able to receive video highlights of their television news bulletins. It’s a good move for 3 and it’s also a great sign that RTE are moving forwards albeit one step at a [...]

Robert O’Connor has got a great guide on how to write a press release. Anyone who works in PR should definitely have a read through it because Robert is a musician! For all of those that don’t, it’s a nice little guide on how to write one yourself. Heed the warning though, [...]