It looks like Delivering The New PR in London this Friday 12 May will be a hot event as almost 150 people so far have signed up to be there.

Last week, PR Business (a new PR print magazine in the UK) ran a feature about the conference, certainly helping build the buzz.

This is the third in the series of one-day conferences organized by Philip Young at the University of Sunderland that addresses the broad spectrum of social media in the context of change in public relations practice. In each of the two previous ones – Manchester in February and Sunderland last November – we’ve had around 100 participants, so clearly the London event has captured even more imaginations.

As with the previous two, the London conference is attracting communicators from many different organization types – PR agencies, public and private companies, local and central government, charities and non-profits. All with different needs but all looking for the same thing – to gain some practical understanding of social media in the PR context.

Presenters (and topics) are – Philip Young (overview and perspectives), Tom Murphy (the new PR in context: threats, challenges and values), Neville Hobson (podcasting in the new PR), Stuart Bruce (blogs in business), Chris Rushton (how to get newsrooms to notice PR) and Elizabeth Albrycht (networking in the new PR).

We’re including an early morning “blogging 101” session before the main event to help bring up to speed anyone who might feel a little behind with understanding what blogs are and the role they play in business. And in my podcasting session, we’ll actually create a short podcast as one way of showing how easy it can be to do.

“Delivering The New PR” is a great professional development opportunity for communicators who want to gain some real understanding of the role social media plays in public relations. The event is sponsored by UKFast.

Still time to sign up.