An abundant public relations era or its utilitarian autumn?

Flourishing PR Conversations about peaks and valleys, truths and opinions plus the plateau in between One of my goals for the last few years was to travel west to Toronto’s High Park in time for the “peak” of the city’s blossoming Sakura cherry trees. Not only is the window of this optimum viewing time always small, but for most of this year’s April and May blooming days the weather was unseasonably cool and often overcast...

An accidental ebook: exploring the future of business blogging

Ketchum Europe director and CIPR president shares insights from a co-creation project exploring the benefits of professional blogging By Stephen Waddington Blogging is 20 years old this year. By now it was predicted blogging would threaten mainstream media and become the dominant form of media in its own right. It clearly hasn’t but it hasn’t gone away, either. During the early weeks in February 2014, I sought out the opinion of respected and long-time bloggers...

Declaring piffle on those "traditional PR" publicity arguments

Recently I visited Black Creek Pioneer Village, a rather unique “recreated” village (it is described as an “outdoor living history museum”) harkening back to the 1860s, which has grown both in density and its rich “relating” of history in the approximately 50 years since its inception. As someone who holds a double-specialist undergraduate degree in English and History—and, more recently, as a proponent of the “organizational narrative“—it should be obvious why I have an affinity...

The Art and the science of leaving one’s mark: A requiem for Arthur Yann

“What I’d really like people to say about me after I’m gone is that, in some small ways, I left the profession and the companies and clients I represented better than when I first met them.” – Arthur Yann, APR * * * I don’t know how long Arthur Yann had been in the job of vice president of public relations for the Public Relations Society of America when I mused some five years ago...

The communication process more important than outcomes on PR Conversations

Process is more important than outcome When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there. –Point #3 from (internationally renowned designer) Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth Currently I’m transitioning from thinking-mode process to writing for my June Bytes from the PR Sphere column (which covers the intersection...