Inspiring Business by Sharing Success

Jon Smart – News Editor

Jon Smart is a communications consultant who loves telling stories.

A fully-qualified journalist with many years' newsroom experience, Jon's career has seen him work in financial services PR at the height of the Credit Crunch, as well as heading up the press and media team at the UK's second-largest Chamber of Commerce.

He's provided strategic media support to some of the biggest business campaigns in the East Midlands, including supporting the launch of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership and the Midlands Engine initiative, and campaigns to widen the A453, electrify the Midland Main Line and bring HS2 to the region.

More recently, he has worked for one of the biggest full-service marketing agencies outside of London, providing PR and communications advice to a host of commercial clients, as well as producing creative content for a wide range of digital and offline campaigns.

 

History with Love Business

Jon has supported Love Business for many years, from his time working at East Midlands Chamber, a key event partner and longstanding headline sponsor.

Through his role at the Chamber, Jon helped promote the expo through the Chamber’s magazine and marketing channels.
He continued to attend the event after leaving the Chamber, but once again teamed up with Steve and Philip at Quiet Storm in 2019, becoming news editor of Love Business News and also helping to promote the event via the local media.

 

Local Connections

Jon is Nottinghamshire born and bred, and apart from a couple of years living away while studying, has lived here all his life.

He’s a lifelong Nottingham Forest fan and also supports the Nottingham Panthers. Born at King’s Mill Hospital, in Mansfield, in 1973, he was brought up on the town’s Ladybrook Estate before his family moved to Sutton-in-Ashfield in the 1980s.

He was educated at Ashfield Comprehensive School, before studying Sports Science at the Grimsby Institute. He returned to Nottingham after his studies, where he has lived and raised a family ever since. He is a School Governor at Quarrydale Academy.    

 

Career Journey

Jon started his career in newspaper sales at the Nottingham Post newspaper, but his flair for writing quickly saw him transition into the newsroom as a trainee reporter, where he worked his way up to a senior, covering a variety of beats, including crime, Crown Court and business.

He worked in financial services PR at the Derbyshire Building Society, and then Nationwide, prior to joining East Midlands Chamber in 2010, where he spent six and a half years heading up its busy newsroom and working on a number of high-profile regional and national campaigns.

Since then, he has worked freelance and agency-side, providing media consultancy and copywriting services to a wide range of clients across the Heart of the Midlands.

 

Current business focus

Jon is passionate about flying the flag for the Heart of the Midlands, helping businesses to succeed and helping them to tell their stories.

In his day job, he provides copywriting and creative content services and works with a wide range of clients to help them create better written content, which helps them to get noticed online and in the press.  

 

What you may not know?

Away from work, Jon enjoys reading, cinema and creative writing.

One of his main passions is music and he has a huge and diverse collection of vinyl and CDs. He also plays guitar (badly) and makes bespoke, hand-crafted wooden rings.

He was once a circus clown for an afternoon, and was flown out to Paris by legendary rockers Iron Maiden, to interview their vocalist Bruce Dickinson, although not both in the same day.