There is a version of media relations strategy that treats geography as an afterthought. You identify your target journalists, you refine your pitch, and you press send - wherever they happen to be based. It’s a strategy that misses something fundamental about how media markets actually function: they are often shaped by the cities that host them, by the policy environments surrounding them, and by the editorial cultures that have evolved within them.
London and Brussels are not interchangeable media capitals. They are two distinct worlds, each with its own gravitational pull, its own agenda, and its own expectations of the institutions that seek to speak through it. For communications and PR professionals working in higher education, understanding that distinction is essential.
It is precisely this insight that sits at the heart of BlueSky Education's decision to host two BlueSky Media Connect conferences in 2026: the first at Vlerick Business School's Brussels Campus on 22nd and 23rd June, and the second in London in 13th and 14th October. They will be two genuinely different conversations, shaped by two distinct media landscapes - and the case for attending both has never been stronger (not to mention there’s a discount if you do).
To understand the Brussels media landscape, you first have to understand Brussels itself. This is a city defined by proximity to power - specifically, the institutions of the European Union. The European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the EU. They are the engine of its media culture.
What surprises many is the sheer scale of that media culture. Brussels is home to almost 500 different media outlets, making it one of the world's "Big 7" media cities, ranked alongside London, New York, Washington D.C., Paris, Tokyo, and Singapore. That designation reflects the reality that the decisions made in Brussels - on digital policy, climate and sustainability, defence, technology, global trade, competition, and regulation - are decisions the entire world is watching. And where the world watches, the world's press reports.
The journalists who define the Brussels press are, by and large, correspondents who cover the intersection of policy, regulation, and economics at a continental scale. Outlets like POLITICO Europe, Euronews, Euractiv, EU Observer, the European Correspondent, and do not merely report on European affairs, they shape the conversation that drives them. Alongside them, the Brussels bureaus of Reuters, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, The Washington Post, France 24, and the Wall Street Journal are attuned to the rhythm of European legislative cycles - covering NATO, the European Commission, and the full breadth of the continent's policy agenda - in a way that their home offices rarely are.
The media outlets visible in Brussels are not only read by people in the region – with over 500 outlets represented across the city, there are US outlets, UK outlets and wider EU focused, all of which have readers in their respective regions. But on top of this, we’ll be joined by the leading outlets from France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland too – meaning the journalists in attendance attract dedicated readerships from across borders.
For higher education communications professionals, this matters enormously. The story you pitch in Brussels or elsewhere in continental Europe is rarely the same story you would pitch in London. In Brussels, the questions that grip the media are often structural and systemic: How is European business education responding to the green transition? What does the continent's competitiveness challenge mean for management research? How are business schools navigating the geopolitical reconfiguration of global trade? These are stories that require institutional gravitas and a command of the European agenda, and getting them right requires knowing the journalists and editors who cover them.
The Brussels 2026 conference programme reflects this reality. The two-day schedule at Vlerick Business School features panels on European affairs, sustainability, technology and the European economy, alongside fireside chats with leading industry experts and best practice communications. The media in the room - from Bloomberg and the Financial Times to Euractiv, Carbon Pulse, MLex, and European Correspondent - are specialists in precisely the beats that matter most to institutions with a story to tell in Europe.
The conference dinner, held at the incredible venue La Bellone, ensures that what begins in the conference room continues in a more informal setting, because the relationships that define long-term media strategy are also built outside of our scheduled networking slots.
London operates on a different frequency. Where Brussels is defined by its relationship to European institutions, London remains an undisputed hub of the English-language global media, a city with the editorial headquarters of outlets from New York to New Delhi, Tokyo to Toronto.
The London media landscape is broader, more competitive, and in some respects more demanding than Brussels. The Financial Times, The Times, Bloomberg, The Economist, Reuters, BBC News, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, TIME, and Business Insider all maintain significant presences in the city. So too do higher education focused outlets with huge influence like BusinessBecause (now part of GMAC), Times Higher Education and PIE News, which have become essential reading for the higher education sector specifically. This is the media environment in which global reputation is built.
The 2025 London BlueSky Media Connect conference illustrated just how rich this landscape is. Across two days hosted at the Hyatt Regency Blackfriars and Chicago Booth's London Campus, with 94 attendees from leading schools across Europe, the Americas and Asia. 33 journalists from tier-one global and UK media participated in seven panel sessions covering management and careers, entrepreneurship and start-ups, AI and technology, global business and economy, opinion and features, finance, and sustainability.
The themes that define the London agenda - the future of work, the AI transformation of organisations, the entrepreneurship economy - are the themes that animate the global anglophone business press. They are the stories that international audiences of prospective students, executive education participants, and research collaborators are reading. Getting your institution into those conversations requires understanding what those journalists need, what they reject, and what makes a pitch land rather than disappear into a crowded inbox.
The temptation, for any communications team working within budget constraints, is to choose one. London or Brussels. The English press or the European press. And we understand the logic behind that choice.
But consider what it leaves behind.
A communications professional who has invested in Brussels relationships will find, again and again, that the stories resonating in Euronews or POLITICO Europe do not automatically travel to the Financial Times or Bloomberg Businessweek. The reverse is equally true. The media ecosystems are in conversation with each other, but they are not the same conversation. The institution that understands both, and has built authentic relationships with journalists in both, operates with a strategic advantage that its peers simply cannot replicate.
This is the case BlueSky Education is making in 2026, and it is backed by evidence. The two conferences are deliberately sequenced - Brussels in June, London in October - to give delegates time to apply what they learn from one before attending the other. The early bird double-ticket rate, available until 15th May 2026 at £2,900 / €3,380 / $3,890, makes the combined investment materially more accessible than booking both events separately, with a saving of £300 / €350 / $400.
There is also a cumulative effect to attending both. The connections made in Brussels deepen in London. The understanding of the European policy narrative developed in June creates richer context for the global business conversations in October. The sessions on strategic communications and media outreach, led by BlueSky Education's expert consultants, build on each other across the two events. For communications professionals committed to developing a genuinely international media strategy that compound effect is substantial.
BlueSky Media Connect exists because the most sophisticated media strategies in higher and business education are not built just on press release distribution or follower counts. They are built on relationships. On the kind of trust that develops when a journalist knows that when your institution calls, it is worth picking up the phone.
That trust is built over panel discussions where journalists speak candidly about what they actually want from education sources; over lunches where the formal agenda gives way to the real conversation; over conference dinners where the professional and the personal briefly and productively intersect.
Brussels and London are two of the most important hubs in the global education media landscape. The institutions whose communications teams understand both, and have invested in being present in both, will, over time, find themselves better placed to shape the stories that matter most.
The question is not really whether to attend. It is whether your institution can afford not to.
BlueSky Media Connect Brussels 2026 takes place on 22nd–23rd June at Vlerick Business School's Brussels Campus. The London conference follows on 13th-14th October 2026. Early bird double-ticket pricing is available until 15th May 2026. For registration and further details, visit blueskyeducationpr.com/media-connect-2026 or contact Events Director Peter Remon at peter@bluesky-pr.com.
BlueSky Education's Head of Group Marketing is a seasoned marketing professional, experienced in content marketing, social media, engagement strategy, CRM management, marketing measurement (ROI), and podcast production.