Coo-ee!

Well what a rollercoaster of emotions it’s been in the News & Media hub over the last couple of weeks. I can safely say there’s never a dull moment in the office here in The Grange.

Excitement has been building for the lads playing in this weekend’s Carnegie Challenge Cup third round battle against Batley Bulldogs and I personally can’t wait to get on the sidelines to offer my support – cue taunts of ‘get yer hair cut’ and ‘all we want is a decent referee’!

One of my days last week went from the sublime to the ridiculous – I accompanied a colleague to interview the Melbourne Storm players who were training on campus, ahead of their victory over Leeds Rhinos in the Gillette World Cub Challenge (sniff sniff and sad face), and boy was that a treat! I got to share a room with a number of what I can only politely describe as being rather dishy, fit, Australian men; it certainly made my day when one of the players decided to get changed in front of my very innocent eyes!

From the morning delights to a somewhat different, but nonetheless enjoyable, afternoon. I headed down to Civic Quarter (or should that be City Campus?) to do some research into my next feature…on…ahem…self defence. Without going in to too much detail and spoiling my next rambling, the session was fab, fun, if somewhat tiring, but ended in a way that I wasn’t quite expecting; we were asked to put together a sequence of some of the moves that we had learnt over the two hour period, one of which included ‘poking the eyes’ of your attacker…and for this we naturally used a half-cut orange to demonstrate what poking your assailant in the eyes might actually feel like! Well at least I can say, despite all the blood, sweat and tears of the session, I came away smelling sweetly!

But where there have been some great highs there have also been lows. The mood in the office took a rather sombre turn when feathers were spotted between The Grange and Cavendish and sightings of our beloved visiting pet pigeon Palaquin became no more. News on the grapevine is that whilst holidaying with his wife in Rome, Mark Dorey may have been solely responsible for the alleged death of our feathered friend. We think that Palaquin may have become so distressed by the absence of our chief fancier in the field, that he may have suffered some kind of pigeon breakdown and ceased to be. However, these are merely unconfirmed reports with no solid evidence to back them up and there is still hope for the life of our pet.

As we expected Mark has been distraught by this possible news since his return: Composing himself he said: “I think Palaquin may have faked his own death in order to take a break of his own.” But whether he is keeping the faith or just in denial it’s hard to tell at this early stage.

Mark caught up with News & Media colleagues Linda Gilhespy and myself during an impromptu visit to Carnegie Sports reception to hear our thoughts on the matter...


05/03/2010 Search for Palaquin goes on

There are mixed views in the office as to whether Palaquin will return to our ledges, but my own view is that much like Arnie in the Terminator, he WILL be back, bigger, stronger, badder and better than ever!

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Kung hei fat choi!

Nei hou from Hong Kong,

Well one graduation down and one to go!
I'm here with colleagues from across the university to organise and run our graduation ceremonies here in Hong Kong which are taking place through our partnership with the VTC in the city.
Dave, Dom and Mick from the Awards and Exams team, Netti from Innovation North, Richard from Business & Law and Bobby from our event partner Logistik are like my new family - there's nothing like being taken our of your usual surroundings to help you bond with people.

I normally get excited at our UK graduations, and it really serves as a good reminder why we're all here, but in Hong Kong although we are running the event in the same way, it is so different. Students bring flowers with them, teddies, and even want to have their photos taken with us  (although Richard has been the most popular so far!!!) which is kind of strange but brilliant at the same time. Chinese New Year has also been celebrated this week, so it has been an extra special celebration.

This experience has been (and still is!!) fantastic and besides being able to explore a new city, fabulous food and culture, I have a newfound appreciation and understanding of just what goes into running our graduation ceremonies. Although our team are always involved in Graduations every year, our role is quite specific in terms of looking after PR including website and photography, but this time around I have been an usher and have the extremely important job of directing the students down to the stage at the correct time! It sounds easy but really, when you speak a different language and even gestures can be easily misunderstood, it's not as straightforward as it sounds! Luckily last night's first ceremony went well, and hopefully tonights will too.

Today was fabulous - we had a free morning and after breakfast Dave and I headed up to the Peak - the highest point on Hong Kong island, on an old tram which almost felt like it was ascending vertically!!! The views were fantastic though, it was definitely worth it.

Tomorrow is our last day in Hong Kong and we'll fly home tomorrow night, arriving back at Manchester early Monday morning. Most of us have been living on 5 hours sleep a night if that, which isn't down to what you think - anyone who has ever had jetlag will know exactly what I mean! It's a strange feeling knowing that it is hours past your bedtime, you are geting up in 4 hours, yet you aren't tired. I'm sure my body clock will begin to adjust just as we're ready to leave!!

As well as getting to know colleagues from various departments across the university, some of whom I'd never even met before, it's also been nice to talk to academics out of their usual settings and have somewhat less formal conversations with them. It really feels like were one big team.

Anyway, it is 4.15pm now and we need to get suited and booted ready for the ceremony starting at 7 - we're packing down tonight so it might be another late night...

Helen
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Sheepskin coats

My role here at Leeds Met means I'm tasked with raising the profile of sport at the University and I'm proud of some of the advances we have made in recent months.

Our Twitter updates keep a growing number of sports fans up to date with the latest scores and goings on within University Sport and links into our well-established Facebook page. We've continued to develop our audio offerings on our Soundcloud page, interviewing players and coaches to highlight their successes.



One of the projects that I've been most excited about this year has been the redevelopment of the University Sport website. With Leeds Met finishing third in the BUCS overall tables for the 2008/9 season, it was clear that the website was in need of a redesign in order to showcase our successes and better represent our stature at the pinnacle of British university sporting achievements.

The new site www.leedsmet.ac.uk/sport has been launched this week and I'm really pleased with the look and feel of the new design. Thanks and doffing of hats must go to, Andrew Ramsden, Duncan Worth, Glenn Herbert and Pete Butler who have done a sterling job in designing and putting it together and putting up with my constant prodding, questioning and hassling for the last six months! The new navigation means that (hopefully) you'll be able to visit each sports club's information with ease, using the fancy icon scroller Pete & Andrew designed. The images that Vicky from Icon took for the site headers are awesome as well and add a real wow factor to the user experience.

Since September 2009 I've been working with the University's excellent video production team to produce a weekly sports video. In the seven episodes since its inception, Carnegie Sports Weekly has registered over 11,000 hits on Leeds Met's Youtube channel which I'm absolutely chuffed with. We've covered a variety of sports from hockey to volleyball, football and boxing and I've relished the opportunity to get in front of camera and make a fool out of myself! It's only when you work with a camera pointing in your face and a script that you can't remember, that you realise the skill and talent that a TV presenter must possess. Without this natural talent, I've had to make use of the camera technicians' patience and quite a few takes to get it right (well over 20 is the norm!)

Last week though, my best John Motson commentary skills were put to the test as we trialled a new project and a first for University sporting action...a live broadcast!

Following the success of our students' involvement with the Northern Ballet Theatre's production of Peter Pan before Christmas, we decided to let them loose on our sports teams. Netball provided an ideal platform to trial this new coverage and a crunch match against arch rivals Loughborough to see who finished at the top of the league was too good an opportunity to miss.

We duly managed to rope in a number of students to film, direct and produce the footage and ex-England international Tracey Neville kindly agreed to commentate on the game. I was expecting to front the coverage as usual, but in the end managed to get promoted to the dubious privilege of being the second commentator for the game!

Despite a real lack of technical knowledge of the game, (despite a few sneaky games a lifetime ago at school) Tracey put me at ease and we had an absolute ball in the end. I soon got used to the swing of the match and for the first time was able to appreciate the various nuances of netball and the skill and speed at which the elite game is played.

The four 15 minute quarters flew by and the game had a dramatic climax as Leeds Met were able to hold off a Loughborough comeback and win the game by a point! I was really proud of everyone who was involved in the project and the students did a fantastic job aided by our incredibly capable in-house video production team. I'm really looking forward to continuing our live coverage and have definitely got the bug, so Motson you better watch out!

Well I'll finish my ramblings and leave you in peace, but on a final note there are two issues dominating office politics at present. One is the new office pet, Palaquin who has received a mixed reaction from colleagues and the other is the seeming obsession with the American television series Glee which also has completely divided opinion. Spare a thought for us as we grapple with these two heavyweight issues...

Mark


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I can’t believe we’re in the last week of January, which means I only have two weeks left in my placement with the news and media team. Since I started in the team five months ago I have been exposed to the world of communications and learnt so much. From the smallest tricks in copy writing, writing lengthy features on volunteering and wellbeing to becoming a daily tweeter. (I now follow over 100 tweeters, mainly universities, the voluntary sector and social media bloggers.)

I now understand what it is like to work in the hub of our University. Our phones tend to be always ringing, whether it be with media requests, staff from our faculties asking for their news story to make the top banner, or photography requests. I have always enjoyed the phone conversations, trying to help people out and offer advice. Dealing with the media requests adds another dimension to your day. I’ve been able to find out about the vast range of academics we have at our University and some are extremely popular in the media world.

Engaging with more students and staff through social media and how we are moving forward has been a topic of discussion throughout my placement, especially since I got the twitter bug. Leeds Met hosts its own twitter page with a feed of our latest news and most of our faculties, library and Carnegie sport have entered the world of social media too. It’s been great to see this week we have broken the 1,000 fan members on Facebook with the Leeds Met fan page and we have more students and staff interacting with it, such as posting snowy photos of Headingley Campus and asking what it’s like to study here.

I have spent time learning to record, edit and interview for podcasts to support the web stories. My latest podcast was from the Leeds Year of the Volunteer Launch, where I found out how students and staff can get involved in volunteering and become part of the campaign.

Staff volunteering at Leeds Met - find out how you can get involved. by leedsmet

As I begin to look forward and prepare for my new placement with the people development team in corporate HR, I can take forward everything I have learnt and integrate it into my new placement. I will certainly miss a few things from the team - the milk saga every morning, cake mountain (which hasn’t been well stocked recently), lavender fairy wishes to give our washing up a sparkle, the wellie wearing weather, Betty our office goat - and that for the last few Tuesdays I have bounded into the office singing songs from Glee. Although everyone pretends they have no idea what I’m talking about, I know they are secretly watching it.

They’ve been a great team to work with and I know I’ll always be singing their praises.

Ash

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I'm not a great fan of New Year. Take New Year's Eve celebrations for a start. Rather than partying the night away in some crowded nightspot, waiting for hours to get a taxi, and being wholeheartedly overcharged in the process, I'd much rather stay in with good company and fantastically calorific food, washed down with a bottle of champagne. And then comes New Year's Day and our obsession with New Year resolutions. And so I become frustrated as every year, people scrabble around to find new ambitions or 'resolutions' ie the things they wanted to get round to last year but never did.

Ok, so I might sound totally miserable now, but I like to think I'm the kind of person who doesn't need to wait for one day out of a possible 365 to set myself new goals and objectives, and re-examine my expectations.
However it cannot be escaped that a new year brings new challenges and opportunities and, undoubtedly, reflection on the previous year which has gone. The past year at Leeds Met has certainly been one to remember, and one that has kept the press office busy. The unprecedented media coverage has warranted constant objective setting, re-evaluation, and reflection and has certainly been a challenge for the New & Media team - one which the team has coped with impeccably. We have seen one Vice-Chancellor go, a Chief Executive come in, a new Vice-Chancellor appointed, the business school move in to the Rose Bowl, the Faculty of Arts & Society move into Broadcasting Place, two new Deans, a royal visit, unprescedented success at student sport, new student accommodation launched, and much more (all of which is reported daily on our news site).

The New Year at Leeds Met brings much more to look forward to. Our new Vice-Chancellor started this week, which is the beginning of a new era for our university. Professor Price has already said that the priority will be to develop a new strategic plan, which I know will be the subject of much interest. It will then be down to teams like ours and our colleagues across the rest of the university (we have 3000 staff!) to put the plan into action. We'll be working with the new Vice-Chancellor on a monthly e-newsletter, launching blogging at the university, the new university sport website will go live, and we will be launching our eagerly awaited staff magazine. We're also keen to develop a social media strategy to ensure we are engaging with our key stakeholders in the most appropriate ways, so whether you log on to facebook, twitter or you tube, we will be there!

All in all, lots to look forward to and even more to do. A busy year ahead. Happy New Year!

HG

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The News and Media team are spreading Christmas cheer after the office festivities, including parties and lunches. The office is full of Christmas spirit as we put up the Christmas tree in our new home, 108, The Grange at Headingley Campus. The Communications department have been relocated to the Grange, and after spending a week emptying draws, archiving files, and throwing out over 30 bags of rubbish, our winter clean has been completed and we are ready to start 2010 with a new beginning and a new home.

The Communications and Marketing teams were brought together last week at the Christmas party, with a tasty buffet, dj’s and a dance floor. Cris certainly had all the ladies dancing, showing off his latest Strictly Come Dancing moves and the International and Health marketing officers certainly owned the dance floor that night. The evening was even cultured with Beth, Duncan and I showcasing our Irish dancing skills to the Pogues. The night was a great success that even Joyce made it in the next day (well about 1pm) to be congratulated by the team for organising such a fun and eventful night in Mook.

The office move has meant that each team within the Communications department are in their own offices in the Grange. As one final get together Branding, Corporate Events, Web and Multimedia and the News and Media team descended on Vodka Revs for a Christmas lunch whilst BMG worked tirelessly, hoisting over 50 boxes to the first floor of the Grange. We are now all settled in, and are waiting to open our secret santa presents over the next week as the team begin to go on annual leave for the Christmas break. On behalf of the News and Media team we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Ash

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Cup magic begins again for rugby league's finest

It seems like only yesterday that we were at Wembley for the final of the Carnegie Challenge Cup to see Warrington lift the famous rugby league trophy. Four months have passed since that thrilling day in August and as many people wind down for the festive break, there's no rest for the Carnegie Challenge Cup as another year begins for the 112 year old tournament.

Leeds Met's Gandhi Hall was the venue for this year's preliminary and first round draw as amateur clubs gathered from around the country to discover their cup fate. 2009 trophy winners Lee Briers and Michael Monaghan were on hand to draw the balls out of the RFL's shiny draw machine and picked out some intriguing ties. The University's own rugby league team will hope to defeat St Mary's in the preliminary round to set up a home tie against student arch rivals Loughborough in the first round proper! Having reached the third round of the competition for the last two years, they will be looking to emulate that success once again.

The evening proved an ideal opportunity for amateur clubs to interact with one another and to dream of cup glory and the prestige of hosting a superleague club in the fourth round. Speaking with coaches and players of the amateur clubs after the draw it was clear to see what the cup meant to them. Whilst they realised that realistically they wouldn't get to hold the trophy at Wembley in August, they spoke of how the tournament gave their clubs a real boost, both financially and also in terms of confidence and motivation.

All in all, it was a great way to kick off the 2010 Carnegie Challenge Cup and I look forward to being involved in the great competition every step of the way. Before the night was out, I obviously couldn't resist the opportunity to have my photo taken alongside the famous trophy...