What's your reputation worth?

— Posted Tuesday 26th January 2010 by Neal Baldwin

The dark art of PR is all about lurking around in the background and pulling the strings of power... or so we're led to believe.

So it was a rare treat for Siren to grab a brief spell in the spotlight recently, with our James taking a seat alongside some 'proper' travel industry experts in a panel debate about reputation management.

Our pals at leading law firm Travlaw let us get our hands on their annual client get-together and put on a fascinating chat about the essential communication, legal and procedural do’s and don'ts for businesses in the 21st century. Panelists included Travlaw's senior partner Stephen Mason, C&M Recruitment boss Angus Chisholm, Gary Armstrong at Vantage Insurance Services and Jason Burnett from health compliance firm Check Safety First.

As you'd expect, there were plenty of grim warnings about what can happen to your company if you get it wrong – be it dealing with redundancy, negotiating with suppliers, handling bad publicity or managing complaints from consumers.

What emerged though, was the ease with which businesses can access the right advice they need. All the firms involved in the debate deal with reputation in one form or another, and all were united in the fact that they'd make time to give some informal advice to clients caught in a spot of bother. Maybe it's a feature of the recession, but companies now are certainly more willing to help each other. At the end of the day, it enhances your own reputation when you're known for being helpful.

It was certainly a little lesson for us, too. As our excellent moderator for the evening, journalist Jeremy Skidmore, pointed out to us at the bar afterwards, getting involved in a bit of self-publicity never hurt anyone. Our New Year resolution is to take part in more of the same and show off to the industry about how we can help them get their message across.