1284 Communications MD George Oliver has been invited to talk on AI at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ Midlands PR Conference.

George will highlight 1284’s growing body of work on AI-supported communications in the Midlands and beyond. His session will focus on how practical, ethical uses of AI can help to underpin productivity gains for organisations looking to research, quantify, and share stories with their audiences.

The CIPR invitation comes after 1284 was named Small PR Agency of the Year at the CIPR Midlands PR Awards.

George will use the CIPR conference to discuss the AI news project created for East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, a pioneering initiative that has already been recognised with a Gold award in the Best Use of AI category at the Midlands PR Awards. 

Developed in partnership with the Chamber and built by 1284 associate Digital Planning, the project uses AI tools to surface, organise and repurpose business stories from across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire - helping the region’s firms gain greater visibility while freeing up valuable time for in-house Chamber comms professionals. 

George will also explain how the project moved from idea to implementation, including how 1284 balanced innovation with the CIPR’s emphasis on ethics, transparency and professional standards.

George will also showcase 1284’s CommsTally® project, which saw the Loughborough agency awarded Innovate UK funding last year to develop a proprietary cloud-based campaign management platform. 

CommsTally® is designed to give clients a radical level of transparency as to how their PR campaigns are performing, while addressing long-standing productivity and measurement challenges in the industry. 

George will outline how CommsTally® grew from a prototype into a fully funded MVP and how PR teams can use similar types of innovation to help demonstrate the value of PR and comms to boards and stakeholders.

George said: “It is a privilege to be invited to speak at the CIPR Midlands Conference and to share the story behind our AI news project with East Midlands Chamber and our CommsTally® platform. 

“The recognition we’ve received for our use of AI is really a reflection of the brilliant organisations we work with and our shared values around finding new ways to communicate with audiences. I’m looking forward to discussing how regional businesses can use AI in a way that is practical, transparent and firmly rooted in professional standards.”

The Midlands PR Conference takes place at Birmingham City University (BCU) on 23 June.  Themed around ‘Accelerating Influence’ the conference will be exploring how we can now supercharge audience engagement, but also consider the challenges, risk, ethics and skills gaps to ensure AI helps build not break reputation, as well as the external skills that influence audiences.

1284 Communications has also been shortlisted for Small PR Consultancy of the Year at the CIPR Excellence Awards 2026.