Communications chief, Barry Patterson, describes the CFC’s 20th year, including how stakeholders spontaneously serve as brand ambassadors (updated)

The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) launches Canada's most creative ideas and voices in film, television and new media to the world. From April 2008 to March 2009 the CFC—Canada’s largest advanced-training institution for media professionals—celebrates 20 years of bringing inspiring storytellers to the world.

Reconsidering our terms of engagement following the institutionalization debate: a draft statement…

From the very beginning, and well before the debate on institutionalization began on this blog, I recall that David Rossi -director of public relations at MPS (Monte dei Paschi di Siena), a leading Italian banking institution- while deciding if his organization would sponsor the Euprera Congress in partnership with his peers Gianluca Comin from Enel, Europe’s second electricity company and Carlo Fornaro from Telecom Italia– said to me

‘Core’ versus ‘extended’ PR competencies–do you buy in?

In a manual written for his students in 2005, Emanuele Invernizzi (Professor of Corporate Communication at IULM University in Milan and co-organiser of the 2008 Euprera Conference to take place in Milan) distinguished between the concepts of ‘core’ and ‘extended’ public relations competencies. He regards ‘core’ competencies as media relations, public affairs, organisation of corporate events and ceremonials while ‘extended’ competencies, in addition to the above, includes planned support to other functions (e.g. human resources, finance,...

PR professionals are from Venus, PR scholars are from Mars: How shall the ‘twain’ meet?

In 2004, the Dutch scholar Prof Betteke Van Ruler referred to PR professionals as being ‘from Venus’ while PR scholars are ‘from Mars.’ UK academics Fawkes and Tench found traces of anti-intellectualism amongst PR practitioners/employers in their recent research study. An editorial by Wood in a leading academic publication in the UK, ‘Journal of Communication Management’, challenges academics to communicate their research more effectively rather than “languishing comfortably in an ivory tower.”

Authentic Enterprise and Institutionalization: from Arthur Page and the IPR to Euprera’s Congress in October in Milano

In not many weeks some of us (scholars and professionals) will be in Milano participating at the Euprera annual Congress, which this year (October 16/17) is dedicated to the institutionalization of public relations. Although there will be a relevant but small segment of participants from other areas of the world, it is reasonable to expect that most will be European, and therefore are likely to transfer European perspectives. This is one good reason to review...

PR resources, about or by, Canada and Canadians

In a comment to my last post, PRC reader and frequent commenter, Brandon Carlos, indicated his frustration at the apparent dearth of Canadian resources, "Another lagging area in Canadian PR, Judy, is in the educational text arena. As a recent grad, I can attest to the atrocious selection of Canadian-focused PR texts. In a country with a population base spread across such a vast land area, you would think that nowhere other than Canada would PR be such a necessity."