Posted on Current PR Conversations PR Nexus

A bizarre visit to the PeRsian conference bazaar

Toni Muzi Falconi details his equal parts fascinating and frustrating visit to Tehran to participate in the International Conference on Public Relations He also reviews Imam Fesial Abdul Rauf’s recent book, Defining Islamic Statehood I took a few days to round up my thoughts in order to describe to PR Conversations readers the experience of attending the 11th International Conference on Public Relations, held in Tehran in November 2015. My contact and meetings with various Iranian...

Posted on Current PR Conversations PR Mediums

Deconstructing the Century of the Selfie for PR purposes

One big question is whether we as public relations practitioners can afford to migrate (professionally) from “we, the intelligent few” to “we, the people,” primarily by helping our clients to listen to and interpret the “wisdom of the crowds” A post-event reflection on Stuart Ewen’s Museum of Public Relations-sponsored lecture on “Edward Bernays and the Century of the Selfie” By Toni Muzi Falconi As George Bernard Shaw wrote in his 1902 play, Mrs. Warren’s Profession:...

Posted on PR Mediums

Contemplating selfie disruptions in historical and modern-day PR

“If I were Bernays, as a sign of self expression, I would dedicate my creative genius to adapt (or adopt) the ‘selfie’ idea for a public relations program dedicated to individual emancipation.” Stuart Ewen By Toni Muzi Falconi The Museum of Public Relations scheduled an event for late March 2015, at Manhattan’s Baruch College / CUNY Newman Library (where the books and artifacts of the museum are currently situated), anticipated to be a critical and topical...

Posted on PR Mediums

Sharing Toni Muzi Falconi's biased memoirs

We have always been proud to have the support of Toni Muzi Falconi whose original blog became PR Conversations, and he then passed the editorship to Judy Gombita, Markus Pirchner and myself. Toni has now published his ‘biased memoirs’ entitled glow worms – which can be downloaded free as an ebook from the Biased Memoirs site, with a request to donate to the Cordoba Initiative – or as a paperback via Lulu. Toni  decided to...

Posted on Classic PR Conversations PR Nexus

Buzzwords: Much sound and fury, but signifying little

A two-nation blended cocktail chat dissecting buzzwords in the current vernacular By Toni Muzi Falconi and Helen Slater Our global professional community has tried to change its public relations nomenclature at least since the fifties of the last century, under the notion that a name change can help. As Shakespeare’s Juliet Capulet says of Romeo Montagu, “Tis but thy name that is my enemy … be some other name! What’s in a name? That which...

Posted on PR Sense

Stakeholder Expectations Roundtable: A tale of two books

Where does public relations fit into the organization? How should we update our practices to meet the needs of today and tomorrow? What are our responsibilities to the organizations we serve—and how can we communicate with, and address concerns of, stakeholders? By Bob Geller The above questions were some of the topics covered in a session I attended in New York in late February 2014, the Director Roundtable on Stakeholder Expectations and the 21st Century...

Posted on PR Mediums

Director Roundtable: Stakeholder Expectations and the 21st Century Board

PR Conversations founder, Toni Muzi Falconi is taking part in a fascinating ‘Director Roundtable‘ event being held in collaboration with the NYU school of continuing and professional studies on 28 February. The other speakers are: Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman James Grunig, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland Emilio Galli Zugaro, Head of Group Communications, Allianz This event looking at Stakeholder Expectations and the 21st Century Board builds on the book: Global Stakeholder Relationships Governance:...

Posted on PR Sphere PRoust Questionnaire

PRoust Questionnaire: Catherine Arrow

The PRoust Questionnaire provides a quick insight into a public relations practitioner’s interests and point of view, as well as his or her professional beliefs and values. If you are not familiar with the original 19th-century Proust Questionnaire, please see details at the end of this post. PRoust Questionnaire answers from Catherine Arrow: 1.  What are your most striking characteristics as a PR practitioner? I’m inquisitive and tenacious. 2.  What is your principal fault as...

Posted on PR Motion

Action learning – NYU students develop opening address

PR Conversations contributor, the Italian professional and scholar, Toni Muzi Falconi, has just presented his latest thinking and processes in an opening session of a two day workshop in Brazil (August 27/28), under the title:’Towards an effective infrastructure for global stakeholder relationships governance’ (click for the presentation and notes). Toni involved six students in preparing his presentation – and in this post, we share their thoughts on the experience, along with their future expectations from...

Posted on PR Motion

Critique or criticism – thoughts on PR academic conferences

This Summer, academics have travelled across Europe chasing the conference season. For Toni Muzi Falconi, the journey started with the Bledcom 20th anniversary symposium in Slovenia, followed by a political PR post-conference after the ICA conference in London, and then the International History of PR conference in Bournemouth (IHPRC). I caught up with Toni in Bournemouth – where we were both presenting – for his thoughts on the ‘season’. As well as IHPRC, I’m participating in the...