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It’s amazing, the amount of content the annual SXSW festival packs into 10 short days. But for savvy communicators, the lessons learned in March become the refined business strategies of April and May. These trends from SXSW 2019 offer more than real-life lessons for communicators: it’s a glimpse into PR’s future.

There’s much PR pros can learn about communicating the intricacies of AI from a story this week. It seems Amazon’s Alexa indeed is listening to our conversations. In fact, the hockey-puck-looking device has an army of 1,000 humans who listen to what it picks up in homes around the world. One lesson is that communicators need to urge brands to be transparent in their AI activities.

As the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Public relations professionals live and breathe this mantra for their clients, but they should also look inward when it comes to developing relationships with journalists.

As the boundary between marketing and PR continues to blur, two surveys provide perspective into building a sound media relations strategy. They also remind us that marketing and PR must not be operating with siloed measurement strategies. Ahead of PRNEWS’ Measurement Conference, April 17-18 in D.C., these surveys emphasize that correctly measuring influencer ROI and communicating up are greatly unrealized opportunities for PR and marketing to be on the same page.

The level of buzz surrounding “Game of Thrones” and “Avengers: Endgame” is something programmers, studios and brands once took for granted, but today they’re all too rare. They are omni-culture moments, moments that will be recounted over coffee and avocado toast in the office the next morning, moments that spur common conversations that everyone is in on. So, how can brands get in on the action?

PR pros are always ready with a statement for the press. Well…maybe not always. What happens when a situation occurs that blindsides you, like when someone uses gasoline to dry a wet ball field? We asked a group of communicators. Their top response: Never say ‘No Comment.’ Use the opportunity to offer your version of the story or promise to get back to the reporter when you have substantive information.

As we look to next week’s PRNEWS Measurement Conference in Washington, DC, we asked several scheduled speakers to prognosticate about PR measurement’s future. Up ahead, they said, is more data integration and testing of well-established ideas. In addition, tools will be smarter and (thank goodness) easier to use, which will encourage the use of measurement for decision-making.

Bots and automation can help communicators with audience research and faster response times, and fake followers can make you look important. But consumers are smart and want to find a brand they can put their trust in.

To better serve the community, PRNEWS parent, Access Intelligence, brought together what had been separate operating groups. With this restructuring, Diane Schwartz, the longtime leader of PRNEWS and senior vice president of the Access Intelligence Media Group, departed the company after 23 years. When she came aboard, PRNEWS was just a weekly newsletter.

The concept of word-of-mouth marketing has stood the test of time. Even through multiple generations, word-of-mouth remains one of the most powerful forms of marketing in existence. What makes this idea trickier is that it’s not something a business can just buy, like they would an ad. Sure, there are options such as influencer marketing, which has also proven to be a powerful tool. But how does a brand take advantage of the advertising alternative that’s completely free?