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What's needed from future PR Pros
By Mary Burke
The 2002 PRSA International Conference, "Interpreting a World of Change and Challenge," was, at once, thought provoking, poignant and energizing and while the raft of enticing concurrent sessions steeled me from the sirens at Fisherman's Wharf (to a certain extent) it did made it difficult to narrow down which session to attend.
On the flight home, I spread out the lessons learned like pixels on a screen-anticipating the digital summary to come into focus. The theme of change and challenge was clear, and presented brilliantly by two communication experts, battle-scarred from 9/11 -- Brigadier General Ronald Rand, who shepherded crisis communications at the Pentagon and Tim Duke, American Airlines V.P. of Communications. Nestled in their tactical messages of the value of crisis planning and split-second flexibility, of pagers and third-party information streams (utilizing the employee website for veiled messages to the media, in order to keep an accurate flow of information, for example), was a familiar mantra of the power of trust.
As the conference went on, I listened to case studies of companies merging and blending cultures, of higher education frantically piecing together new revenue streams, of technology companies rising from the dot com ashes. The elixir in each story was the building of trust.
Whether our constituents are employees, customers, shareholders, corporate leadership or a nation, we, as communicators, are the shepherds of that trust. Times of change and challenge have made it clear that our responsibility is not to simply educate, inform or creatively garner support, but to ask the hard questions of leadership in order to foster a landscape of trust-the essence of building long term relationships with our publics. These are the relationships that help our companies and organizations weather economic challenges, unpleasant disclosures and employee culture-shock. It is nurturing real trust that will help us to interpret and succeed in a world of change and challenge.
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Mary Eileen Burke
Group Leader
The Vandiver Group
More on our winner (in her own words)
Mary has 20+ years of experience (yikes!) in media relations, branding, internal and external communications and advertising and training. (Integrated marketing, before the buzzword) She works with a breadth of clients at The Vandiver Group, but specializes in healthcare and education sectors.
A word of thanks...
I very much appreciate the generous stipend from PRSA. Attending the conference was a wonderful opportunity and I won a digital camera, to boot! I very much look forward to participating in the local chapter of PRSA and as a member of the PRSA Health Academy.
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