Away from journalism, I also help businesses with their media profile and strategy. I’ve been working with Leigh Sports Village, an 12,165 capacity community facility in the borough of Wigan, for a number of years to improve their visibility in local, regional and national media. Through a linked press, website and social media strategy we’ve had some fantastic results, including a stadium-record attendance for the Rugby League World Cup game between Tonga and Cook Islands in November 2013, helping to make Elton John and Lionel Richie concerts sell-out successes and securing Manchester United U23s home games in Premier League 2 and UEFA Youth League.
I’ve also been a senior part of a strategic team which has won bids to host Manchester United Women’s home games at the stadium, four UEFA Women’s EURO 2021 games and three Rugby League World Cup 2021 games.
I also directed the redesign of its website, which has had fantastic results.
Early in 2015, I was asked by The Nine British Art in St James’, London, to help with the content and promotion of their biggest exhibition to date, John Plumb: A Retrospective. Paisnel specialises in 20th Century British Art, and since then I’ve helped produce press releases and news stories for their exhibition programme. In 2018, I also wrote the introductory essay for Leigh Davis’s show, A New Perspective.
What’s your favourite football story? Where do you watch – or play – the beautiful game? These are some of the intriguing questions an exciting new public art project I’m working on asks the world to answer, creating a truly global window on how football is experienced and has developed to become the planet’s favourite sport.
I helped launch a website and press campaign at www.cambridgerules1848.com, on which people can leave their cherished stories of what makes the sport so special to them. Football fans from Buenos Aires to Preston left images of their favourite ground, shirt – or even tattoo.
The Cambridge Rules 1848 website is a key part of a new public art commission by Cambridge City Council, supported by the National Football Museum and Street Child United. It commemorates the seismic moment at which football as we know it had formalised laws. First nailed to the trees surrounding Parker’s Piece in Cambridge by a group of the city’s University students in 1848, from there, the laws of the game spread to encompass every corner of the world.
Artists Alan Ward and Neville Gabie marked this moment in physical form on Parker’s Piece with a large stone cut into nine, engraved with the original 1848 laws of the game in different languages. I worked on the launch event in 2018 and provided text for a commemorative newspaper. The four cornerstones are now installed on Parker’s Piece, with the others travelling to five football-loving countries across the planet in a cultural exchange.
The football stories, images and sounds gathered from around the world as well as the details of the project, will also will also be gathered together in a book, due to be published in 2020.
I started out as part-time Project Communications Officer for a new free school, West Didsbury CE Primary, back in 2014. Working on setting up a school from scratch was fascinating and challenging, and I worked on implementing a communications strategy, helped design and populate its website, wrote a prospectus and engaged the local community to ensure the school had enough applications for September 2015. The school has quickly become the pride of the local
Through my work at West Didsbury CE, I was then employed by St James & Emmanuel Academy Trust to work on Didsbury CE Primary’s website revamp, and have since also helped other schools in the trust, St Wilfrid’s CE Primary in Northenden and St Elisabeth‘s in Reddish, with their communications. I also contributed articles to the Trust’s Together Magazine.
I’ve been working with Altrincham Preparatory School for a few years now to update and modernise the tone and feel of the content on their website and print publications. I now help the school with their media strategy in the local press – sending press releases and stories – as well as advising them on social media and communications with parents.