This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

I’d like to start by saying ‘thanks’ this week.  Thanks to those of you who gave up your time and came along to my lecture at Leeds Met last Monday.

There were several colleagues in the audience and it was nice to glance up occasionally to see a few familiar faces.  Having some ‘friends’ there was a great boost, so thank-you for coming along.

The lecture went down very well, and predictably I have been overwhelmed by requests from students who now want work experience with our team.

Part of the lecture was all about dispelling any myths they might have about how boring PR is in the public sector.  OK, we don’t drink champagne, go to lots of showbiz product launch parties and we certainly don’t ‘air kiss’ colleagues while saying ‘mwah’ but this sector is dynamic, exciting and diverse.

My colleague Jon photographed the audience as they arrived – they had to write down a word they thought best described life in public sector PR and have their picture taken while holding up their word.

I then compared them with ones ‘I had prepared earlier’ in true Blue Peter style featuring the whole communications team.  I had asked my team to be honest and not be influenced by me and they came up with some great words – ones I probably wouldn’t have chosen myself.

The end result was interesting and I have to say – from my point of view – a bit of a surprise.  It’s because the students hadn’t chosen lots of dull words – they seemed to recognise that a career in public sector PR wasn’t at all dull.

That’s great as far as I am concerned.

One thing I regret not talking about though is how life in public sector PR means you need to plan for every eventuality.  For instance, how things keep changing and why being able to think on your feet and move quickly from ‘Plan A’ through to ‘Plan Z’ when you’re trying to react to something is a crucial skill.

Take the bin strike as a good example.

Predicting how the talks and then the subsequent mass ballot would go was difficult, so we tried to cover as many bases as possible and have some words available which dealt with every possibility we could think of.

How typical then that fairly regularly we’d think we were ready when – wham! – a completely different outcome would emerge.  ‘No, the talks haven’t broken down, but we’ve not reached agreement either … we’re just going to carry on our discussions.’

I don’t think my colleague Laura and I have spent so much time like an expectant mother or father waiting for a call from the council negotiators and once it had arrived hurriedly changing what we had prepared.

But I guess that’s part of the appeal, and thinking on your feet or having the ability to react quickly and change the plan is a good skill to have.

It certainly proved useful for me at my sister’s wedding on Saturday.

While my sister and I  (I was giving her away because our dad is no longer alive) were on our way to the church in the wedding car, we received a phone call to say the musician was lost and hadn’t arrived.

My sister was adamant that the singer must be there, so I immediately invoked Plan B.  Plan B was getting the driver to slow down a bit, so we would be delayed.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and we arrived at the church well before the missing musician.  OK, so Plan C was to keep my sister in the car for an additional 10 minutes.

Still no sign.  Plan D now.  Add an extra five minutes onto the original 10.

Now we’re 20 minutes late starting.  The groom would be getting worried.

Onto Plan E then.  This was getting the usher to alert the priest and the organ player that we were going to change the order of service and skip the bits where the musician should be playing.  We’d get him in at the very end and he could do his bits while the register was being signed.

Cue the opening organ music and off we went (at one hell of a pace down the aisle despite my sister saying she wanted to go slowly) and the rest of the service passed off without incident.

The musician did arrive with 10 minutes to spare and he was amazing.  Thank goodness for Plans A to E.