Who do you think you are?

If you’re like me you’ve enjoyed the BBC series ‘who do you think you are’. Let’s face it, we all like to know where we’ve come from and find it fascinating to find out what makes the celebrities on the programme tick.

I’ve managed to research and go back 8 generations. It’s easy for me – my maiden name is Dean (as in James!) and everyone for the last 8 generations has been an engineer…including my brother. Those of you into steam trains will know about Dean Goods or Dean Street in Birmingham.

In an idle moment (what’s that?!) this weekend I googled William Dean and found out that he was President of the Mechanics’ Institute sometime in the 1860s. So, it’s really interesting to see how things do follow in families……and whereas Mechanical Engineering may have been the profession in the 1860s – as PR is in the top 3 careers for graduates today, I believe that our wonderful profession is the new industrial revolution for the UK.

You only have to look at the numbers of people from overseas attending our World Public Relations Conference and Festival last June or look at the popularity from across the globe from people signing up to our qualifications to realise the high esteem the UK PR profession is held in.