PR Voice

Public Affairs Action Day

This was a one day event organised jointly by Dods, Public Affairs News, the CIPR and CIPR GAG.

We took over the Commonwealth Club for the day and well over a hundred delegates participated. I was honoured to be invited to make the opening address, and I also participated in a panel discussion on the political year ahead with Steve Richards of the Independent and Gill Morris of Connect Public Affairs and the APPC.

However, the highlight of the day was undoubtedly the eight breakout sessions moderated by a roll-call of most of the profession's senior practitioners. The feedback from these sessions was universally positive.

In true public affairs style the evening ended with a drinks and networking session - an excellent precursor of the Christmas events to come in the month ahead.

This was a fantastic event all round, and I hope that despite my imminent departure from both Dods and the CIPR this will become an annual fixture.

Public Affairs Action Day - 30 November!

Arrangements are being finalised for the Public Affairs Action Day - and tickets are selling fast.

This is a joint event between the CIPR, CIPR Government Affairs Group, Public Affairs News and ePolitix.com. It is an all-day event on Friday 30 November at the Commonwealth Club in Northumberland Avenue. The phenomenal range of speakers include Graham McMillan, Vivien Hepworth, Iain Anderson, Robert Khan, Sarah Atkinson, Iain Dale, Ben Wilson, Nick Lansman, John Lehal, Michael Prescott, Eben Black, Gidon Freeman, Tom Spencer, David Earnshaw, Kevin Bell, David Thomson, Christopher Boyce, Arthur Leathley, Peter Golds, Jonathan Bracken, James Gurling, Jeremy Sweeney - and many, many more!

There will be breakout sessions and master classes on PA for PR professionals, PA for financial services professionals, PA for charities and the voluntary sector, lobbying in the digital age, pitching, engaging with the media, lobbying the European Parliament, engaging with the civil service, communications crises, influencing local government, commissioning consultancy services, using opinion polls and focus groups, pharma PA, the importance of the Official Opposition - and appearing before select committees (very topical at the moment).

I will be chairing the conference along with Dods' managing editor Craig Hoy - hope to see some of you there!

http://www.cipr.co.uk/publicaffairsday

Bournemouth Blog

Labour had a good week in Bournemouth. Delegates and trade unionists were remorselessly on message, and the party demonstrated a real determination to hang on to power.

Gordon Brown's speech was dull - one client I watched it with likened it to one of his regular budget speeches. He also missed a fair proportion of his clap lines, and stumbled over his words. Neveretheless, the audience - inside and outside the conference chamber - were impressed and reassured.

Who speaks for the public affairs industry?

The Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) has been running a campaign to get itself recognised as the sole arbiter of ethics for the public affairs industry. This is to ignore the role of the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) (which has its own code of conduct) and of course the CIPR, which has a code of conduct,...

Public Affairs - Standards and Ethics

There have been a flurry of stories an the national and trade press about standards and ethics in public affairs. This culminated in a story on the front page of PR Week suggesting that London Mayor Ken Livingstone would in future only award contracts to consultancies which signed up to codes of conduct - and implying that APPC and PRCA members alone would qualify.

I have written to Mr Livingstone and PR Week pointing out that our members have to sign up to a detailed and stringent code of conduct, and that this was backed up by a Professional Practices Committee and a Disciplinary Committee. This is reinforced by the fact that we have been in existence for 60 years, we have a Royal Charter, and we have more than 9,000 members - many of whom work in public affairs and government relations, either in-house or in consultancies.

We are therefore very well placed to uphold standards in the industry. Any suggestions that only APPC and PRCA members should be allowed to bid for government contracts are extremely misguided, and might well be viewed as an attempt to re-create the the bad old days of the closed shop.

Technology and Public Affairs

I chaired the Public Affairs News Technology and Public Affairs workshop. The event was sponsored by Augure - a firm which specialises in stakeholder contact management. We had a heavyweight panel made up of Stephen Uden from Microsoft, Sue Appleby from the London Borough of Southwark, and Gill Morris, MD of Connect Public Affairs and Chair of the APPC. We also had some great contributions from the floor. The general consensus seemed to be that technology has a big role to play in public affairs - in terms of monitoring, biographical databases, online campaigning and stakeholder management. This role is certain to expand in the future - but we are still some way behind the United States in using technology to underpin our public affairs work.

Ethics in public affairs

I had a meeting with Mark Glover, MD of Bellenden Public Affairs. This is a small but fast-growing all-party lobby shop which specialises in environmental issues. Mark has nine core members of staff and associates, and he insists that they all join the CIPR. Apart from the added professional credibility which this offers them, Mark is also a big supporter of the CIPR’s Continuing Professional Development programme. He also feels that the CIPR Code of Conduct is wide-ranging and robust enough to demonstrate that members are determined to abide by the highest ethical standards. This is an important message which the CIPR and its Government Affairs Group must trumpet: you do not just have to join the APPC to prove your determination to behave in an ethical fashion. The CIPR has a Code of Conduct – and a Royal Charter to boot!

Getting out and about

On Monday I went to Brussels for a reception hosted by the Parliament magazine to commemorate the accession to the EU of Bulgaria and Romania. Both foreign ministers and both ambassadors attended the event - along with 45 MEPs and over 200 staffers and civil servants.

It was very noticeable - at this event and at the Commission press conference the following day - that English is more firmly established than ever as the working language of the EU. Eurostar both ways was pretty empty - but there was still a fair sprinkling of CIPR and GAG members. It felt a bit like the conference special to Blackpool - but without the pall of gloom hanging over every head........

Solid fare with Lionel Zetter

Dinner at Joe Allen’s last night with the lovely Madeleine Hallward – now with LLM but formerly a client at Diageo. We discussed the differences between working in-house and moving over to the consultancy side. Also compared notes on the Bromley by-election, where we found ourselves on opposite sides.

Madeleine is perfect in every respect, but God evened things up by making her a Lib Dem.

OK, so most of you were probably thinking by now that my life is and endless stream of lunches, dinners and receptions.

There is, however, a more serious side to some of the things which I (and the CIPR) get up to.

The CIPR is in guide-producing mode. First one on TUPE, now one on procurement.

Procurement processes are a little like haircuts (bear with me here..): they're boring and you never quite know what the end result will be, but if you neglect them, you end up looking like a muppet.

Sunny, steamy and slightly smelly with Lionel Zetter

On the 05.33 this morning – proposal to finish off by mid-day. Beautifully cool, and mercifully quiet in the office (what happened to the British long hours culture?).

Horribly hot and sweaty journey on the District line to Mansion House. Tubes packed, slow – and, let’s be honest, slightly smelly. I know people pay good money for saunas but this is silly…

Meeting and then lunch at one of the many Davy’s wine bars with Pete Digger of DLA Upstream – an old friend (although he is still pretty young) who has taken us with him from Shandwick to Bursons to DLA. Joined by his Scottish counterpart Andrew Henderson and latterly by Eben Black – formerly of News International but now decamped to the ‘dark side’.

We compared regulation of the public affairs industry in Westminster and Holyrood – which has also had some ‘scandals’ in the past. Eben agrees with me that his former colleagues resent public affairs practitioners because they have influence and inside intelligence - something they think they should have a monopoly on. Some of the smarter lobby journalists talk to lobbyists on the same basis that they talk to MPs – as good sources of off-the-record background intelligence. Others just treat public affairs practitioners with suspicion – or even disdain. Perhaps they need to look at the steady flow of top journos who make the transition in to PR or public affairs. Or, indeed, the steady flow of people who make the transition from public affairs in to Parliament itself.

Head back for the tube and then think – sod it, shanks pony.

Home for a school leavers’ service. Very emotional for some of the kids – lots of tears mixed with the perspiration. Fell asleep in front of Big Brother – hope none of that shower are looking for a career in PR!