The UK is Brian Cox mad right now. And so are we.
It’s hard to miss the popularity of enthusiastic professor Brian Cox.
Many of us have our Sunday evenings booked now that BBC is showing the follow up on his series Wonders of the Universe, in which he explains the story of the universe and how it all comes together. Professor Cox’s expertise and ability to enthuse people about science made him an ideal inspirational keynote speaker at Gastech 2011. Reminding us all of the crucial role science has to play in solving our global energy challenges, Cox left even the most unruffled members of the BCM team slightly (excuse the pun) star struck.
We’re still catching our breath. As one of the biggest international energy events of the year, Gastech 2011 attracted the likes of Shell (host), BG Group, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and RasGas, and BCM were honoured with the task of coordinating the PR. Managing PR for events such as Gastech is no easy feat.
A huge amount of preparation and planning is essential for its success and we are still relishing in the buzz of the aftermath! With over 400 exhibitors and over 100 registered international media, we had to coordinate the communication and exchange of information. This for example meant that we were responsible for promoting Gastech’s exhibitors, sponsors and associations and any industry developments and innovations they were demonstrating at the event.
A buzzing delegate lunch at Gastech
For people attending and taking part in events such as Gastech, it’s all about meeting people in the same business. With this in mind, we included Twitter and LinkedIn in our PR plan and engaged in some very interesting conversations, as well as finding some new useful ways of establishing these as complimentary meeting hubs for the event.
Twitter was for example an excellent forum for the exhibitors to talk about what they were doing at their stands “live”. With a twitter flow on the Gastech online press room, all media representatives then also had the opportunity to get an overview of the activities as they happened. Social media has a particular advantage in the context of events (before, during and after) as they are typically instant, interactive and all about building relationships and sharing knowledge.
Now back to Brian Cox. It turns out he actually is just as nice and interesting as we thought, and yes, his hair really is that floppy in real life.