Last Friday, the new PA wing (sounds a bit like an airline!) at JFL visited the CIPR Public Affairs group annual charity Christmas luncheon. 

The Lunch was held in the fantastic setting of the Churchill Dining Room in the House of Commons ; and almost all in the industry were represented.

The event was kindly hosted by MP Mark Fields, and the guest speaker was the influential political commentator Steve Richards.  The particularly tumultuous events in the preceding hours and days to the event made for particularly engaging table conversation. Mr Richards rose to the occasion, delivering a highly interesting and witty speech ranging from anecdotes of Howard Wilson, to touching on the lobbying scandal and the emerging result of the European Summit.

Not only was the event a great day for everyone involved, but it was also for a good cause, with money being raised for St Mungo’s.

JFL held an exclusive event last week in partnership with top PR agency, PrettyGreen's, founder Mark Stringer.

 The evening was a successful networking event, giving a variety of PR pro's the opportunity to mingle; further to this, Mark Stringer was kind enough to give an inspirational talk demonstrating the benefits to agency life, and after the feedback of the attendees, the talk certainly did the trick.

 The aim of the evening was to shed light to those mid-level candidates who reach the PR career version of a mid-life crisis, where you decide that exploring what could happen to you beyond the level of Account Manager (Account Director at a push), that staying agency side has excellent benefits.

 Obviously if there has a been a life long ambition to work in-house, then this is what you must persue; however, Mark emphasized that you must love what you do, if you dont then you need to find a way to make it loveable and fun!  This should always be achievable in a good agency.

 Many thanks to Mark and good luck to all of those candidates who joined us!

JFL attended the very glamorous and anticipated PR Week Awards on Tuesday this week, where we proudly sponsored the Large Consultancy of the Year award.

The awards ceremony was held in the plush Grosvenor House Hotel; all of the biggest names in PR and Communications rolled up in their best frocks and sharpest tux’s, excited to see who had made the best impressions of 2011.

After a comedy performance from Tim Minchin (debatable as to if this was funny or not), Alistair Campbell took to the stage to Host the evenings awards presenting, throwing in a few cheeky anecdotes about his time spent working with Tony Blair.

On behalf of JFL I am proud to say that a lot of the big contenders, and a lot of the time- winners were clients of ours- so congratulations to all of them. Grayling and Clarion were very successful in picking up numerous awards, as were a non-client of ours including new agency, John Doe who certainly left all guests wowed by their speedy and consistent success.

Most importantly our marvellous MD, Ros Kindersley, did a wonderful job in presenting Edelman’s award for winning Large Consultancy of the Year.

After the meal and awards, everyone was relaxed and enjoying themselves with a few more glasses of fizz before dancing the night away... I would not be surprised if the majority who attended had a rather laborious day in the office on Wednesday! Either way, we are very much so looking forward to next year’s awards already!

Max Wiltshire has  today joined JFL Search & Selection as a Senior Consultant with responsibility for Public Affairs and Corporate Reputation roles.  Max originally trained as a barrister before moving into recruitment. His most recent role was as a Senior Consultant with Electus.

“We are delighted to welcome Max on board,” said Ros Kindersley.  “He brings an excellent knowledge of issues-led communications recruitment that spans a broad mix of public affairs, CSR, policy and legal sectors and feel he will be an excellent addition to our team.  We have seen genuine growth in the market this year, which is greatly encouraging – and I feel a quiet optimism for the next 12 months.”

JFL does Jeans for Genes!!

The Jolly Foxy Ladies were out in full denim force on Friday 07 October to show their support for Jeans for Genes day – the UK children's charity that aims to change the world for children with genetic disorders. For more information or to get involved and donate, visit http://www.jeansforgenesday.com/ .

•  Burger King and Cow PR have gone their separate ways after 6 years. They will now be looking for a replacement PR agency. Will keep my eyes peeled for recruitment opportunities once they find a new agency

• PRCA and CIPR are butting heads over representing UK’s PR professionals, led by Francis Ingham, CIPR claiming they are ‘copycats’ and PRCA have taken two ads, a double and single page spread
  

• Public Affairs agency Portland Consulting is poised to sell to FTI, formerly FD

• InStyle magazine has their 10^th Anniversary party in November, EdenCancan to look after.

• Blue Rubicon are in the early stages of formulating a strategic comms plan to highlight the role the private equity sector plays in economies throughout Europe

• Luther Pendragon has acquired financial and corporate PR firm Corfin, founded by Brunswick pair who will now become directors and shareholders in Luther Pendragon

• Hill & Knowlton has appointed Matt Bright (previously of Open Road) as Associate Director in its financial and professional services team

• Hotwire has won the Mcafee account after they left The Red Consultancy, their PR firm of 8 years

Last Wednesday a few of the JFL ladies went to the ‘CorkComms’ networking evening hosted by CorpComms magazine.

We arrived at 28°-50° the relaxed and mellow new restaurant on Fetter Lane, where we sipped a delicious rose whilst getting to know, putting faces to names and in some cases caught up with some of our clients and other Industry experts.

We sampled four delicious wines from around the world, gaining knowledge from a very helpful sommelier and picked at a charcuterie board.

We managed to squeeze a tiny teaser out of the magazine about the upcoming ‘CorpComms awards’ and it is one definitely not to be missed.

Thank you for a lovely, relaxing evening CorpComms, we look forward to seeing at the awards.

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We are all looking forward to October’s PR Week Awards, as this year JFL Search & Selection is sponsoring the Large Consultancy of the Year award. On the shortlist are:

Blue Rubicon

Edelman

Ketchum Pleon

Lansons

MHP

This is particularly exciting for us as they are all consultancies that we have worked closely with over the years. Expect to see us on the edge of our seats!

For more information on the PR Week Awards and to see the shortlisted agencies, visit the website here.