PR Voice

Torching the Olympic Dream

With protests in Athens, London, Paris and San Francisco, the stunt of carrying an Olympic torch across the globe has generated front page coverage.

Have the protests added fuel to the political flame and will they ensure long term damage to China’s and the Olympics’ reputation? It’s a debate we’ve been having internally at the CIPR, especially as there are so many reputations at stake.

The first stakeholder we looked at was the IOC – yep they’ve kept their message simple but as past President, Peter Walker commented, their message, which was hardly heard, that ‘bringing the games to Beijing has made the Chinese take notice of the outside world’ does run against the hard nosed belief that commerce fuels the Olympic flame, not ideals.

Is there long term damage to London 2012? The athletes fronting the London message kept the coverage on track (please excuse the pun!) The immediacy of the Paris protests after London took much of the heat out of a localised situation. ……but what is the impact of pictures of heavy handed British Police and security chaos? Or did they show freedom to protest coupled with an ability to pin point and quickly move out potentially dangerous elements from a crowd?

So, many questions and answers but the one area we all agreed on was that the bunch of Beijing Olympic suited security men, more prominent than the torch and the torch carriers just fed the military/secret police state image we have of China. A smooth procession would have done nothing to improve this image………we’d probably have seen it for what this global tour actually is – a one way PR stunt.

China’s definition of PR isn’t the same as ours in the UK – their industry still has its roots in propaganda and certainly isn’t the two way process that we’ve come to expect. China (in our humble opinion) appears to have been taken by surprise by the fact that the rest of the world wont take at face value the image it presents – the Olympics cannot be hosted in isolation from the rest of its other activities.

We now watch as the torch carrying moves on, another day and another city. Having China host the games was always going to be a brave and controversial decision. So, as we sit back to see the Olympic winners, it wont just be the athletes that we’ll have in mind.

Can a PR Institute help in the war against corruption?

I’ve spent much of the weekend preparing for the Timex Global Communications Summit taking place in Abuja, Nigeria next week.

The conference theme is ‘Building a Corruption Free Society: The Challenges for Public Relations’.

When I started to think about this I realised that in the UK, rightly or wrongly, we start with the assumption that we live in a corruption free society. This means that the efforts deemed necessary by professional bodies and regulators are designed to work on an exception basis rather than the norm.

Blackberry With Your Turkey?

It's amazing how much our working practices have changed isn't it? When I first started work the first thing I was shown how to use was the new fax machine. There were no mobile phones and we all just took a couple of days off over Christmas and New Year and would return between the two bank holidays without a single thought, feeling refreshed. Today, Christmas is a genuine two or even three week break.

I actually love to go into the office between Christmas and New Year. It's the perfect time for 'sorting' – for getting through the filing, for making lists (something I do endlessly!) and for planning for the year ahead. I love the peace of it all and the satisfaction you get from completing all those small chores you've been putting off.

There's also part of me that sees it as a refuge. Getting away from the Christmas fuelled children, the chaos that surrounds the endless presents (where do you put them all??), the family politics and the endless eating...

Yet, while the two week break can be beneficial, especially if you're a slave to the school holidays, there is still the odd client or contact that sees your flexible working approach as something to their benefit.

There I am, 6pm Christmas Eve evening, apron on, I'm making home made Cranberry sauce with a sense of domestic smugness. All my mail order Christmas presents have arrived (just!), they have been wrapped and everything seems to be in order. Then ping...in comes a message wanting a response.

Today, people do expect an instant response. We seem to get impatient if we don't get a reply within a couple of hours. So while modern technology has made our lives more flexible, I do question how much 'freedom' it really has given us. No more can we leave the office at the office; instead it's now all over our homes.

Perhaps I'm being harsh; after all I'd never be without my pda, laptop and data card, especially when I'm travelling up and down to London from Worcestershire. It has taken the stress factor out of not knowing what is going on, while you're out and about. The sense of needing to know what is going on seems to have taken over and now dominates. We seem to think nothing about receiving emails from colleagues at odd times of the day or night.

For me, the lesson is simple. Christmas Eve is a special time, especially with my very young family and next year I shall just switch everything off at the appropriate time...unless of course its urgent...then my mobile will always be on!!

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.

Madchester

To the Hilton in Manchester for the North West PRide awards.

This was a fantastic evening with over 350 in attendance. A host of worthy awards, but special congratulations to The Co-operative Group for winning outstanding in-house team, and IPB Communications for winning outstanding consultancy team.

Special awards were also given to Felicity Goodey and Andy Spinoza - both being greeted with enormous enthusiasm.

So thanks to Dave Sanders and his committee for organising such a great evening - and for making myself, Colin and Ben feel so welcome.

Magnificent Marlow

My 'farewell tour' of the UK took me to the impressive Crowne Plaza at Marlow for the Thames & Chiltern PRide awards.

This was a superbly organised and excellently attended event organised by Caroline Kinsey and her committee. Caroline's Cerkle won a number of awards - including consultancy of the year. There was also success for President Elect Kevin Taylor's CompanyCare.

The Norman Manners PR Professional of the Year Award went to Neil Backwith. Formerly with Porter Novelli, Neil is now carving out a niche as a 'consultant to the consultants'.

The evening ended with a disco with living proof much in evidence that nobody over thirty should be allowed anywhere near a dance floor.

Tribute to UK PR industry

I had the great pleasure of talking to PR post-graduate students from Syracuse University at the invitation of Sheila Gunn - who used to be John Major's press officer. I briefly described the size and composition of the PR industry in the UK, and took them through the main differences between the newspaper industry here and in the States. We then had a really good discussion about how greater competition in the UK (at least on the national nespaper scene) led to a much more frenzied - and much less respectful - style of reporting. We ended up by discussing the prospects for getting jobs - or internships - in UK-based PR companies. I think it is a great tribute to the healthy state of the UK economy and the PR industry in particular that so many bright US post-grads should want to come here not just to study, but to stay and work.

Update: Vote now on the truth debate

Last week's ethics debate, hosted by PRWeek, has prompted a great deal of interest and comment. I would urge all CIPR members to vote to uphold the CIPR Code of Conduct - and the reputation of our profession. Email your vote to castyourvote@haymarket.com by Wednesday 7 March.

PRs have a duty to tell the truth

PRWeek hosted a debate last week on whether PRs have a duty to tell the truth.

For the motion (and on the side of the angels) were former CIPR President Simon Lewis and former Luther Pendragon chief (now a man of the cloth) George Pitcher. Against the motion were Max Clifford and Simon Goldsworthy.

Very disappointingly the 'truth' motion was defeated by 138 votes to 124. I have just done a podcast for PRWeek pointing out that the CIPR Code of Conduct is very clear about the need for PR practitioners to behave in an honest and truthful manner. I also said that I hoped any CIPR members in the audience were aware of the requirements of the Code, and that they had voted accordingly.

All is not lost, however! This week's PRWeek will carry an extensive report on the debate - and point readers at a link where they can vote on the motion. I urge all CIPR members to take advantage of this opportunity to uphold our Code and the integrity of the industry.

** UPDATE ** Email your vote to castyourvote@haymarket.com by Wednesday 7 March.

Ukraine is going places

Last night's presentation of the first-ever PR awards in the Ukraine brought to a close a hectic few days for those of us drafted in to form the judging panel.

The inaugural Pravda Awards attracted a sizeable number of entries, but what made the task take longer than expected was the incredibly high standard of the campaigns shortlisted. Many of them displayed all the hallmarks of well-planned and competently-managed campaigns - with only the evaluation methods a little rough around the edges.

Looking at outcomes rather than outputs was also complicated by the cultural differences apparent in the relationship between the PR practitioner and the journalist, and brought to mind an excellent, if controversial, article in the now defunct magazine PR Business written by Ukraine-based Martin Nunn.