PR is all about people and, as such, it’s a social business - many a deal is done, a cunning plan hatched, or a person poached away in a pub or bar over a drink.
Classic Mad Men-style Cocktail Hour may have transformed into Happy Hour these days. But whether you work at a PR agency, an in-house communications team, a tech vendor or a media outlet, the local bar is where you go to celebrate, commiserate, hang out and enjoy a little quality time with colleagues – or just to complain about the boss or your clients.
I was reminded of this last Friday when myself and a couple of coworkers adjourned to Sparks Steak House on East 46th Street in NYC having finished our meetings for the day. At the bar of an establishment made famous as the location for the mid-80s assassination of crime boss Paul Castellano, we bumped into some folks from Marino PR enjoying a martini after a hard day’s work.
In these days of working from home and endless long days in the office, it was comforting to see the good-old-fashioned custom of getting together at the end of the week to socialize was still alive and well in PR agency-land.
The PRWeek team was out and about last night at Crompton Ale House, our local pub in Chelsea, celebrating yet more award wins on what has been a storied year for our brand. This time we were honored for Content Excellence, PRDecoded: Purpose Principles and Purpose Awards and Commercial Excellence in our holding company's Haymarket Awards 2019.
L to R: Frank Washkuch, Sean Czarnecki, Steve Barrett, Thomas Moore, Diana Bradley
Genial landlord Jimmy McSweeney regularly hosts us and various other colleagues from Haymarket Media at his down-to-earth sports bar on West 26th Street and you can see him celebrating with us in the picture above, along with the holiday decorations that are also in situ despite the fact it's not yet December.
To mark the holiday season this year and to generally celebrate getting together for a drink after work, we are instigating #PRWeekPubCrawl.
Whether you are in New York City; San Francisco; Minneapolis; Miami; St. Louis; Albuquerque, NM; Billings, MT; or Juneau, AK - wherever you are - we want to know all about your local bar.
Whether you work for Edelman in Boston or Silverline Communications in Vienna, VA; Starbucks HQ in Seattle or Krewe Eyewear in New Orleans; Cision in Chicago or PublicRelay in Charlotte, NC, we want to see pictures of you celebrating this holiday season.
We want you to use the hashtag #PRWeekPubCrawl to draw this all together. And, before we disappear for the holiday season, we will conduct a poll to decide which is the best bar and who’s having the most fun. And there will be prizes!!
We're also looking for your best holiday cheer in our #PRWeekHolidayContest — whether it's a holiday-related video, e-card or other creative. Submissions can be made via our online portal through December 6.
#PRWeekPubCrawl will launch officially immediately after Thanksgiving, on Monday, December 2, so look out for more details before then and get ready to pitch your bar and team as the most gregarious in the business.
Good luck and here's to happy and sociable holidays!