New phase for the Media Hub

Along with my colleague, Sarah Parfitt, we run the Media Hub – a networking group for media professionals. We hold regular social gatherings, workshops and presentations, and we also share updates on available media opportunities and, most importantly, invite our members to connect and exchange ideas.

Over the past two and a half years, the Media Hub has continued to grow and we have welcomed dozens of members to our gatherings from virtually every conceivable media background. It has been a privilege to meet other professionals who are passionate about the industry.

We have hosted speakers such as Home Secretary Theresa May, Olympic gold medallist Adrian Moorhouse, award-winning film-makers Angela Robson and Mike Goldwater and Pete Jones from PFC Ethiopia, drone pilot Paulo Coll, music producer Stuart Epps, and held a social media workshop with Gay Flashman from Formative Content, as well as many social gatherings.

Sarah and I have both worked in the media for a while. Sarah Parfitt currently runs her own media consultancy, Parfitt Media. She has more than 20 years’ experience working as a radio producer both at the BBC and internationally, and also trains colleagues at the BBC World Service. Sarah says: 'Being a journalist is perfect for anyone with an insatiable curiosity for life. It is also an absolute privilege. There are very few jobs where you can be conversing with a baker in Afghanistan one moment and producing a programme with the New Zealand Prime Minister the next.’

I have worked as a national journalist on women’s magazines for the past 14 years, such as Reveal, Best, Love it!, Full House, Mother & Baby, and Pick Me Up. I’ll never forget the day I finally cracked the women’s magazine industry. I grew up reading them, so I felt very lucky to get the chance to work on them. It’s a fast-paced, dynamic industry, and crafting these magazines is about shaping people’s perceptions on fashion, health and fitness trends, celebrity culture and, of course, satisfying the readers’ insatiable desire for real-life stories. I’ve always felt magazines make a difference – why else would we talk about the headlines and stories, and keep coming back for more? I'm currently loving being the Chief Sub-Editor for glossy monthly magazines Smallish and Exclusive, as well as running Mums About Cookham.

In 2013, Sarah and I got together for a latte to discuss the idea of having a social event for freelance media professionals. We'd both been used to the buzz of working for big corporations, but were now mostly working from home and wanted to meet other people in the industry. We had no idea that there were so many media professionals just in the local area.

Sarah Parfitt says: 'We are entering an exciting new phase with the Media Hub and have a great line-up of media industry experts in 2016 and social events, including Dan Simmons, a reporter on the BBC News Channel programme Click, and Hero Brown, an award-winning blogger. Sarah and I could have never envisaged that our impromptu idea two and a half years ago to have a social evening with a few other freelance media professionals would have led to this. We are incredibly grateful to our friends, colleagues and sponsors for getting behind this initiative - in particular the Bel and the Dragon, Cloud DNA, Mah Images, the Botanist and Purinto Printing.'

We have now launched our new website, so for membership details, and information about our media workshops and ‎networking‬ events for 2016, please visit http://themediahubuk.com, or email us at themediahubuk@gmail.com.

We look forward to welcoming you to our workshop on 23rd February, when TV Training Academy Global Training Director Brian Naylor will be explaining how to effectively get your message across on TV and video.