Next year sees the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) host the World PR Festival in London. Part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, the event takes place on 23-24 June 2008 and is expected to attract senior communicators and academics from across the globe. The theme is ‘developing society through effective communication”.
As is so often the case with these big ticket PR events, there is a real risk that internal communication will be sidelined, with speakers paying little more than lip service to what is now arguably the fastest growing and most highly valued PR specialism. That’s the worst case scenario for me.
The good news is that, with almost a year to go, we have an opportunity to influence the agenda and make sure our voice is heard. CIPR Inside, the Institute’s specialist group for internal communications, has been asked for input- and we’d like your help.
Our aim is for IC to be fully incorporated into the agenda and given the focus and attention it deserves. IC is increasingly regarded as a central component of effective reputation management and we believe it should form a core part of the agenda for one of the PR profession’s flagship events.
Do you agree? Do you see IC as part and parcel of public relations or something separate and distinct? Do you like to be associated with PR, or does the link worry you? As a practitioner who entered internal comms via the PR route (I spent about a decade doing media relations before focusing on IC) I’m quite comfortable with this, but I know many people feel differently. I’d love to hear your views.
Assuming you share our view that IC and reputation management are natural bedfellows, what do you think we could or should do as part of the Festival? There are lots of options - from a fullscale IC 'fringe festival' to receptions, round table events and so on. Again, we'd really appreciate your thoughts and ideas...
Like you I entered IC via the PR route and it worries me when I see the two treated as separate and distinct because I believe that excellent PR is pegged on excellent internal communications. When I lectured in PR, I spent a good amount of time trying to convince the powers that be that a unit on internal communications should be included in the PR course.
I see IC and reputation management as two sides of the same coin; separate the two and it becomes a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Indeed, my favourite roles as a communicator required me to manage both PR and internal communications.
Perhaps what should be emphasised at the World PR festival is how the two disciplines interface. As much as I would love to see a self-contained IC 'fringe festival', I wonder whether such an event would create the impression that IC is the 'poor cousin'. That said, IC communications round tables or masterclasses would definitely convince me to fly half-way around the world to attend.
Posted by: Laura Fragiacomo | July 28, 2007 at 03:48 AM
It seems to me that an international PR festival would be a nonsense without IC.
However, PR does get a bad press among many IC professionals who associate the term with manipulation, shallowness and general dodgy dealings.
I do hope that the UK Cipr does something a bit special to mark out the connections. If anything, the time is right to explore the idea of PR being about relationships rather than reputations...
Liam
Posted by: Liam | July 31, 2007 at 05:54 PM
How about a pre or post expo "open space" sponsored by a gaggle of internal comms folks, but open to all, with the topic along the lines of "convergence or divergence--internal communications and public relations in the next five years" or somesuch...
Posted by: Mike Klein | July 31, 2007 at 10:34 PM
The trouble is that the theme of 'Developing Society through effective communication' doesn't get the juices flowing immediately and we need to come up with an angle that isn't shoe-horning IC into the discussion...
I'm liking Mike's idea - perhaps if we talked about how wokplace relationships have changed in the last decade or so and the role of communicators/challenge facing the profession...
Do we think we could sponsor a piece of academic quality research?
Liam
Posted by: Liam | August 02, 2007 at 08:56 AM
Any practical conference with PR in the title will suffer mightily without IC on the agenda. Not only should we complain here, we should call out the troops -- whom at CIPR is on the planning committee? How do we insert ourselves while the agenda is still developing? Are there PRSA/IABC involved?
Posted by: sean williams | August 02, 2007 at 04:55 PM
Hi Sean
Thanks for your comment. The good news is that you're talking to the right people! I'm a member of the CIPR Inside committee and I posted about the event because i'm keen for us to influence the agenda (the CIPR are, thankfully, open to our ideas at this early stage, so I don't think there's anything for us to complain about just yet). Glad to hear you, like us, have strong views on the subject though. Let me know if you have any ideas for content....
All the best.
Lee
Posted by: Lee Smith | August 02, 2007 at 05:34 PM
I'm turning into a serial poster!
How about a session on "A force for good - having the right relationship with your people". I'm not thinking abou CSR - more at how employees expect their masters to have a good reputation and hold their employers to account. This touches on so many themes (even the dreaded new social media).
Also, had an interesting chat the other week with Kevin Murray (Chairman of Chime PR, a friend, an old boss and someone in the PR world who really gets the importance of staff relationships - his slogan used to be "the customer comes second...") who spends alot of time with CEOs. His take is that CEOs don't make the parochial distinctions that the comms world does.
Kevin says that CEO's just want good comms and see Media relations, IC, IR etc as a single challenge... maybe we could get him up there talking about stuff like this?
Liam
Posted by: Liam | August 03, 2007 at 09:56 AM
It seems to me that PR continues to suffer from an image problem. I'm not sure what the situation is like in the UK, but in Australia we still can't agree on what PR is and where it belongs. I'm intrigued by the notion that IC professionals associate the term with manipulation and generally dodgy dealings, because I've found these elements present in internal communications in roughly equal proportions. Come to think of it, I've had an easier time convincing the powers that be that we must be honest with our exteranal audiences than doing the same for employees.
Laura
Posted by: Laura Fragiacomo | August 05, 2007 at 03:28 AM
As a non-IC specialist (proud to be in PR actually), I agree with the observations that internal communications should be integral in the festival. How can anyone attempt to separate out the impact of external/internal communications in these days of greater transparency?
I would hope that CIPR recognises the value of IC - so if you guys come up with a great idea, with good speaker(s), you get my support.
Posted by: Heather Yaxley | August 06, 2007 at 07:46 PM