TODD ENGLISH, FOUR-TIME JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER, RESTAURATEUR, AUTHOR, ENTREPRENEUR, AND TELEVISION STAR – “Diane Blackman is one of the best. Diane and her team approached me in 2015 to be the guest Chef for their client Dîner en Blanc, an enormous celebration of friends and dining under the stars. Our collaboration was such a great success I continued as Celebrity Chef for several years.
She’s unmatched at creating buzz, imaginative, highly strategic, handles crises and pressure with grace and style. She is incredibly detail oriented; a quality so essential for events of this magnitude. It’s clear the press trust and respect her given our interactions with journalists on site at the event, and the many high-profile interviews she arranged with impressive and influential media outlets. She also was able to repeat this year after year. With Diane in charge of public relations, from day-one to the global brand it is today, I understand exactly why Dîner en Blanc has become a legendary culinary event. Simply put, she’s phenomenal and an absolute delight to work with. In my view, Five Stars.”
STEVE MANGELSHOT, GLOBAL EXECUTIVE CHEF, WAGAMAMA – “BRPR has been a major help in opening several of our New York restaurants, and has gotten substantial media coverage of new menu items and special global initiatives such as the streaming ‘Wok from Home’ series we launched for at-home cooks during the COVID lockdown. With Diane’s expertise guiding us throughout the process and her close working relationships with press and influencers, it’s been a blast! One special moment was her booking me as a live guest on FOX-TV’s “Good Day New York” cooking several of wagamama’s amazing dishes. Diane has been there to support and guide myself and wagamama into the next era. She is a PR rock star!”
JEFF ROSEN, EVP, SHOCK COFFEE – “At Shock Coffee I hired BRPR to get our name out. The result: Nightline, CNBC, Good Morning America, Crain’s, to name just a few. Our former PR firm said take a number whereas Diane and Cindy took us by the hand and walked us through every detail.”
SANDY SAFI, CO-FOUNDER, DÎNER EN BLANC INTERNATIONAL –“Diane Blackman / BRPR has represented Dîner en Blanc International throughout the US for nearly a decade. She began representing the company when we were still unknown but saw the brand’s potential and believed in us. Since then, Diane has secured over 3.5 billion media impressions and has become an integral part of our team. She has helped us build DEB into a global brand in over 90 cities (currently 25 in the US) across 30 countries with extensive wait lists.
Diane handles all national, international and New York press in the US. Every year she brainstorms with our team to ensure we have compelling press angles and content. She also works closely with our sponsors, advising, supervising and coordinating media outreach efforts with their Marketing / PR executives and agencies. Diane takes the time to understand what the client needs and doesn’t hesitate to build the team necessary to deliver on any project. She has partnerships with publicists in various states and excellent social media specialists to ensure extensive media coverage nationwide for our brand.
Year after year, on the day of the massive event attended by as many as 6000 people, we watch as Diane and her team run the press area on site and coordinate well over 80 press and sponsors, managing interviews, and handling any issues that may arise onsite with elegance and class. Diane has shown she can work in tight time frames and understands the pressure of the live event industry. Without a doubt, I could not imagine launching any project in the U.S. without her.”