The result….well here is what Eleanora said about her experience working with DMdesign…. http://www.dmdesign.ie/?Testimonials

The Clarion Hotel Cork are in early preparations for this year’s Cork International Jazz Festival with an amazing line up for the ever popular weekend 22^nd – 25^th October. The main acts this year are The Jive Aces and The Slammers Maximum Jive Band on the Saturday night in the hotel’s Pegasus Suite. The Jive Aces are described as the UK’s Number 1 Jive Band and have performed on numerous occasions on TV in the UK and across Europe. They also performed in the world renowned Royal Albert Hall earlier this year. The Slammers Maximum Jive Band are a high energy group that will keep revelers rocking until the small hours of the morning. So get your dancing shoes on and grab your ticket from the Clarion for just €20. A night not to be missed!

The West Cork Hotel are holding another special beauty event in aid of COPE Foundation on Thursday July 8^th at 8pm. Tickets are €20 and attendees will be tutored on personal style and offered guidance on key fashion trends for the month ahead. Joan Cashman is the image consultant and one of the most widely recognized image advisors in the country.

Joan will focus on colour analysis, key trends and how to dress for your shape, tips on hair and make-up and overall image for women and men.

It’s set to be a great night out and all for a great cause.

Tickets are available from The West Cork Hotel, Designs on Main Street or from the website on www.westcorkhotel.com

The West Cork Hotel are preparing for a special Sex and the City Night on Friday June 11th in a bid to raise money for the local COPE Foundation in Skibbereen. The night will kick off at 7pm with Cosmopolitans and Canapés followed by private coaches to Bantry Cinemax for a special screening and back again to the West Cork for prizes and more fun!

Tickets (available from the hotel or from Designs in Skibbereen town) are just €25 for an extremely worthy cause – COPE Foundation provides services to a broad spectrum of people with intellectual disabilities who require extensive support. COPE  works through its system of early intervention, schooling, training, adult day services, supported employment, housing, information and advice. They are constantly striving to raise the funds needed to continue to carry out their amazing work so all support for this event is greatly appreciated.

So dust off your best SATC ensemble ladies and join in the fun at the West Cork Hotel!  See you there!

Ballyhoura Development Ltd. has announced the three successful entrepreneurs who have been chosen for the Ballyhoura Dragons project which was launched earlier this year to coincide with the 21^st anniversary of Ballyhoura Development Ltd. The three successful start up companies were chosen from hundreds of applicants who wanted to set up a sustainable business in the Ballyhoura region.

The three businesses which have been chosen to partake in the programme to be mentored are Cabby Advertising, an in-taxi advertising company to promote advertising on the move, Credit Control Covered Limited which provides credit control training for businesses by way of a tutorial delivered online, and Polar Heating Controls Limited, a new heating control system for residential and commercial buildings. Mentorship will culminate in a Dragons Den style event where each of the participants will bid for investment by well known businesspeople.

Cabby Advertising is the brainchild of Rita Shinners who recognised the surge in popularity of in-taxi advertising in New York and wanted to bring a similar service to Irish taxis in a cost effective manner. Here, LCD screens are fitted inside taxis showing moving advertisements to a captive audience. With taxis operating day and night, Cabby Advertising will provide forward thinking businesses with a more widespread audience than any other form of media.

Credit Control Covered Limited is a family run business which was founded in January 2010 and led by Anthony and Laura Kelly. Anthony has twenty years experience managing his own long-established debt collection agency All Ireland Credit Services. On recognising the turbulent times businesses are facing and the basic mistakes made by both large and small businesses in terms of their credit control Anthony decided to put his experience in to writing a tutorial for organisations to help them avoid such pitfalls. The tutorial, which is delivered online is a desktop tool which will be of undeniable benefit to any company, large or small, domestic or international granting credit in Ireland. It is a Credit Control solution which is non-academic but rather provides real-life knowledge and expertise.

Polar Heating Controls Ltd. is a new innovative heating control system which is easily installed to existing systems and enables remote control and zoning of heat use, reducing energy costs for homeowners. The product is the brainchild of Gerard O’ Brien, Eamon O’ Dea, Gerard Barron, and Tom McGuinness. The business aims to create 20 jobs in the region in the first five years of business and expand the product range to incorporate new markets.

Speaking of the announcement of the three companies, Belinda Spillane, Enterprise Officer, Ballyhoura Development Limited said, “ Each of the three chosen participants represent real hope for the future of enterprise in the Ballyhoura region. Each company offers very different services and products and the coming six months will see them build their brand with highly experienced mentors. I hope that by the end of this year they will have secured the investment they require for their business to secure the future of long term employment for the people of Ballyhoura”.

The chosen mentors for the programme are DMConsulting, Chris Fussey, Hugo Flinn and James Nix. Each of the mentors will guide the participants through strategic planning and marketing over the coming months with each of the businesses also partaking in networking events and trade fairs to test their markets.

Nationally renowned Irish artists, The Fureys and Davey Arthur are to perform in Skibbereen’s West Cork Hotel on Sunday May 2^nd as part of the hotel’s May Bank Holiday celebrations. The concert will mark the beginning of the summer season in West Cork and is the first of a number of events happening in the hotel in the coming months.

The Fureys and Davey Arthur have been performing to audiences all over the world for the past 32 years with their music, songs and stories and are one of the most respected and best loved Irish traditional institutions in the country. They will perform all their hits on the night including I Will Love You, When You Were Sweet 16, The Green Fields of France, The Old Man, Red Rose Café, From Clare to Here, Leaving Nancy and more.

The West Cork Hotel also have special offers for the May Bank Holiday including 2 nights B&B and a three course dinner for just €124pps.

Tickets for The Fureys and Davey Arthur are priced at €25.50 and are available directly from The West Cork Hotel on 028 21277

Friends of the RTÉ (Vanbrugh) String Quartet Highlight their campaign to save the Cork performing Group Pic: Daragh McSweeney Provision

When The Friends of Vanbrugh got in contact to help them with their campaign to save the RTÉ (Vanbrugh) String Quartet DMpr immediately got behind the cause. The RTÉ String Quartet are hugely talented musicians and we are extremely lucky to have them in Cork. They travel extensively throughout the country, bringing their amazing talents to places that would otherwise be forgotten by the other RTÉ groups. The disappointing part is that their budget has been cruelly slashed by over 40% by RTÉ in the past while approximately 300 Dublin-based RTE musicians have had just a 5 per cent pay cut.

The Friends of Vanbrugh wanted to step up their campaign and highlight the problem so DMpr came up with the idea for the shots posted here. Daragh McSweeney from Provision was the photographer and did an amazing job. It goes to show what a creative idea and a great photographer can do. The top picture featured on page 2 of The Irish Times on Saturday 27^th March with other pictures used in other local publications including The Cork Independent bringing further support to the people behind the campaign.

You can lend your support to the campaign by becoming a fan of the “Save the Cork RTÉ String Quartet from the Dublin 4 Hatchet” page on Facebook.

It is part of my job to meet with prospective clients to find out about their business and come up with new ways for them to grow through the use of creative PR. Creativity is the key to a successful PR campaign and is something which I feel very strongly about. If there doesn’t seem to be an interesting angle I work hard to come up with something to excite and capture the attention of the public.

In the current climate, it is unfortunately all too easy for companies to believe that there is no budget – everybody can feel the pinch of the economic environment. There is only one way to release that pressure and that is to step up, do something different and make a positive change in your mindset for the good of your business.

It seems to be an age old problem in the PR world that time and effort can be wasted on proposals as you are freely giving ideas with little comeback on the ownership of same. In an unfair world, there is little to stop someone from saying that your ideas are in fact theirs – that is unless you copyright your work…

When this is the case, PR proposals and ideas legally become the intellectual property of the creator;

“The colloquial description of intellectual property is that it comprises all those things that emanate from the exercise of the human mind, such as ideas, inventions, poems, designs, music, etc. Intellectual property is therefore about creative ideas. Dissemination of these ideas benefits society and stimulates further creative activity.” (Irish Patents Office)

The moral of the story is to copyright your work and hope that you are dealing with honest people to respect your intellectual property.