MARK BORKOWSKI ... IN THE CHAIR
   
 
 
ABOUT "...IN THE CHAIR"  
 
 
SUPPORTED BY ...
     
     
 
Please come and join us on the 3rd December 2007 for an unmissable PR master class with the legendary publicist Mark Borkowski.
     
    The evening, which is free to attend, is latest in these4walls’ series of high profile “…in the chair” events. These events celebrate the achievements of the greats of the marketing and media industry in an ‘audience with’ style format..
     
 
Interviewing Mark we are privileged to have Trevor Morris, visiting professor of communications at The University of Westminster. Trevor will be taking us through Mark’s exceptional career from relaunching Cadbury’s Wispas to dropping Michael Jackson and beyond.
     
    This event has been jointly organised by these4walls and the University of Westminster and will be hosted at their Regent Street campus. We’d love for you to join us in what will be a fascinating evening.
     
    To register (and due to security at the University, you will be turned away if your name is not registered), use link below. Places are limited and will be offered on a first come first served basis.
     
    Please forward this link on if you think it might be of interest to friends or colleagues.
     
THE DETAILS
WHAT
Mark Borkowski "... In the Chair"
 
 
 
WHEN
from 6.30 pm for a 7.00 pm start. 3rd December 2007
 
 
 
WHERE
The Old Cinema, University of Westminster, 309 Regent’s Street, London W1. MAP
 
 
 
HOW TO REGISTER   These events are free - all you need to do is register using our nifty registration page which is available on the link below.
     
    However, even if you are already a member of these4walls, please, please, please register/RSVP. We need your details for security with our hosts ... and if you are not registered, you will not be allowed in, it's as simple as that ...
   
>> REGISTER
 
 
WHAT IS "...IN THE CHAIR"?
There are any number of things that Mark Borkowski is famous for ... rumoured to have sacked Michael Jackson, to have a pair of Damien Hirst's boots kicking around the place and said to have created a talking dog that he then claimed was run over. Described by none other than Jeremy Paxman the "proud inheritor of the Barnum tradition" of stunt-making publicity, Mark is one of the industry's characters and geniune experts.
     
    On the 3rd December, these4walls and the University of Westminster are proud to invite you to an evening with Mark Borkowski. Hosted at the same venue where Jimi Hendrix made his European debut, you will be in the safe hands of Trevor Morris, the University's respected professor of PR and communications. Trevor will be taking Mark and the audience through his career to date and teasing out, we’re sure, more than one enthralling anecdote.
     
    So if you want to know how to get to the top and stay there then there is no better person from which to learn. Register, put it in your diary and tell all your colleagues about it now!
     
    If you’re not familiar with it already, here is a quick overview of Mark's glittering career so far ....
     
   

he has handled PR for some of the biggest names in the business and continues to do so. He’s worked for Eddie Izzard, Graham Norton, Joan Rivers, Macaulay Culkin, Sir Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, the Bolshoi Ballet, Cirque du Soleil, the Three Tenors, Michael Jackson, Michael Flatley and Michael Moore. His roster of the rich and famous even extends to Mikhael Gorbachev and Diego Maradona
     
   

he launched The Word, The Girlie Show, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and They Think It’s All Over, at a time when everybody thought they were very bad ideas
     
   

he encouraged the Archaos Theatre Company’s Iraqi strong man to bend lampposts before claiming he had run away from the circus to join the first Gulf War. Mark pressed performers into running amok with chainsaws in public and deliberately outraged every moral watchdog and local authority wherever it went
     
   

in the summer of 2004 Mark took to the stage of the Wildman Room at the Edinburgh Festival to premier “Son of Barnum: A Stunt Too Far”, his live one-man exploration of the world of the publicity stunt. Part lecture, part performance, his run on the Fringe was greeted with genuine appreciation, as well as laughter, applause and offers of corporate bookings
     
   

he is working on a commission from Macmillan to write the book “In Search of the Sons of Barnum,” an examination of the finest stunt-makers and publicists who are the true followers of the original master of the art, due for release in 2008
     
   

Mark views PR as an instinctive, spontaneous, totally creative business whose sole function is to fire the imagination of the reading and viewing public. He doesn’t care whether this involves leaving a live scorpion in a BBC green-room, inventing a troupe of performing pit bull terriers for no better reason than it seemed a good idea at the time, building the biggest paper boat in the world, staging a theatre show in a two-seater car
     
     
     
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
 
    Mark Borkowski, publicist, pundit and founder of the eponymous PR agency
     
 
Mark Borkowski is arguably the PR man of the century so far. Most recently justifiably lauded for his eponymous agency's work on the fabulous "bring back Wispa" campaign. A publicist extraordinaire who can claim everything from talking dogs to constrictors at the TV Awards as being amongst his successes. We're delighte to have him ...
     
   

He’s worked for Eddie Izzard, Graham Norton, Joan Rivers, Macaulay Culkin, Sir Cliff Richard, Shirley Bassey, the Bolshoi Ballet, Cirque du Soleil, the Three Tenors, Michael Jackson, Michael Flatley and Michael Moore. His roster of the rich and famous even extends to Mikhael Gorbachev and Diego Maradona.
     
   

He’s been behind the high public profile of a string of West End successes, and his portfolio of film promotion includes cult classics such as American History X, Best in Show, and Thank You For Smoking, as well as multi-million-dollar box office hits like The Matrix.
     
   

But it would be wrong to pigeon-hole Mark as purely an entertainment publicist, locked into the superficial celebrity circus.
     
   

Much of his work depends on his understanding of the ways consumer brands operate. Although his profile is connected with celebrity, much of his agency’s day to day work comes from the representation of major brands. In this guise, his company manages – or has managed - PR for the likes of Vodafone, Tiscali, P&O, Eurostar, Smartcar, Lotus, Hovis, Virgin Megastores, Selfridges, Harrods, Norwich Union, Thorntons, Horlicks, Bacardi, Pimm’s, Piat d’Or, Gordon’s Gin, Hasbro UK (Europe’s largest toy maker and manufacturer of Action Man, Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly).
     
    As he says ... "Spin will never engage, convince or excite the public: real PR will." It's this that makes Mark Borkowski “the proud inheritor of the Barnum tradition” (Jeremy Paxman). It’s often easy to disagree with Jeremy Paxman. In this case it’s impossible not to.
     
     
     
 
Trevor Morris, visiting professor of PR and communications, the University of Westminster
     
    Trevor Morris is one of the UK's most senior PR practitioners and since 2005 a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster, UK, where he teaches on a range of postgraduate and undergraduate programs.
     
    Formerly Morris was Chief Executive of Chime Communications Public Relations Group, the UK (and Europe)'s largest PR group, with some 250 employees.
     
    In nearly a quarter of a century in the industry he successfully built a major PR consultancy, worked for numerous major companies and government bodies and alongside most of the key players in contemporary PR. Morris has made countless TV, radio and newspaper appearances and maintains a high profile within the industry .