global discussion. local perspectives.
In a recent post I referred to the Tanzanian Government case which Mindi Kasiga and Gerhard Butschi presented at the Global Alliance’s recent World Public Relations Festival in Cape Town, as one of the two most inspiring and innovative presentations.
Last Friday I was in London and had the privilege, as Honorary Fellow of the CIPR, to participate to the Annual Fellows Luncheon which is held in the austere House of Lords, in the Cholmondeley Room: a truly fantastic setting on a gorgeous day overlooking the River Thames.
One year has passed since PRSA, NYU and I organized in New York a four day intensive workshop for 18 senior professional participants from all over the world on the theme: towards a new global public relations model, from theory to practice.
I don’t know how to do this properly, but I would like to recoup the discussion which has been going on in this blog about this evergreen issue because it seems to me that every comment raises new issues. So I will profit from this very welcome contribution from professor Anne Gregory to Judy Gombita’s excellent report on Ira Basen’s recent remarks at the cprs annual general meeting with a warm invitation to all visitors...
Recently I reviewed a research thesis written by Anastasia Grynko, a Ukrainian student based in the U.S., titled “Bribery for News Coverage: Research in Ukraine”. Anastasia interviewed 30 “communication leaders” – 15 leading journalists and 15 well-known PR practitioners – and painted a staggering picture, which perfectly illustrates the hypocrisy traditionally surrounding all ethical issues in our profession.
As well as being a complete information junkie, I am also, I must confess, a compulsive planner of crisis management strategies, even when they are not mine to plan. So when I read of the cyber pirates’ attack on Estonia and continued my on-going fascination with World Without Oil, all sorts of possibilities and scenarios sprang to mind.
By far the most interesting presentation of the Fourth World Public Relations Festival arrived when Ms. Mindi P. Kasiga, Senior Communication Officer from the Office of the President of Tanzania, brilliantly took us through a fascinating five year process of total rehaul of that Government’s communication in its transition from an information to a dialogue based model of public relations practice.
These words might have come from any of our colleagues at the 4th World PR Festival, jointly organised by the Global Alliance and the PR Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) in Cape Town. But no, they where said by a politician.
The only thing that I regret is not having been able to understand (because of the lack of an english translation) of three and one half presentations (out of nine!) which unfortunately were in the Russian language (the Russian one of course, Belarus, Polish and half of the Latvian one). However the ones I was able to understand (English, Italian, Lithuanian, Ukrainan and German one) were well worth it.
Many will remember Elizabeth Browning’s lovely poem…