World's leaders in PR congregate in Stockholm

Marc Whitaker’s breathtaking chorus opening -fully embedded in the Forum’s context and contents; Sven Hamrefor’s intellectually challenging description of value networks; Mervin King’s key note on organizational governance and stakeholder relationships; FERPI’s six faced presentation of the Accords implementation process taking off in Italy in September; Anne Gregory and Ronel Rensburg’s engaging and courageous session on public relations’ value to organizational governance and management, and Karl Schwab’s lucid description of the coming phases of societal discontinuity and of the World Economic Forum’s vision of togetherness through a global multistakeholder platform, will remain in my mind as the more striking achievements of the Stockholm Forum.

Barcelona 1 – Evaluation 0?

This month saw another cross-border event, with the agreement and publication of the "Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles" at the 2nd European Summit on Measurement. Five global bodies and 200 delegates from 33 countries all voted overwhelmingly to adopt a set of basic principles.

Free book download: Institutionalising Public Relations and Corporate Communication

Securing a place for PR at the top table is an ongoing discussion topic – and the concept of institutionalising public relations and corporate communication was a key theme on PR Conversations during the International Congress of Euprera at Milan at the end of 2008.  The proceedings of this event are now available as book chapters to download free at http://www.hpe.pearson.it/euprera2008

How to cut 50% spend on public relations

To paraphrase that old saying about advertising, is it possible that organizations are wasting half their PR spend? In the face of plans by many governments - such as the UK and Italy - to cut their communications budget, how should the public relations industry respond? Here I share some of my thoughts - and a suggestion from Toni Muzi-Falconi.