Firstly, sorry about the title. It’s hardly Leaving Las Vegas I know but it’s the only thing I can think of.

As most of you will know I’ve now started a new role in the NHS, leaving behind the grit bins, potholes, landfill tax and all the other local authority issues that I’ve wrestled with over the past seven years.

I’m leaving behind some brilliant, talented and hugely influential colleagues at Northumberland who I know will carry on telling the stories so important to local residents and visitors.

I’ve been lucky enough to work at Northumberland (and before that Gateshead) at a time of real communications revolution, where the public sector has often led the way in delivering news in a new social space.

There seems to be a real changing of the guard across local government PR at the moment so now is probably a good time to look back at the seven highlights that I’m most proud of:

1. How a snow storm changed the comms team
2. I interviewed some of my favourite people in PR about the skills you need to succeed in today’s market. This I what they said.
3. A look at how (and why) we completely transformed our local government website.
4. My 10 top tips for using social media.
5. Our Northumberland Weddings campaign
6. How we integrated social and what it taught us (and cute animal pictures) & and update
7. Making our internship scheme a success.