It’s that time of the year again. With the smell of winter in the air, the Durga Puja and Dussehra festivities draw to a conclusion this week; a time for taking stock and setting stage for new goals for the year.

What victories have you won in the PR world, what do you want to do next year? We asked a range of PR professionals about their achievements so far.

Helping PR employees become ‘Intra- entrepreneurs’

Neha Agrawal who launched MensenTock Communications two years ago feels her victory lies in being a first generation woman entrepreneur running a company with minimal funds. Agrawal says, “ The company has been stable with friendly HR policies that makes it a liberal and vibrant place to work.”

Next on Agrawal’s agenda is to make MensenTock a platform for its employees to become intra-entrepreneurs.

She has also launched a development sector consultancy firm that will be implementing social projects, working in difficult regions for generating more opportunities for people locally.

Tackling tough clients, new accounts

For Pratishtha Kaura, making the move from one PR consultancy to the other made her realise the importance of conentrating on her work with a tough client. Says Kaura, “In the second quarter of this year, when I thought of moving on from one of the leading PR firms to another, I didn’t know that the client who has made me at times cry servicing them, will say such good words when I was about to leave. I am not only thankful for the kind appreciation but also I am really glad that the time I was working really hard had been fruitful and had made me a tough professional that I am today.”

Kaura also notched up another victory, with her own blog on Huffington Post India.  Pratishtha says, “This year had been a roller coaster ride for me. For a person who has been passionate about writing, getting my blogs on Huffington Post was an achievement for me; I got even more elated when lot of people appreciated my writing.”

Kaura is keeping her fingers crossed about sustaining the achievements of this year. She says, “It is easier to attain success but difficult to maintain it. With the PR space changing day in-day out, I want to put in more creativity to our profession so that when next year I remember this time, I can call myself one of the young creative PR professionals setting trends for the industry.  “

For Garima Singh, with Gutenberg PR the year was about working on new accounts such as ‘Manhattan Associates’ and ‘Citrus Cube’. Singh is also happy with the initial news pieces she managed for a start-up 'paisa' in mainstream media. Garima Singh also wants 2016 to be the year she wins new accounts.

Developing media apps

Binesh Kutty, who heads the GBM Live! Newsroom, Genesis Burson-Marsteller says his biggest challenge this year was to ensure real time media intelligence, from 14 countries, for a global GBM client. Kutty says, “ What started six months back as a free of cost experiment for a week has since been converted into a paid-for activity billed every month.”

Kutty is now working on, “A media intelligence application for mobile and web, which will provide real-time analytics and insights that will be of value to both the clients as well as the media.”

Wishing everyone a happy Dussehra!