My Media Day: Elizabeth Steel, client services manager, Budge PR

ELIZABETH Steel is the client services manger at Budge PR, an award-winning public relations, marketing communications and event management consultancy based in Glasgow city centre.

Budge PR works with clients in the following sectors: corporate and financial, business-to-business, energy, economic development and regeneration and the public sector.

She submitted this on Wednesday, July 24.

What exactly is it that you do?

I am the client services manager for Budge PR which is involved in the organisation, management and promotion of all types of events – from conferences, seminars and exhibitions to awards ceremonies, dinners and networking events.

I am also responsible for client management, delivering public relations and marketing programmes, including digital marketing and social media.

I have been with Budge for 13 years.

What did your working day today or yesterday comprise?

First thing yesterday morning, I had to deal with our telephones not being able to dial out – as you can imagine, a major catastrophe in the communications business.

Simultaneously, I was issuing a press release on 11 creative and digital businesses in Glasgow that have won £620,000 between them to help develop innovative new products and services. The successful companies are winners in a funding competition, ‘The Digital and Creative Clyde Launchpad’, launched in January, by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, in partnership with Creative Clyde.

Once the release was issued, I focused my attention creating Glasgow’s IFSD ezine, a monthly newsletter distributed to over 1,200 subscribers in Glasgow.

Glasgow’s IFSD stands for Glasgow’s International Financial Services District. This month’s ezine will feature our new video case studies on Glasgow’s top employers in the financial sector talking about a diverse range of topics, including skills, transport, quality of life and city infrastructure. And I found myself co-ordinating the upload of these on to the website.

How different or similar is your average working day to when you started?

Starting off in the company 13 years ago, providing administration duties for a team of 12 colleagues, my role has expanded to feature more client-servicing work; in particular, taking the lead on the company’s events team.

The busy nature of my average working day hasn’t changed; just the type of work that I am involved in on a day-to-day basis is more challenging and exciting.

How do you see your job evolving?

Progression, progression, progression. I enjoying learning new skills and if I don’t know how to do something I take it upon myself to work it out.

Running a successful business in the sun would be lovely, but, realistically, my roots are in Glasgow. I have learnt so much working for Budge PR I could find myself working in events, project management, office management, website updating – so the ‘world is my oyster’.

What gives you the most job satisfaction?

Many things: delivering successful events for clients, seeing your article or photocall come alive in newspapers, winning new business and working for a great team here at Budge PR. After 13 years, if I didn’t get job satisfaction, I wouldn’t still be here.