On arrival in St Helena, Saints (as the locals are fondly referred to) will light the beacons to illuminate a diamond shape across the island.

Mike Dean, Tourism Development Executive for St Helena says: “We are looking forward to welcoming the beacons and playing a part in the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. Even though we will be the most remote destination to be part of the occasion, there is a strong sense of patriotism and festive spirit as we prepare to light the beacons. We will be celebrating in style in St Helena with a 12-hour extravaganza from 10am to 10pm. Celebrations will include a parade , a village fair and much  more.”

Lying 1,500 miles north-west of Cape Town, the undiscovered island of St Helena boasts stunning natural beauty and is steeped in history – perhaps best known as the place of Napoleon’s exile.

St Helena’s beacons will form part of a network of over 2,012 Beacons lit by communities throughout the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, along with the Commonwealth and the other British Overseas Territories on Monday the 4^th June. The Queen will light a National Beacon in London at approximately 22:30 BST to conclude the celebrations.

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Beacon organisers appointed Birmingham-based Bullfinch (Gas Equipment) Ltd to design and manufacture the beacons.

For more information on St Helena visit www.sthelenatourism.com. Join the official St Helena Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/visit.sthelena. For further information on the beacons and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations visit: www.diamondjubileebeacons.co.uk/

The number of Brits travelling abroad in 2011 increased by 0.8% compared with the previous year, although holiday visits were down, the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has revealed. The number of holiday visits abroad by UK residents fell from 36.4 million in 2010 to 36.3 million in 2011, according to the report. Travel to visit friends or relatives rose from 10.9 million in 2010 to 11.4 million last year. Business visits also rose, from 6.6 million to 6.8 million. Some 56 million Brits went abroad in 2011, compared with 55.6 million in 2010.

The government is launching a state funded gap year scheme commencing in July, so that students (age 19-25 years) that wouldn’t normally be able to afford to take a gap year have the opportunity to take one according to Metro newspaper. The three-year scheme will place applicants with a major charity to work on projects in developing countries.

Economic constraints in the UK and Europe as well as uncertain situations will continue to hinder the travel industry into 2012, Euromonitor International revealed in April. According to the analysts, the UK will ‘narrowly avoid moving into recession’ next year but still face a decline in consumer confidence and tighter spend as Brits look to save.

The cruise industry has remained buoyant with some companies even reporting growth. Royal Caribbean Cruises have seen a growth of 21% per annum in the last five years and saw 400,000 guests a year on its ships. However, chief executive Richard Fain said there is still an uphill battle to convince customers that cruises are no longer just luxury holidays and nor are they just for the older generation. Many cruise companies have turned to low pricing and ‘value-for-money’ messaging to boost sales.

Sixty eight per cent of Britons say the rising cost of Air Passenger Duty (APD) will affect their travel plans this year according to new research by TripAdvisor. 64% of Brits believed APD was unfair on travellers, with just 11% saying it was fair. According to the poll, British travellers are becoming increasingly cost- conscious, with 83% citing price as a key factor when booking a flight this year, compared to 71% in 2011. Other key factors were: convenience of travel time; convenience of airport location; direct flight and ample leg room.

The NHS is hoping to raise stocks by 30% above normal levels to meet the increased demand expected from the influx of visitors. The timing of the campaign was critical  as blood decomposes very quickly, with red blood cells and plasma lasting , just 35 and 37 days respectively .

Britons with O positive and O negative blood types are particularly in demand, with additional appointments being created and some facilities extending opening hours to give donors more flexibility. First- time donors are also being encouraged to give blood to cope with demand.

The campaign was featured as a picture story in the Evening Standard, Daily Mail, Birmingham Mail and Yahoo News  generating further awareness of the appeal.

#CampaignOTM

Your role will be to assist in providing government relations programmes and public affairs for a number of our clients. You will have the opportunity to gain experience of a range of policy areas.

If you would like to apply for this position, please email your CV and covering letter to Rory Fletcher at rory@keenepa.co.uk no later than close of business on Friday 18th May.

A full job description can be downloaded here

Details of all the Bills outlined in the speech can be accessed here.

From £618 (including taxes and surcharges) per person, you could be following in the footsteps of Denise Van Outen and Lydia Bright on your own India adventure. Jet Airways flies daily to Delhi from London Heathrow. To book or for further information, visit: www.jetairways.com

Indian market leader, Jet Airways delivers one of the best travel experiences in the skies today and prides itself on its world-class service and comfort combined with warm Indian hospitality. A customer – centric carrier, Jet Airways offers guests a choice of Indian and Western menus. The Indian menus are designed by Kensington’s Bombay Brassiere (part of the luxury Taj group) and the western menus are created by Michelin Starred chef, Yves Mattagne.

Jet Airways has India’s largest domestic network flying to 76 destinations across the country and beyond, connecting to a destination every five minutes.

Jet Airways and Jet Konnect have a combined fleet strength of 120 aircraft and operate over 620 flights daily. www.jetairways.com

Meanwhile, PR agencies are moving in the opposite direction, witness Blue Rubicon setting upThirty Six Strategy, which aims to establish a “political campaigning arm targeting corporate brands”.  This is in addition to its new consumer offshoot, to be called Surname & Surname, which is “attempting to occupy the middle ground between creative ideas agencies and strategic powerhouses”.

You’d probably have already bracketed Pelham Bell Pottinger as a strategic powerhouse. But they’ve felt the need to launch a “strategic advisory committee comprising senior business figures, including former Wall Street Journal Europe editor Baroness Patience Wheatcroft”.

So far so good. Agencies setting up dedicated offshoots that offer specialist services or target specific audiences is clearly where the market is heading. But wait a minute.  Didn’t Porter Novelli earlier this year set up a new integrated team called C&W Political Counsel that aims to “provide a PA service integrated with the agency’s corporate and consumer divisions”?

Far be it for me to point out that Keene has been offering integrated public affairs and public relations for over 25 years now. But it is good to see agencies constantly adapting (‘morphing’?) in response to their clients’ requirements.

Since launching  this unusual viral venture in October last  year , they are already close to paying off their  tuition fees. They plan to continue selling their faces as advertising space for a whole year without a break.

Owing to the popularity of Buy My Face amongst the 18-25 demographic , this unusual concept has captured
the attention of many graduate recruiters, and recently  overall website sponsorship  has been claimed by Ernst &
Young , one of the world’s leading accounting firms. To date clients have sent the pair ( with painted faces)
skydiving, skiing  e.t.c to promote the brand spanning countries from China to Germany.

Ross and Ed are looking to expand the business by taking on more faces form part of their team.
Strangely face painting experience is not required. 
 
In addition they are also writing a daily blog about their lives as walking adverts.

This approach to public affairs formed to basis of Keene’s response to the Government’s consultation to create a Statutory Register of Lobbyists, which closed on Friday. The Government set out its plans to create a register in the Coalition Agreement, arguing that it was necessary to ensure that the democratic process remains open and transparent. To this end, the Government suggested that all consultancies, such as Keene, should join a register and publish details of their staff and clients.

In our submission, we reiterated our full support for the Government’s goal of increasing openness and transparency in the democratic process, and were happy to note that Keene already voluntarily publishes all the information that the proposed register might include.

Indeed, we went further and argued that in order to really ensure that public affairs is conducted in an ethical and transparent fashion, any register should be accompanied by a code of conduct, similar to the one we follow now. We also argued that all organisations that lobby the Government – not just consultancies - should be included. Only in this way can the public to have faith that the register is comprehensive, open and transparent.

Read Keene’s submission to the consultation here.

But there are some key differences in how Americans and the British conduct themselves in the office. Current thinking, in both the UK and the US, compels agencies to remove those long-standing silos that segregate public affairs from PR from community relations from marketing etc. etc. It’s all about integration: creating multi-channel campaigns, building cross-functional teams, blending old media with new.  Clients and practitioners are quite rightly seeking a more holistic approach to communications strategy.

What struck me on Day One of my internship is that, Keene, like many other agencies in the UK, is leaps ahead of the US in adopting this strategy by virtue of its physical layout—the “open plan office.” What better way to break down silos and ensure that team members are communicating and collaborating than by removing physical barriers between them? Unlike the UK, the laminate cubicle remains an enduring fixture in the geography of corporate America. Though some offices have moved to the open plan configuration, by and large, we are still a modularized workforce.

At Keene, I experienced the particular benefits of the open plan office, which range from the social to the operational. I was greeted warmly each morning by smiling faces. In my previous job, I could stalk into my cubicle anonymously, interacting briefly perhaps with someone en route. I ate lunch silently in front of my computer. At Keene, the natural pauses and punctuations of a day—coffee in the morning, tea and biscuits in the afternoon—are shared together, and it makes the day much more enjoyable.

The open plan also has a marked impact on productivity and idea sharing. At Keene, client projects are regularly discussed across teams; questions are passed around, ideas tossed up for further discussion, bits of news and insight are shared throughout the day. It is a highly collaborative environment and in this way, Keene’s clients benefit from the insights of an entire team, not one lone staff member labouring individually at his or her desk.  The energy in the office is palpable, whether it’s a quiet day, with everyone highly focused on their own task, or a loud one, with several team members working the phones.

There are indeed many benefits of the open-plan office, not least of which is the economical use of space.  Though working out in the open was an adjustment for me, my experience at Keene has shown me that the best way to soak up the knowledge and insight of your peers and mentors is to work side-by-side, desk-to-desk.

(Lea Cademenos worked at Keene during March following her relocation from the US. Her last position was Senior Public Affairs Executive at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications).