global discussion. local perspectives.
New Zealand is having another foray into the world of wikis, this time with a wiki asking for contributions to the next phase of the country’s digital strategy. The first wiki was used as part of the consultation process for the updating of The Police Act in 2007 and this year’s most recent prompt for citizen participation will run until mid-May. Worth having a look at the shape of public consultation to come.
Way back in the mid eighties the name of the Parisian hospital Villejuif coupled its widespread fame as the world hub for the more advanced medical research against cancer (at the time), with a particularly unexpected awareness amongst part of the european professional public relations comnunity: an anonymous leaflet began to circulate originated from within that hospital with a false signature, in which a list of well known consumer brands were indicated as being cancerous,...
A lively discussion came up last Thursday evening in Rome, at the second of the six sessions scheduled for the production of the video book on ‘What is Public Relations’, which my friend Joao so acutely and courteously described here, following up on the first session. The general topic has to do with many issues my co-bloggers have touched upon in this blog as well as with the content of a recent (the plum of...
Public relations judo is an increasing self defence process used by organizations to offset negative market effects induced by recurring daily public statements over statistical evidence of environmental or health effects of products/services/processes and decisions….
To those who have read the seminal book by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin (“L’appartion du livre”), the history of the book may already be a fascinating subject. But what about the future of the book. There is a also great excitement in trying to foresee what the book will look like within a few years and I share with you a very promising experience in which PR is at the forefront.
I recently had the pleasure of attending the IABC Eurocomm Conference. This is one of my favourite events because it gathers a variety of communicators from across Europe and the Middle East (and beyond) to share expertise, views and cocktails. It reflects cultural, geographical and functional diversity, so it appeals to the Jack-of-many-trades in me. One of the things I loved about this year’s edition was its emphasis on innovation, and the sessions that talked...
There is a tremendous amount of research conducted over the years on all aspects of creating and sustaining public opinion, attitudes and relationships. All too many practitioners don’t have a clue where to find it. So the Institute for Public Relations has introduced the Essential Knowledge Project, an online guide to the best research into how organizations build and manage mutually beneficial relationships with customers, communities, employees and other stakeholders.
Billed as one of the “highlights” of the University of Toronto’s inaugural Festival of the Arts was the lecture by “renowned Canadian filmmaker, Atom Egoyan, delivering his second public presentation as the Dean’s Distinguished Visitor in Theatre, Film, Music, and Visual Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Science.” Egoyan, whom I’ve always found to be an articulate and original thinker (in addition to a true auteur as a filmmaker) tackled an ambitious lecture called...
I know I am biased and I know I have already posted on Euroblog 2008, but -come on!- take a look at the euroblog final program of what is possibly the most intense ever exchange between professionals and academics on social media and public relations, and hurry up and register here. You don’t really want to miss this event, do you?
Humans are bad at eliminating options, and it costs us dearly in job performance, relationships and effectiveness, says an article in today’s International Herald Tribune that reviews a book by Dan Ariely called Predictably Irrational. According to experiments carried out by Ariely, a professor of bahavioural economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), people will go to great lengths to avoid narrowing their choices, and will pay dearly to do so. The theory is that eliminating...