NASHVILLE - If Andy Warhol were still alive today, he might say that the public relations profession is finally having its 15 minutes of fame. But based on the Public Relations Society of America's annual conference, held here last week, many feel that moment has yet to arrive and PR executives are still proving their worth to upper management.
That perception comes despite all the market research and PR trends analyses that have surfaced in the last few years and with this key proviso: You'll still be relying on research, benchmarking and outsourcing as the foundation of PR but you'll be turning to the Internet, market research, integrated/cross-department communications and corporate imaging as regular - not sporadic - tools.
Even though it appears that industry leaders almost universally concur that PR has earned its place at the corporate table, this year's record-breaking conference was proof that a large portion of what PR professionals do today still involves job/trade advocacy. That sentiment came across via the informal conversations, workshop/networking sessions and presentations that took place at the Opryland Hotel, the 52-acre hotel and convention center where the conference was held this year.
There's no question that PR has evolved from meaning more than savvy media relations and now includes a wide slate of disciplines. But issues broached by the more than 2,000 attendees (about half were students) who convened at the three-day-long conference shows that much of what PR professionals battle on a continual basis isn't conveying the right messages for clients and corporations but conveying what PR is and what it is they do. Attendees were mentored about everything from using e-mail to send a job query (send text only and don't use bullets) to turning to trade shows to conduct surveys.
A Universal Thing
From workshops that focused on measurement issues to the seven-hour Nov. 7 assembly that signaled the start of the conference, PRSA attendees agreed that much of what needs to be done to propel PR in the business culture is advocacy and education. In fact, delegates voted at the assembly to approve universal accreditation. That move allows PRSA to join with other organizations to offer a universal program as well as increase the exam fees from $200 to $250 to subsidize and support marketplace promotions.
The push for universal accreditation, however, signifies more than a new chapter for PRSA, which had come under scrutiny within the past few years. It's working to re-emerge as an organization whose impact extends beyond the more than 18,000 members it serves.
During focus group reports (that grew out of small informal meetings hosted by delegates to unearth chapter concerns), recommendations revealed that members want PRSA's influence to extend beyond geographic and administrative boundaries.
Themes that grew out of the focus groups included:
- PRSA using the Internet to better serve members and the PR community;
- Dropping the word America in PRSA's name to make the organization more global in nature; and
- Re-examining the definition and role of PR in the communications paradigm.
Opryland: You Are Here
We estimate that every attendee was carrying one common item: a map of the hotel. The size and layout of Opryland - a sprawling facility with a waterfall, rotating bar, country-and-western stores, shopping villages, larger-than-life holiday displays and a maze of halls - prevented any sense of cohesiveness for conference attendees. (The likelihood that you'll get lost at Opryland is on A par with the likelihood of locating a McDonald's near any main route that runs through any town in America.)
PRSA, however, did its best to make this conference compelling and worthwhile. It was attentive to attendees' needs and arranged for presenters and workshop topics that touched on the immense scope of issues PR pros face today - from validating budgets to transitioning into marketing communications roles.
But it was, in fact, the keynote speakers (Wolf Blitzer of CNN; a panel of business leaders and media types on Day 2; and author Robert Fulghum on Day 3) that helped inject outside perspective.
Blitzer's address, which focused primarily on how he covered the Persian Gulf War, came to a close with Blizter sharing some advice with the audience. It included the obvious, i.e., the recommendation that PR execs should never lie to journalists, but also some other tactical suggestions, such as including anticipating bad news and releasing it before an adversary does.
The following day, the general session eventually fell flat. Despite some hardy (albeit, at times humorous) debate, equipment problems (presenters' microphones worked only occasionally), a Socratic dialogue lost its punch near the end. The session included a panel made up of Lewis Jordan, former ValuJet CEO; Mike Haggerty, the managing editor of the Miami Herald; and Jean Farinelli, CEO of Creamer Dickson Basford Inc., and others whose purpose was to find some "spirit of detente" among two hostile camps: the press and the business arena.
Kim Taylor Thompson, a former associate professor at Stamford Law School, asked the panel to discuss how it would handle the hypothetical case of a company principal facing allegations of sexual harassment.
Perhaps the only consensus that was reached was spawned by a comment by Frank Mankiewicz, senior managing director of Hill and Knowlton, Washington, D.C. He commented: "Never take legal advice from your PR people and never take PR advice from lawyers." We would have found this session more useful if more topics were discussed and fewer time spent on debate, and we believe less attendees would have left the general session early.
Next week... a focus on measurement, career tips and research.