Larry Foster: back to real relationships, not only virtual

Please do take a good and quick look at Larry Foster’s very recent acceptance speech of the Alexander Hamilton Medal at IPR’s annual event at the Yale Club in New York. For those of us who are (or believe they are) ‘geeks’ so-to-say it amounts to a back-to-basics wake up call! For the others, many of whom remain luddists or, in any case, thorough sceptics on the application of new technologies to public relations (the...

The green power of public relations

I’ve asked Caroline Wilson to share some thoughts on the power of PR to change people’s behaviour around environmental issues, which she regularly explores at GoodGreenPR: I sometimes think the ‘green’ issue for people working in PR is very similar to the familiar debate about the role of PR generally.  Should PR be about skilfully promoting and communicating the image, products and community profile that others high up the management tree set out?  Or should PR...

Where next for professional associations?

Drifting round the social networking sites, I couldn’t help wondering where next for our professional associations. Not just in public relations, but across all sectors. What will professional associations have to offer in order to retain their paid members – when many of the ‘benefits’ historically gained from paid membership can be had elsewhere for free?

New Zealand Police open up law-making to the public

As a follow-on to the posts regarding Madeleine, the Portuguese police and the public interest, I thought you might be interested in a real life ‘open conversation’ involving New Zealand police. They have created a wiki to encourage public participation in the revision of the current police act, written in 1958.