We have already been lucky enough to have a Gymshark owner, a national TV treasure, and the Chief Product Officer of Dr Martens speak at our Unbox event.
How would we follow that?
Well, with the Comms Manager of the England Football Team – as you do.
And here he is asking for Rob and PJ’s autograph. Well we think that’s what he’s doing…
The food was on point, as always.
Over 100 people popped in to say hello.
The standard selfies were in play.
There was a “thumbs-up” from Rob.
Lots of fun had by all.
New connections made.
And a brilliant conversation.
And what an amazing conversation it was.
Yes, he didn’t bring in a world-cup-winners-medal, but we let him off given the amount of insights and food-for-thought he provided.
The award-winning media, communications, and PR professional with over 19 years of experience has overseen England’s media commitments across 100+ senior men’s international fixtures taking in UEFA Euro 2016, the 2018 FIFA World Cup (semi-finalists), three UEFA Nations League campaigns (2019 bronze medalists), and UEFA Euro 2020 (finalists).
Pretty impressive, right?
And away from elite football, Andy invests time in the non-league game and currently holds the position of chairman at Earlswood Town FC of the Midland Football League Division Two.
Andy took us back to the beginning when he started his career as an “old-school” journalist and what he experienced whilst working for the likes of The Solihull Times, The Sunday Mercury, The Birmingham Post and The Sun, where he wore the following hats: Sports Editor, Sports Writer and Senior News Reporter. We listened with interest when he told us more about how much journalism had changed – and how he loved a good-old trip to a cold-rainy-away-game on a Wednesday night. Good times.
And then in 2013, his beloved club, Birmingham City FC came-a-calling and Andy became their Head of Media and Communications, specialising in social media. He was one of the first Media Leads in a football club to really adopt the use of social media – revolutionising the way clubs communicated with their fans and stakeholders. He won a Twit Award from Twitter as a result.
And given the amazing work he did, the dream call was received. The FA, asking him to work with the ENGLAND FOOTBALL CLUB. And freshly back from the World Cup in Qatar he’s now been in this position for 8 years. The stories he had about his experience were – well – amazing. From how the players deal with the demands of digital to his overarching England Comms strategy from a PR, comms and digital perspective – we could have listed to him for hours.
Our takeaways:
- David Beckham smells amazing.
- Be authentic. And encourage others to be the same.
- England WILL win the next World Cup.
- To follow your dreams. Andy is living his.
For those that were able to attend, we hope you enjoyed it – your social media feeds throughout and after suggest you did. For those that weren’t able to a) follow the Unbox Insta Page here to learn about our next events and b) the below will give you an idea of how it went.
Thank you, Andy.
Thank you for being so open. Thank you for taking time out from your busy schedule to spend time with us.
So, what’s next? The date for Unbox #5 is Thursday the 23rd of March. And it’s going to be awesome.
Who’s the speaker, you ask? Well, we will tell you very soon. Think of eating. Think of over 50m video views. Think of 20+ World Records. Think of Man Vs Food.
For now, however, thanks for the continued support. Keep it real. Keep learning. And Keep Unboxing.
