Down these mean streets

Just got back from Manchester, where I dropped in at the Business North West press office at G-MEX (or whatever they call it these days) to do an interview with Max Clifford.

Max was great, and responded to my questions - which were all about how to handle small business PR on zero budget - with good, clear, practical advice. I’m writing up the interview over the next day or two, and when I’ve got a bit more time I’ll write a post here with a few bits and pieces about Max and his approach.

The rest of the show was good, but I spent quite a bit a bit of time getting collared by boring people in shiny suits and stick-on smiles, trying to flog me stuff. I did get a chance to catch up with living legend Ben Austin of iMediaPeople, though, which made up for the hucksters.

Walking back to Piccadilly station I was struck by the number of homeless men and women, selling the Big Issue, begging or otherwise dishevelled and distressed. It was hard not to make a comparison between these people and the shiny, happy folks inside the business show. Many of the latter were great, innovate, enterprising people. Some of them were bullshit merchants. But how many people in that gigantic exhibition hall have any contact with this world of the poor and dispossessed, just a hundred yards away?

When businesses get involved in charity, they tend, naturally enough, to look for causes that have a certain PR value: children, the environment, hospices and so on. Max made the point that cancer charities do well out of business PR events. You can see why. Most people have kids, most people have had or know someone who has had cancer. Not many of us have had much experience of being homeless, and - it seems - not many of us have too much sympathy with the old Chinese woman, sat on a bench outside Greggs, singing her heart out, or the smelly old bloke shuffling down Whitworth Street.

Anyway, back to Manc next week. Oh, I should say that I also managed briefly to catch up with my good friends and former students Matt Nixon (who needs to update his blog) and Sarah B, who needs to make sure she’s not getting ripped off on songwriting credits. Thanks for the drinks, chaps.