Page 30 - media biEmpire's 20th birthday celebrations
continued last Thursday, when Bauer execs gathered at Centre Point for a charity
auction of specially commissioned photographs, raising £20,000. Empire
managing director Stuart Williams hosted the evening, where signed photos of
actors such as Mel Gibson and Arnie Schwarzenegger - as organised by Steven
Spielberg - were sold in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
In attendance
were chief executive Paul Keenan and managing director of the men's division
Geoff Campbell, as well as incoming FHM editor Colin Kennedy, Emap alumnus Barry
McIlheney and MediaCom's Steve Goodman. Meanwhile, at the launch party for
Absolute Radio's "Summer of Live", chief executive Donnach O'Driscoll invited
guests to the rooftop of the Sanctum Hotel in Soho to listen to up-and-coming
band The White Lies (pictured with DJ Christian O'Connell).
Spotted tapping
their feet were Absolute's new commercial director, Chris Goldson, Mediavest's
Patrick Whitnall, Vizeum's Zoe Schmid, Starcom's Victoria Gemmell and Manning
Gottlieb OMD's Tim Pritchard and James Parnum.
Ashes team
falls foul of Law on Lord's pitch
Forget this summer's Ashes, Bitch knows the
important cricket tournament took place at Lord's Indoor school on 21 May.
ESPN digital media's Cricket Challenge allowed players from UM, MediaCom,
Mindshare and more to rub shoulders with star players including Devon Malcolm,
Mark Alleyne, Stuart Law (pictured, far right) and Martin Bicknell. ESPN's Abeed
Janmohamed organised the event but, sadly, couldn't organise a winning team.
The
Ashes to Ashes team were true media - they didn't win, played hard and proved
they couldn't hold their drink by spilling beer on the Lord's turf and knocking
over their Champagne glass tower. A MediaCom, Mindshare and ESPN team took
the cup, thanks largely to Law of Derbyshire, Essex and Lancashire fame.
Kinetic sweats it out in the '80s to raise funds
Last week's annual
fundraising challenge by Kinetic involved staff clad in '80s spandex, sweating
profusely and pedalling furiously on a static bike next to their colleagues -
and paying for the privilege. The '80s Charity Spin, organised as part of
the outdoor specialist's ongoing fundraising for Leonard Cheshire Disability and
The Royal British Legion, included staff from JCDecaux, CBS Outdoor, Titan,
Primesight and Mindshare. The gang paid a fiver each for the 90-minute
session, which was conducted to a soundtrack of classic '80s hits. Bitch is
reliably informed that everyone is "eager to do it again" except, perhaps, for
JCDecaux's national sales director Jamie Lindsay, who had to nip off early to
"pick up the kids". A coincidence, surely?
TV star sets record for
the fastest stick-up
And finally: Clear Channel billboards received some PR
on Sky One last week, when TV presenters Steve Jones and Konnie Huq competed on
Guinness World Records Smashed! to see who was faster at pasting a billboard
poster. The duo were helped out by Clear Channel's bill posters Mick and
Mark, and T4's Jones even achieved a new record for the "Fastest Time to Put up
a Billboard".
