GEMS Education

GEMS Education is a global education company that owns and operates over 100 international schools providing high quality holistic education to over 100,000 students from 125 countries. It is the largest kindergarten to Grade 12 private school operator in the world with over 50 years of education experience.

Apollo provides ongoing media relations and copywriting support for GEMS education.

Examples of recent coverage include in a two-piece (from London and Nairobi) article in The Guardian, and an opinion piece.

FSB and Tech City

I was delighted to speak last night at an event organised by the Federation of Small Businesses, one of the sponsors of our report on Tech City. The audience - full of suits and ties - was very different than the regular cool urbanite crowd of Tech City, which made for a very interesting debate. People had come because they wanted to know more about what is happening in this much-hyped part of London, and to understand what the digital economy or being part of this community could mean for them. They kept the panel - which included Pru Ashby, the Tech City expert at London & Partners, Ian Dowson, Author of “London as a Start up City,” and Andrew Humphries of the Tech City Investment Organisation - on our toes.

Kensington & Chelsea

I thought long and hard about the appropriate attire for convening a pre-meeting of the Market Streets Action Group (with the lovely Malcolm Allan of the Place Matters consultancy.) Formed in 2007 to secure the regeneration of the market streets of Portobello Road and Golborne Road, the group comprises councillors, residents, traders and local businesses. I tried to find the right mix between the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea smart, and market casual.I was rather pleased with my choice, particularly of footwear. What do you think?

Tech City and the EU

Just back from a lovely trip to Brussels for the Lisbon Council think tank's 2012 Single Market Entrepreneurs Summit. I was invited after contributing an article on Tech City for the SMEs in the Single Market:A Growth Agenda for the 21st Century publication. 

It was interesting to see how London's efforts to attract the cream of European (and elsewhere) tech and creative talent is regarded in the heart of Europe. Alex Farcet, co-founder and managing director of Startupbootcamp, said London is raising the game everywhere. However Richard Pelly, chief executive of the European Investment Fund, said cities should be realistic about their competitive advantages. Don't just compete for the sake of it, he urged, as that will only lead to wasted public money. As I waved the flag for London, a lady from Dublin heckled at the back. Meanwhile in Stockholm, the Nobel peace committee was gearing up to award a unity prize to the European Union.....

Apollo - and how nice it is to work with lovely people

I've been working with Apollo Public Relations for a while now, and it's a real pleasure. Delivering "good news, seriously," they have good clients and interesting work. But as well as being good at what they do, they are also really lovely people to work with and for.