Testimonials

Tony Kirby PR has provided the media services for the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) every year since 2012, and our 2024 meeting in Venice, Italy saw us achieve record news coverage globally.

Each year, Tony and his team go through our programme sessions and abstracts to prepare press releases for the many journalists that attend our meeting (including major newspapers and news wires), as well as his extensive global contacts that include all the major media outlets. He also organises press conferences on site for the journalists present at the meeting.

Tony and his colleagues are easy to work with and always keep myself and the ECO Executive Committee fully informed about the broad range of coverage we receive each year, as well as anything else that we need to know during the meeting. I strongly recommend his services to any health conference or journal looking to expand its media coverage.

Euan Woodward
Executive Director, The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO)

Tony Kirby worked with ESCMID from 2019 to 2024, supporting our annual congress, which was known as ECCMID from 2019 to 2023 and rebranded as ESCMID Global in 2024. During this time, Tony handled program analysis, identified abstracts of interest alongside our senior team, and prepared press releases to engage the 60-80 journalists attending each year, both onsite and, since 2022, also online. Additionally, in 2020, Tony supported our online conference on COVID-19, “ECCVID”, held as an alternative to the cancelled annual congress.

Carla Seiler
Head of Event Organisation, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID)

Health journalists cannot attend all international conferences so rely on communications officers for releases on studies and presentations. Tony Kirby’s work stands out for its accuracy, thoroughness ,sharp news sense and it comprehensive coverage before and during conferences.

Tony has worked on several major conferences that I’ve attended and has proved brilliant at spotting promising material, connecting journalists with extraordinary scientists and medics, all the while working to punishing deadlines.

As health editor at the Daily Telegraph, I’ve been lucky enough to work with Tony regularly.

His skills have been key to the development front page stories which have dominated the media landscape, often for weeks at a time.

Tony has excellent contacts across the media as well as across the medical and scientific communities.

Most recently, he delivered exceptional results for the European Congress on Obesity in Venice, elevating its profile to an extraordinary level.

He’s a master of spotting the potential in a wide range of material and finding ways to bring it to new audiences – regularly landing front page slots on national newspapers with stories that are keenly followed by broadcast.

Laura Donnelly
Health Editor, Daily Telegraph / www.telegraph.co.uk

Tony Kirby worked for The Lancet from 2007 to 2012 as our Media Relations Manager. The Lancet has four journals and Tony’s reach extended across all four -The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, and The Lancet Neurology. His responsibilities included:

• Strategic development for Lancet media engagement
• Organising, coordinating, and delivering press events for Lancet papers and series
• Organising and coordinating the weekly schedule for our press and public relations activity
• Writing and disseminating daily press releases on behalf of Lancet journals
• Working as a member of a complex editorial, web, and production team
• Working to tight deadlines

Tony fulfilled his responsibilities with diligence and enthusiasm. He built up a strong and respected reputation among health journalists. He met their needs and exceeded their expectations consistently. I can thoroughly recommend Tony for any aspect of press and media relations management.

Richard Horton
Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet

Both myself and my colleagues from Medscape appreciate the professionalism and support that we receive from Tony and his team during the conferences that we attend: the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and the European Congress on Obesity (ECO). Tony’s experience with these meetings, plus his experience at The Lancet before this, means we can rely on him to put together a highly interesting and relevant media program, including press releases and press conferences.

His support during the meetings themselves is also invaluable, as we often need assistance to connect with a particular researcher and other support. Nothing is too much trouble for Tony and his team – they will try and track anyone down, anywhere! Having experienced a wide spectrum of media services provided at different meetings worldwide, I can honestly say that Tony Kirby PR Ltd is of the highest quality, and I would highly recommend the company to any congress, anywhere in the world, considering promoting itself to the press.

Lisa Nainggolan
News Editor, Medscape Diabetes & Endocrinology

I am delighted to provide a reference for Tony Kirby, although I would rather he still worked for The Lancet and had not decided to go freelance. However, after 5 years in total, first as The Lancet’s Press Officer, then as our Media Relations Manager, Tony has decided to develop his freelance career, and so I recommend him highly to you.

Tony managed the busy, daily workload associated with being the sole point of press contact for The Lancet journals, writing press releases, organising press conferences, and handling journalists’ enquiries at all times of day and night. He is adept at summarising the key points of complex research and review papers for the press, with accuracy and thoroughness, and is skilled at involving appropriate editors as needed for interview requests.

Tony changed workflows to improve efficiency, and enabled the transition from print to online first publication and the associated media changes with skill and speed. His daily workload included writing press releases for the current four titles – The Lancet, The Lancet Oncology, The Lancet Neurology, and The Lancet Infectious Diseases, and juggling daily online first, and weekly or monthly print publications.

I highly recommend Tony to you, and am happy to provide more information as needed.

Astrid James
Deputy Editor, The Lancet

ony Kirby has been working with the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and on other EASD projects, since 2010. His duties at our Annual Meeting are to analyse the programme, select abstracts of high interest working hand in hand with the EASD senior team, and write press releases for hundreds of journalists which we attract each year, as well as via e-mail to the high-profile media contacts Tony has worldwide. He also helps arranging the press conferences that take place during the event.

Tony works with a calm and professional manner and fits in perfectly with our EASD team, is always fast to respond to requests and keeps myself, other senior EASD staff, and committee members updated with both coverage from the meeting, including any issues that require our attention.

Tony has recently completed his 15th successive EASD Annual Meeting, and I would warmly recommend his services to any scientific meeting or association such as our own which is looking to professionally boost its media profile.

Manja Deparade-Oertel
Managing Director EASD & EFSD

EASD – European Association for the Study of Diabetes e.V.
EFSD – European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes

Myself and the team of health reporters at El Mundo newspaper in Spain have worked with Tony Kirby for more than 10 years now. We first worked with Tony when he was Media Manager for The Lancet journals, where his job was to write and send to the media press releases of interesting studies to be published. The quality of his press releases was always high and they were easy to understand, including to journalists for who English is not their first language.

Since leaving The Lancet, Tony has started his own successful business, Tony Kirby PR, which provides media services to medical meetings. Tony always manages to choose a very interesting selection of materials and abstracts to write press releases on, making it much easier for us to cover these medical meetings and other projects which he is involved in. I would certainly recommend his company to any international medical meeting looking to expand its media coverage.

Laura Tardon
Journalist, El Mundo, Spain

I have worked with Tony Kirby for more than a decade, first in his role as Media Manager for The Lancet journals, where he could be relied upon to send high quality press releases and ensure we received advance notice on important stories. Since Tony set up his own company in 2012, he has continued to supply AFP with pertinent and timely material about major medical conferences that are difficult for us to cover but of keen interest to our large client base worldwide. Tony’s story selection and writing is of a high standard, and I would recommend him to any medical conference or journal looking to improve its media output.

Marlowe Hood
Science, Health and Environment Correspondent, Agence France Press (AFP) News Agency

Tony supported the media team at the highly successful World Hepatitis Summit 2017 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Working together with Tara Farrell, Head of Communications at the World Hepatitis Alliance, and the other conference partners including WHO and the Ministry of Health, Brazil, Tony helped secure coverage in a variety of top tier international outlets, including the BBC World Service Health Check Programme, CBC Canada, El Mundo in Spain, and TV Globo in Brazil, Le Figaro in France, Al-Jazeera and also various news wires, including AFP. We were very impressed with the overall media results especially since hepatitis is largely ignored in the media compared to other diseases.

Tony worked closely with the team to develop media releases on a range of subjects, including hepatitis C treatment in high-income countries and the growing burden of hepatitis B and C in children worldwide. Tony has a strong work ethic and gave 100% throughout our months of preparation for this global event. I have no hesitation in recommending Tony Kirby PR Ltd to other medical conferences looking to secure media coverage.

Raquel Peck
Chief Executive, The World Hepatitis Alliance