New social networking website launched for the Oil and Gas industry

Aberdeen-based Our Oil and Gas, has been inspired by the recent publicity surrounding social networking websites and joined forces with AVC Media Enterprises to develop a fast moving and socially interactive site, designed purely for the Oil and Gas Industry.

Our Oil and Gas is the brainchild of Peter McCready, a Shutdown Coordinator from Stonehaven, whose job has taken him all over the world including Yemen, Holland and the United Arab Emirates.

“Although there is now so much more to do offshore than in days of old it can still be a lonely place and if you are off for long periods of time or stationed abroad there is often no easy way to keep in touch with family; comments Peter McCready of Our Oil and Gas.

“With Our Oil and Gas what I wanted to do was create an easily accessible, user friendly communication tool that allows the sharing of images and video as well as offering chat functions and industry information.”

Having been completely redeveloped by AVC’s IT team, www.ouroilandgas.com has been re-launched and already has approximately 2000 members. The site allows workers abroad and offshore immediate communication with their family, friends and colleagues without having to wait for phone lines to become free.

Designed to support the sharing of video and photographs, www.ouroilandgas.com also carries the latest industry news as well as offering personal areas and chat functions. It also allows workers and colleagues to keep in touch, or track one another down, using the bespoke search function designed by AVC’s technical team.

Peter McCready continues: “Our Oil and Gas is an invaluable resource to its users, particularly those with young families. The fact that we can share images and video on personal and secure areas means that parents aren’t missing out on important occasions or the significant events as their children grow up.”

Social networking sites have been the topic of much recent debate, particularly in terms of employees using them in work time, but Our Oil and Gas looks set to capitalise on this popular phenomenon and implement it into an industry that craves new methods of communication.

William Binnie, Head of IT, AVC Media Enterprises comments: “Our Oil and Gas is an ideal communication tool for the offshore industry. We have developed the product taking into account the needs of those in the industry and developed a very specific but user friendly and logical package, keeping communication channels open even in the most remote locations.

“AVC has long established connections with the Oil and Gas industry and so we completely understand the complexities of communications offshore and abroad as well as the requirement for a tool such as www.ouroilandgas.com.”

Screengrabs from www.ouroilandgas.com below. (Click for full size.)

AVC has been awarded a top accolade from industry leading media magazine The Drum.
Announced as the top Advertising or Integrated Agency for Aberdeen and Inverness, AVC scooped the award following a year of phenomenal growth.

Throughout 2007, AVC has confirmed its position as a provider of complete, integrated communication solutions with the acquisitions of Brand Advertising earlier in the year and more recently the PR Partnership.

AVC Director Spencer Buchan comments: “It’s a great honour for AVC to be recognised in this way. The Drum is a well-read and well respected publication in the media and communications industry, so to have been awarded this accolade shows that our work is having an impact.

“It’s definitely a personal goal to create a buzzing media industry north of the central belt and at AVC we have the skills, knowledge, vision and enthusiasm to make that happen.”

With the company on track to turnover £12million by the close of the 2007 financial year, work has commenced on a £3million extension to the current Altens-based facility.

• Download AVC Media Enterprises Drum Press Release (PDF)

Aberdeen-based AVC Media Enterprises is one of the latest in a group of successful companies to join a leading edge scheme, designed to help industry improve its safety record.

AVC recently received the accreditation from SAFEcontractor, a programme which recognises very high standards of health and safety practise amongst UK contractors.

Employing 94 people at its Aberdeen headquarters, the accreditation mostly applies to AVC’s audiovisual and media teams, involved in the installation of audiovisual equipment in company premises as well as offshore, the management and technical support of events across the UK and the filming of corporate material both on and offshore.

AVC’s application for SAFEcontractor accreditation was driven by the need for a uniform standard across the business.

Graeme McGuire, Audiovisual Manager and Health and Safety Officer at AVC comments: “We’re delighted to receive this accreditation and proud to work on its principles to ensure our Health and Safety provision is second to none.

“Working across all industry sectors and particularly in the field of Oil and Gas, we’ve always respected the Health and Safety requirements of our clients and worked hard to ensure that safe environments are always maintained.

“As one of the only suppliers in the field of AV and Media to have attained this accreditation, we are extremely proud of our achievement.”

SAFEcontractor accreditation is expected to enhance the company’s ability to attract new contracts and its commitment to safety will be viewed positively by its insurers when the company liability policy is up for renewal.

SAFEcontractor is operated by international safety, health and environmental risk management specialists, the Northern Britannia Group. The system is applicable to most sectors, although it is particularly relevant to food manufacture, property, facilities management and retail and leisure sectors, all of which are big users of contract services.

James Ostler, Managing Director of Information Service at National Britannia said: “Major organisations can no longer run the risk of employing contractors who are not able to prove that they have sound health and safety policies.

More companies need to understand the importance of adopting good risk management in the way that AVC has done. The firm’s high standard has set an example, which hopefully will be followed by other companies within the sector.”

Under the SAFEcontractor system, businesses undergo a vetting process, which examines health and safety procedures and their track record for safe practice.

Those companies meeting the high standard are included on a database, which is accessible to registered users only via the website: http://www.safecontractor.com

Employer organisations that sign up to the scheme can access the database, which enables them to vet potential contractors before they even set foot on site. These employers agree that, as users of the scheme, they will engage only those who have received accreditation.

Over eighty major nation-wide businesses, from several key sectors have signed up to use the scheme when selecting contractors for services such as building, cleaning, maintenance, refurbishment or electrical and mechanical work.

• Download AVC Media Enterprises Safety Accreditation Press Release (PDF)

Aberdeen and Edinburgh- based AVC Media Enterprises has merged with Aberdeen PR consultancy, PR Partnership (Scotland) Ltd.

Becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of AVC Media Enterprises, along with AVC Brand Advertising and Remote Data Services, PR Partnership will retain its name and relocate to AVC’s purpose built facility in Altens, Aberdeen.

AVC Media Enterprises, now in its 31st year, has experienced dramatic growth and is forecast to turnover £12million for the 2007/2008 financial year. With the addition of PR Partnership, a long established name, operating for over 20 years and servicing clients throughout the UK, the move will cement AVC’s goal to become a dominant force in the field of media and communications across the country.

Commenting on the move, PR Partnership Director, Neil Robertson said: “Through hard work and commitment we have built a successful business over the last 23 years. We recently completed the buy back of shares from our former ‘sister’ company, as the first stage in a development plan to meet our aspirations and future potential.”

Spencer Buchan, AVC Media Enterprises, AVC Brand Advertising and PR Partnership Director, comments: “We have been developing the services at AVC with the aim to provide our clients with a full, integrated communications service. The addition of PR Partnership is a natural progression that will help us to achieve this.

“PR Partnership has the correct mix of experience, knowledge and enthusiasm so will be a great fit to the AVC Media Enterprises portfolio.”

Joining AVC’s existing PR consultant will be PR Partnership’s three Directors and one Account Executive. Creatus, the PR Partnership’s internet division will also transfer across to AVC and join the group’s IT department, bringing the total number of full time employees at AVC Media Enterprises to 92.

Neil Robertson continues: “We believe the merger with AVC brings us the succession planning required to bring our business forward and as part of a much bigger and progressive organisation like AVC we believe it is a natural next step in our growth strategy. We have set ourselves some ambitious goals for the next few years and AVC’s structure, energy and vision provide the perfect platform to enable us to achieve them.”

AVC Media Enterprises becomes the majority shareholder with PR Partnership Directors Ken McEwen and Neil Robertson also retaining shares.

With over 1500 clients based across the UK and globally, AVC strengthened its service offer by acquiring Brand Advertising in April 2007 to form subsidiary company AVC Brand Advertising. With its existing service portfolio, the company comprises expertise across the full service of communications, media and sports productions, offshore entertainment, audiovisual services, training, IT and broadband satellite, all from its purpose built production house and conference centre in Altens, Aberdeen.

Media and communication specialist AVC Media Enterprises has today, Wednesday 21 November 2007, revealed the plans for an extension and redevelopment to its existing Aberdeen headquarters totalling nearly £3million.

Work commences on Monday 26 November on the four-storey extension that will more than double the office space already available at the current Altens-based facility. Adding a further 1530 square meters of floor space, the project is due for completion in autumn 2008.

Having celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 2006, AVC, a provider of corporate and commercial production, advertising, marketing, PR, audiovisual services, IT, conference facilities and training, has experienced a period of rapid growth. Expecting to turnover £12million this financial year, the company now employs a workforce of 92.

AVC Chairman and CEO Keith Main comments: “The addition of the extension is very much a benchmark in our growth strategy. To maintain the level of growth we have been experiencing we need to sustain a vibrant business base and build on the success of our achievements of the past 31 years. We therefore took the decision this year to extend our building and with it our service offering.”

“The extension will provide additional office space for our ever growing numbers of staff; increasing services for our clients, including the expansion of the Conference and Training facilities; and extending the car park to provide in excess of 100 parking spaces to accommodate the growing number of clients using the facility. We are also developing a Business Centre to support and encourage the growing number of emerging entrepreneurial companies in the area, supporting the next generation of opportunity.”

As with the original building, which is now 8 years old, AVC has appointed local contractors to complete the work with Steven Lawrence of TCD Architects designing the building and Anderson Construction completing the building work.

Mr Main continues: “Being a local company it is important that we develop our relationships and use local suppliers and contractors to complete the project, which will create a media facility unlike any other in Scotland, offering a full range of communication services coordinated under one roof.

“We’ve also taken time to consider the environmental impacts a building this size can have, both during the construction phase and once it is fully operational, seeking advice and assistance from the Carbon Trust to keep emissions to a minimum at all times.”

The interior of the building will include the addition of further high specification conferencing and training facilities, including a dedicated IT training suite, state of the art design studio, edit suites and three levels of office space, one of which will accommodate the new Business Centre.

2007 has seen AVC Media Enterprises develop its services across the board but particularly within its advertising service, which merged with Brand Advertising to create AVC Brand Advertising and open an office in Edinburgh to service a growing number of clients throughout Tayside and the Lothian.

• Download AVC Media Enterprises New Build Press Release (PDF)