Merry Christmas, and a warm, safe and comfortable New Year

Merry Christmas to Friends and Family

This year we’ve decided to NOT send Christmas Cards to our many friends and relatives.  Instead we’ve made a donation to Byte Night – https://www.bytenight.org.uk/

Byte Night
83,000 young people are homeless each year in the UK through no fault of their own.

So why have we gone all ‘Chariddy Baby’?

The issue of homelessness clashes head-on in the UK with cut-backs to social services. One of the points of conflict is children’s services. Essentially, these services are withdrawn when the child reaches 18. The result is that many of these ‘vulnerable children’ become ‘homeless adults’ as a little birthday present from our somewhat flawed welfare state.

Rather than spend a couple of quid each on sending Christmas cards to everyone we could think of, we thought our time and money would be better spent by donating to Byte Night and encouraging you to do the same.

Jenny Agutter - star of Walk About, Logan's Run and Byte Night.
Jenny Agutter – star of Walk About, Logan’s Run and Byte Night.

Chris first got involved when working for CODA Group plc in 2005. It was an eye-opener. But he also got to have some fun AND spent a whole night sleeping next to Jenny Agutter at a ‘sleep out’ event run by Byte Night. Jenny is a long-term supporter of the charity and has participated in many such events.

More recently we’ve seen several situations up-close-and-personal where children and young adults we know could easily have become homeless. While many of these situations are complex, we think our society should be doing more for these young people, and that’s why we’ve got involved.

Step Up Byte Night and Action for Children

Byte Night is a national ‘sleep-out’ event and Action for Children’s biggest annual fund-raiser; Each year, hundreds of like minded people from the technology and business arena give up their beds for one night to help change the lives of vulnerable young people.

It all began in 1998 when 30 individuals slept out in London and raised £35,000. Since then, Byte Night has now grown to 12 events and over 1500 people slept out in 2017. Byte Night is now one of the UK’s top 17 mass participation charity events and is the largest charity sleep-out. It has raised over £10 million since the first event.

The money raised by Byte Night specifically helps Action for Children work to support some of the 83,000 young people who are homeless in the UK every year through no fault of their own.

Byte Night Sleepouts - Action for Children's biggest fund-raiser.
Byte Night – Action for Children’s biggest fund-raiser.

Proud to be part of an Industry that Cares

As the name suggests, Byte Night is the creation of the UK technology industry. When we started Precision PR we decided to put Chris’ 33-years of technology experience at the core of our services. We are proud to be part of an industry that cares and DOES something about an issue we feel strongly about.

As our business grows we plan to increase our involvement and to encourage our clients to get involved as well. In the mean time, let’s all be grateful and thankful that we and all our loved ones are safe and warm this Christmas, and resolve to do more to help others feel the same when Christmas comes round in 2018.

Merry Christmas
Cary and Chris

ps. If you’d like us to ‘Sleep Out’ in 2018, and you’re prepared to sponsor us, please let us know via our contact us page.

 

Remembrance Sunday – it’s more than a Poppy

Harrogate's Cenotaphe
Harrogate’s Cenotaphe

What your staff might think matters

This is a post about my daughter. I make no apology for that – not even to her. And certainly not to her soon-to-be-ex-employers.

My daughter is a Cadet Warrant Officer (CWO) in the Air Training Corps (the ATC or the Air Cadets). That’s a pretty significant achievement, and represents a considerable level of responsibility and trust placed in her by the adult staff of 58 (Harrogate) Squadron. It also means she recieves great respect from the younger cadets, because without that respect, she couldn’t do what she does. And what a CWO does is handles the daily running of the squadron.

George (my daughter) has been a cadet since she was 13. She decided that she would like to join the Royal Air Force (RAF), and the ATC allows her to learn more about it and gain relevant experience to help her through the selection process. She’s currently going through selection for Officer Training, but in the meantime she’s working in retail.

As part of her work within the ATC, she has collected money for the British Legion by selling Poppies, and for the RAF Benevolent Fund every year since joining – and regularly tops the list of collectors at the squadron. As she’s 19 years of age, this year is her last year within the ATC before she ‘ages out’ on her birthday in December.

Why this matters to George

George has been working for a local firm. In fact, she’s been working very hard for that firm having been promoted to store manager earlier this year. She’s made a success of her shop and is diligent about staffing, targets, stock control – every aspect. But she’s only 19, and working over-time (usually unclaimed and unpaid), plus a train and bus (or two buses) journey home interferes with her work at ATC and the fitness work she has to complete for her RAF selection.

Because she wants to take part in a ATC competition (the national drill championships) she needed a weekend off. Because she needed that weekend off, George was not allowed to take time off on the Saturdays leading to Remembrance Sunday in order to collect for the British Legion. Because the company that she works for has a different ‘nominated charity’ she was not allowed to have a British Legion collecting box on her shop counter. And because of that, the straw has broken the camel’s back, and she has resigned to take a less-pressured job closer to home and just down the road from her gym.

Why this matters to employers

George comes from a family with quite a bit of military history. She has a 2nd cousin who served 21-years in the Royal Navy. Her grandfather and his two brothers served in the British Army, and two of their cousins were an Army helicopter pilot and an Army bomb disposal officer who served in Northern Ireland during ‘the Troubles’. Her great-grandfather served in the Merchant Navy on troop and ammunition ships in the Mediterranean, including at Gallipoli where two of his brothers were killed fighting for the Australian army. Their sister married an Regimental Sergeant Major who had served on The Western Front, and two of George’s great-grandmother’s brothers were killed at Passchendaele in that same conflict.

Anzac Cove, Gallipoli
Anzac Cove, Gallipoli

Add to that George’s stated desire to join the forces and the fact that her boyfriend has just completed Elementary Flying School within his RAF service, and you can see that Remembrance Sunday and Battle of Britain Day (the RAF Benevolent Fund’s day of commemoration) are pretty important to her.

Her employers could very easily have understood this, and could have helped her organise cover. At the very least they could have allowed her to collect for her chosen causes in their shop. But no … instead they have lost a diligent, hard-working and effective shop manager just before Christmas.

 

So my point is …

It’s simple. If you want to retain key staff you need to find out what will keep them happy. George’s employer could so easily have accommodated her or compromised with her. Instead they acted without taking notice of something important to her, and which surely everyone else saw as a fantastic activity by her. The result was she is leaving them to go to someone more accommodating, more flexible and more appreciative of her cadet and charitable works.

So if someone asks you if they can have support for a community or charitable activity, maybe find out why it’s important to them before you respond.

 

Written by a proud Dad

 

Commonwealth War Graves - Stonefall Cemetery - Harrogate
Commonwealth War Graves – Stonefall Cemetery – Harrogate

ps. George sold Poppies in her lunchtime and on her way home instead. On Remembrance Sunday she laid the wreath on behalf of the ATC at Harrogate’s cenotaph, and led the ATC contingent on parade at Harrogate’s Commonwealth War Graves, Stonefall Cemetery..

 

A little thought about training

A potted tip

Grean & Blue vase by Cary Cray-Webb
Check what your students have done before – you might be amazed one way or another

My beautiful, talented wife and business partner (Cary) recently decided that she wanted to do some pottery. She chose to attend an adult training class in a nearby town for two reasons;

  1. So she could spend a couple of hours each week with her best friend who also signed-up for the course.
  2. She likes pottery but doesn’t currently have the facilities or materials at home that the class could provide.
Sea Horse by Cary Cray-Webb
Sea Horse

She’s been attending the class for several weeks. It’s given by a very enthusiastic young woman who is currently studying for an NVQ Level 3 qualification in pottery or some such related topic. However, Cary’s now decided to stop attending classes, for three reasons;

  1. It’s all getting a bit expensive. In fact, it would be cheaper to buy the materials she needs, create lots of pots at home, and hire kiln space herself.
  2. She can no-longer see her friend at class as she’s changed her nursing job and now works on the Tuesday of the class. Apparently there isn’t space on the Monday class for the two of them.
  3. Cary’s getting a bit fed-up that the potter running the class is constantly amazed by her creations.

You see, Cary has a 1st class honours degree in Fine Art and specialised in pottery and ceramics. But her tutor has never even asked if and what [type of pottery or art] she’s done before. Our home is full of paintings and pots that she’s created; little Plasticine figure balance on the top of our iMAC, and a giant wire sea-horse in the front garden sways in the wind and baffles the neighbours.

 

So here’s my tip to trainers. ASK. It breaks the ice, exposes any ‘Smart Alec’, and could provide you with someone to help move your class forward. If you don’t, you might just be amazed by what your class produces.

IPEX 2017 – A visit to the NEC

IPEX 2017 - The UK's premier international print show
IPEX 2017 – The UK’s premier international print show

The UK’s premier international print show?

This week I took the time out to visit the NEC for IPEX 2017. Billed as ‘The UK’s premier international print show’, there were several reasons I wanted to go.

The first reason was that IPEX 2017 is ‘my show’. Well, that’s a slight exaggeration, but I feel some ownership of it as I won the contract to manage press relations for the show for my previous employer, and I wanted to see how my initial plans had panned out. Of course, I went on Day 2, and all the press went on Day 1, but apart from that things seemed to have gone roughly according to the plan I laid out a couple of years ago.

The second reason was that I wanted to see a couple of former colleagues, which I did, and which was nice.

And the third was that my colleague Simon Hill and I had been looking to meet up with some prospective clients, and he had set-up three meetings for me at the show. I’m pleased to say that all three meetings went well and produced some follow-up activities that I hope will turn into business for Precision PR. I even got chatting (quite unexpectedly) a manufacturer of after-fit UV curing lights which led to giving a quote for some brochure work..

Busy but not 'banged out'
Busy but not ‘banged out’

Mixed reactions

But my initial reaction to the show is a bit mixed. Firstly because the organisers (Informa Global Exhibitions) missed their target of 400 exhibitors, so the show felt a little bit smaller than expected (but it’s the NEC so it still felt pretty big). Secondly because none of the really big printer manufacturers were really in evidence (no stands for Epson, Hewlett Packard, Cannon – all missing). And thirdly, because while not quiet, by the standards of some print shows I’ve been to, IPEX on Wednesday afternoon wasn’t busy.

Plenty of meaningful conversations and people actually looking for real solutions
Plenty of meaningful conversations and people actually looking for real solutions

That said, I think it was a better show because of these points. It meant that the show wasn’t monopolised by glitzy stands draped in huge swathes of designer designed fabric and Formula One cars. And that meant that people were actually looking at the smaller stands belonging to interesting technology companies and businesses that could supply a solution to their ‘now’ requirements, rather than splash the champagne around tomorrow’s answer to next week’s question. And in turn, that meant that people were actually conducting real business and selling real products and services at the show. Surely that is the mark of a successful trade show.

Congratulations

It took me three hours to drive to Birmigham, three hours to drive back, and I was there for three hours. For me, every minute was worth it, and I look forward to the next IPEX in 2019.

So I’d like to congratulate event director Rob Fisher and his team at Informa, and Dave Ingle and the team at Peter Bush Communications for promoting the show so successfully within the trade press. The balance they faced was creating a show that performed vs a show that looked like it performed – they are not the same thing. I think that if any one of the big printer or press manufacturers had broken ranks and exhibited then they would have diminished the show. But how do you judge these things?

New win – ghost writers

Specialist copy writing services

Chris has recently been engaged to write blogs and website copy for a large, Thames Valley-based marketing agency. He was selected for his flexible approach to the task plus his previous experience in the subject.

Although we can’t disclose the name of the client or the end-user of the copy, we’re pretty damn happy to have be part of such a prestigious project.

If you have a copy writing project that you need help with on any aspect of corporate / B2B technology and information, please get in touch – we will be delighted to discuss the project with you in confidence.

Press Release – New Win

Pearl Dental Software gets social with Precision PR

Everyone loves a trip to the dentist, right? Well, maybe not, but the team behind Pearl Dental Software are determined to help make the process as painless as possible.

As part of its efforts to bring the company’s powerful, UK-specific solution to as many dental practices as possible, Pearl’s developer – Baker Heath Associates Limited (BHA Ltd) – has appointed Precision PR Limited to manage a social media campaign.

“We’ve probably reached the limits of selling Pearl by word-of-mouth,” says Ben Baker, MD of BHA Ltd. “Precision PR is going to help us tell more UK-based dentists, practice managers and other dental professionals about our system.”

Precision PR’s initial brief is to help build a multi-channel social community, defining and creating a range of content, and providing wider marketing consultancy. The company was chosen for the Pearl project because the founders have a history of success in both digital imaging and dentistry.

“Chris has a good background in PR and social marketing for 2D and 3D-CAD, visualisation software and other imaging technologies. Cary is a fully trained and registered dental nurse. The perfect skill-mix for our products,” explains Mr Baker.

The campaign is designed to consolidate and improve Pearl Dental Software’s share of the highly competitive practice management software market. Precision PR plans to demonstrate Pearl’s ease-of-use, excellent support services and the cost-effective UK-focused reporting functions needed for NHS, mixed and private practices. Early activities have already increased LinkedIn followers significantly (for the company’s directors and sales team), and the first of a series of case studies will be published shortly.

Further information about Pearl Dental Software can be found at: www.pearldentalsoftware.com

Notes to editors
Pearl Dental Software is developed by Baker Heath Associates Limited in Leicester, and is designed to be used by independent dental surgeries and businesses running a small chain of surgeries. It has the specific features needed to support treatment both NHS and Private patients. It works seamlessly with all leading brands of imaging and x-ray sensor, and with most leading brands of CEREC system (used for on-site manufacture of dental prosthetics and devices).

Pearl Dental Software’s LinkedIn page is:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/11252778/

Pearl Dental Software’s Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/PearlDentalSoftware

Other channels launching soon…

Precision PR Limited is an independent PR agency, specialising in B2B and imaging technologies, ERP and manufacturing software, online security software, and software for the music industry. The company calls upon extensive experience of pan-European and Transatlantic PR campaigns, as well as domestic campaigns.

Contact Chris Webb:
Email: chris@precisionpr.co.uk or Tel: 07432 189 149

Things I wish I could do in CAD

Computer Aided Geekiness

I’m no designer or engineer, but I absolutely love Computer Aided Design (CAD) software and all its derivatives and associated applications.

I love 3D-modelling, I love surface manufacturing. I love rendered visualisations. And I love all the things you can do with them.

I’m also pretty keen on Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE). The things for which you can use these classes of applications seems to increase weekly. From machining parts for racing cars direct from the designer’s computer screen, to milling dental crowns and inlays developed from digital scans of the patient’s teeth.

How it all started

For me, CAD started during my first employment at Avon County Council Highways & Engineering department. One of my jobs there was as a computer operator, running the programmes that modelled the horizontal and vertical alignments of the Avon Ring Road (now often called the Bristol Ring Road). I turned these models into the huge A0 drawings used as the plans for the scheme. I also ran programmes to simulate traffic flows, and mystical ‘cost/benefit analysis’ models.

Even as someone relatively new to computing, it was obvious how much more productive were the design teams using the departmental computer system than those teams that weren’t. That got me excited. I could see that the scheme would take for years to design without the computer. Like so many other schemes in and around Bristol, it was riven by political NIMBYism that required multiple changes to the design. Without the ability to redesign sections quickly the Avon Ring Road would never have been completed – like the infamous Three Lamps Junction scheme.

English Electric Lightening

Formula One and Jet Fighters

The front line fighter defending Britain’s airspace during the 1960s was the English Electric Lightening – the only all British Mach 2 war plane. It was designed using slide rules to compute the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) modelling techniques used in its development And while its service life spanned thirty years, the design resources required were simply enormous.

Later designs have become ever more complex and expensive to develop. As a result, the lighting’s successors – The Panavia Tornado and the Eurofighter Typhoon – were so expensive to develop that the costs were spread across several European countries. Without CAD these projects would have been virtually impossible. The interchange of design data would have been too complicated.

Williams

Williams FW18 – Damon Hill

During the late 1990’s I was lucky enough to further expand on my CAD geekiness by becoming account director at Insight Marketing & Communications. One of my clients there was SDRC – at the time the technology and market leader in 3D Solid Modelling CAD/CAM/CAE.

One of SDRC’s clients was the grand prix racing team of Williams Formula One. Actually, most of the formula one teams of the time used SDRC software; but SDRC sponsored Williams. This also happened to be during William’s F1’s time as the number 1 team in F1. And that meant I got to take journalists to attend events and visit the factory.

One over-riding and abiding memory is touring the factory. A 5-axis milling machine was making parts for a front wing – straight from the model, immediately it was signed off. But then at the next workstation were two chaps who made exhaust pipes. They made them the old fashioned way; cutting sheets of metal, forming them into tubes, and bending the tubes to shape by hand and hammer. But they were still working to plans made on a computer terminal.

Shower head – exploded view – created in SolidWorks

CAD for the masses

I can’t recall what happened to the SDRC account while I was at Insight, but I do recall that we were hired to launch a new product called SolidWorks into the UK. Unlike the UNIX-based SDRC software, SolidWorks ran on a Windows-based PC. This made the hardware significantly less expensive. At the time, SolidWorks wouldn’t be your first choice to design a jet fighter or a grand prix racing car. However, it was brilliant for the more mundane industrial design that most companies do. And SolidWorks is still going strong, now owned by Dassault Systèmes. So ironically, it’s now part of a company best known for making jet fighters.

And the things I wish I could do are?

I would just love to have got that engineering qualification I planned at school. I would have been thrilled to have spent at least part of my working life designing things using CAD. Instead I went into ‘computing’ and I’ve spent my life watching CAD from the side line. Running models through the system, plotting drawings, and writing about the relative merits of solid modelling versus surface modelling.

I don’t regret my chosen career path as such, but I am a little jealous.

If you share my enthusiasm for CAD, digital modelling and visualisation technology – and especially if you would like help marketing such technology – please call us.

Pearl Dental Software – case study – Church Street Dental Surgery

Church Street Dental Surgery,
Sutton-on-Hull

This case study has been moved to the new Pearl Dental Software website and can be found at: http://www.pearldentalsoftware.com/church-street-dental-surgery/

For more information about Pearl Dental Software:

Baker Heath Associates Limited
Sycamore Lodge,
69 Enderby Road,
Blaby,
Leicester,
Leicestershire, LE8 4GD
F.A.O Charlotte Taylor

www.pearldentalsoftware.com
Tel: 0116 275 9995
info@bhasoftware.com

Awards and stuff like that

The Academy Awards – an OSCAR is probably the world’s best known award.

And the winner is…

Everyone loves an award ceremony, don’t they? Especially the organisers who charge finalists and corporate sponsors hundreds of pounds for each person that attends. So, based on 25-years of entering and attending awards ceremonies for various software products, projectors, printers, etc., here are a few observations.

Should a PR agency enter an award ceremony?

Nope. Never. Not no-way. That is to say …

I don’t mean that nobody in any PR agency ever does any brilliantly successful or fabulously creative work; I think most of us do amazing things from time to time. But think about what a PR company is supposed to do. It promotes its CLIENTS, represents its clients, and gets third-parties talking about its clients.

So in my view, a PR company should enter its clients’ campaigns (see the subtle shift in ownership?) Because the client paid for the work, and it’s the client’s products and services that the PR company is promoting, isn’t it? Without a client, a PR company is NOTHING.

Whenever I’ve created a successful campaign for one of my clients I’ve sought ways to promote the client through awards. They in effect get double-bubble for their investment if they choose to enter that award. And yes, I’ve been invited along to a couple of award ceremonies by clients, but if they make the final and splash out on a table at the ceremony my advice is always to take a cust0mer instead of me.

Jimmy Carr – love him or hate him on the TV, he is an utterly brilliant award ceremony MC

Should an in-house team enter an award ceremony?

Yep. Always. Everytime.

In-house PR teams are often overlooked by their management (unless something goes wrong), but an award for a PR or marketing campaign, and DEFINITELY for products and services, gets the attention of management for the RIGHT reasons. And if you make the final it’s an opportunity to show the boss what you can do.

Again, taking a table at the ceremony can become a fabulous way to entertain customers – particularly if one of them has contributed a case study to the award entry.

Should you seek accreditations?

Yep. Always get your product certified by governing bodies, professional membership organisation, or whoever sets and administers standards for that industry. It’s rarely a false economy, and frequently these days it can be an in/out switch in an evaluation process.

The obvious thing to look at is compliance with the relevant ISO or British Standard. But recognition by organisations such as the ICAEW (for accountancy software) or the BDA (for dental products) proves that your solution is a credible and functional solution that meets the needs of professionals in practice.

Awards and reviews are now an integral part of PR and product marketing

Should you seek product reviews?

If you have a consumer product it’s absolutely essential to get plenty of good product reviews from consumer group websites and magazines. But while the reviews themselves are usually ‘free’, being able to use your hard earned endorsement probably comes at a cost. Using the logo of publications such as What HiFi or AV Magazine (other publications are available) can cost hundreds or thousands of pounds in fees to the organiser. Budgets and awards should go hand-in-hand.

One of the most important aspects of being successful in gaining recommendations and product awards is positioning your product correctly. While a very expensive product might outperform a cheaper one, if it’s significantly more expensive than the category norm it still may not gain a recommendation. Equally, there’s no point in entering a product with a lower than expected specification as it won’t be taken seriously, even if it’s really cheap.

So should you bother with awards and stuff like that?

Yes. But you need to approach awards with thought and strategy. Consider what you want to achieve from the award process. If you make the short list or final, think how you can turn your investment into an opportunity. And if you win, think very carefully about how you exploit your recognition.

Awards and reviews are these days an integral part of PR and product marketing. At Precision PR we have extensive experience of most types of award and review, and we would be only too happy to advise you, or even create and manage your entry.

For more information on any aspect of awards or product reviews please call us.

6 Tips on Managing Children in a Dental Surgery

Ideas from Dental Nurses who are also Mums

(By Charlotte Taylor)

 

This article has been moved to the new Pearl Dental Software website. You can read it at ; http://www.pearldentalsoftware.com/6-tips-on-managing-children-in-a-dental-surgery/

 

About the Author

Charlotte Taylor is Customer Services manager at Pearl Dental Software and can be contacted at : +44 116 275 9995 or charlotte.taylor@bhasoftware.com