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...

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?