Journalistic Projects & Copy-editing ■ Communications Advice
Web Support & Management ■ IT training ■ Research
Working with a number of independent associates and practitioners on communications, management and research projects, we can provide clients with a joined-up service, targeted to the needs of their organisations.
The practitioners also collaborate to provide an annual donation of pro bono support and advice to a number of charities and not-for-profit groups.
Non Stop News UK and Non Stop Business Support Ltd bring together and commissions a number of practitioners and digital networks to produce:
- high quality
- detailed and responsive projects
- and communications delivery for all types of organisations
They work on engagement, online and offline platforms, research, project management and much more.
The people
Director, Abha Thakor, is a Founding Chartered and Accredited Public Relations Practitioner and Chartered Manager. In 2020, she was selected as a Fellow of the global Chartered Institute of Public Relations for her contribution to communications.
She is involved in continuous professional development initiatives, bespoke communications, administration and management solutions, and providing interim and project management support.
Chartered PR Practitioner & Chartered Manager
She has significant experience and research interests in IT and engagement, government and citizen communications, and in emergency planning communications for the public.
She has worked as a journalist, editor, communications director, adviser and comms champion in the public, not-for-profit and commercial sectors.
Abha has won and been shortlisted for a number of awards in both journalism and communications, and chaired and served on institute communications and management groups.
In addition to her work in Communications, IT and Training, Abha is closely involved in supporting WordPress and its community. She has been on or supported the Release Squad in different capacities for both major and minor releases since version 5.3, including Marcomms Lead for the WordPress 5.9 Release, 6.0 documentation co-lead, and noteworthy contributor on a number of versions. She is also a regular host of the WordPress weekly developers chat meetings.
Through her journalism, web work and enthusiasm for e-commerce, she was invited to join as a podcast host for Do The Woo. She also supports this initiative with communications, internationalization and inclusion strategy development.
PR Tools Book
Abha Thakor was invited to author a chapter in the digital communications tools book, PR Stack 2, published in October 2015 and edited by communications tools expert Stephen Waddington.
AI and digital tools
Abha helps leads the knowledge management work of ‘We and AI‘ and advises on a number of its project. She is also a member of Women and AI, Women in Voice, and a member of the Open Data Institute.
She has contributed to the CIPR’s #AIinPR reports on tools and developments in artificial intelligence.
She is a member of the AI Talks group and has reported on digital and AI developments for a number of years.
Advisors and networks
We are proud to support or work alongside a number of charities, networks, organisations and teams. At Non Stop Business Support Ltd, we also have an extensive network of advisors and partnerships to enable a more integrated and valuable service to clients.
Nalini Thakor
She has been a long contributor and advisor for Non Stop News UK. She is also an advocate for inclusion and accessibility.
Nalini also gives her time to support others and open source in the WordPress space. she was a member of the 5.6 release squad, and supported a number of releases. She is a volunteer in the WordPress.org Marketing, Polyglots, Training and Core teams, and supports Learn WordPress. She is a member of the Diverse Speaker Training Group, and is a mentor and reviewer of professional development in other environments. She provides leadership and supports inclusion in the Marketing Team
She believes in supporting the community at grassroots level as well as bringing data and learning together to make a bigger difference and reduce problems faced globally and locally. She has been involved in many projects across decades on accessibility, and occupational therapy using both communications and arts. She contributes to developing technology and projects to improve access and better understand inclusion. She has worked in medicine, occupational therapy and healthcare, and has an endless enthusiasm for engineering and making things with materials.
She started her IT skills development at evening class, where she went to learn computer programming after having children. She later advanced her skills and passed them onto her children and friends to share with them fundamentals of building to encourage a strong foundation in programming, usability and sharing of skills. She turned her attention to websites after her daughter started building websites and content for artists, exploring how technology could be used more for occupational therapy and empowerment for older people and those disenfranchised due to disabilities.
Surendra Thakor
As a co-founder of Non Stop News UK in the 1990s, Surendra brought extensive experience as an advisor and mentor on research papers and articles.
He contributed to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Local Public Services’ Covid-19 Resource for Communicators which ran for a year, bringing his expertise as a doctor and editing complex medical information to the public and non-medics in order to support those working in the public sector.
In recent times, he has been involved in open source and collaboration projects focused on research or health care. One of these is the WordPress project focused on mentoring contributors with editing support and tips, and assisting in the planning of collaboration sessions. He is one of the contributors and mentors in the People of WordPress series.
He continues to support the development of articles in occupational therapy, old age care, post stroke and neurological rehabilitation, areas in which for decades he had long-standing research interests and ran practical training and support initiatives.
WordPress
As a web and content service, Non Stop News UK and Non Stop Business Support use a number of platforms for clients and charitable work, including both WordPress.org and WordPress.com. The service works to find the right solution for the project and is familiar with a wide range of content management systems and communications styles. It also works with a number of networks to bring together the most suitable mix of skills and tools to find effective solutions.
Abha and Nalini give their own time to support the WordPress project in many teams including core, marketing, training and community. They both are involved with releases and in providing training help for contributors in marketing.
Though Abha and Nalini both are involved in many of the same projects, they are often found supporting different aspects using their particular skills and interests.
Surendra has provided mentoring support and editing skills in some areas of the project, to share his knowledge in editing throughout his career.
Abha is a long-standing supporter of the wider WordPress web community. She has helped to lead and organise a number of international WordCamp conferences, including for three years, the largest global camp, WordCamp Europe. She is extensively involved in leading marketing projects and campaigns in the WordPress, open source and tech communities.
A speaker at WordCamps, Meetups, Translation events and WordFest events across the globe, Abha has also given the keynote address at a number of international tech events. She was a member of the WordPress Release Squad for 5.5 and 5.6 and co-led the MarComms on 5.6 and 5.9, and has been involved in every release since 5.3. She was highlighted as a ‘Noteworthy contributor’ for 5.6 and 5.8 releases. She also led the Marcomms for the launch of the Learn WordPress resource for contributors, hobbyists and professionals using the platform.
Yoast interview with Abha Thakor (2019)
Interview with WP Professional, Abha Thakor (Nelio blog, November 2020)
Come and discover how you can contribute to WordPress through interviews on the Marketing Team’s channel on YouTube
Both Nalini Thakor and Surendra Thakor also contribute to WordPress in their own areas of interest. More details in ‘The People’ section above.
Research
Abha and Nalini’s research interests and speaker engagements include:
- digital skills and R&D
- open source technological development
- AI in communications and engagement
- voice technology
- cross-cultural communications
- emergency planning communications
- how communities and individuals can engage with governmental bodies through digital media
- citizen communication and engagement related to suffrage/ vote
Cross-team working and collaboration
Abha Thakor, Nalini Thakor and Surendra Thakor have been involved in bringing management projects together cross-organisations and boundaries.
One of their personal interests is helping to link learning to increase opportunities for more people. They also have provided support for cross-cultural understanding including Anglo-Indian projects.
They are long-term supporter of the campaigns to support online learning and improve access to ICT skills.