The CIPR’s autumn/winter conference programme kicked off yesterday with the sell-out Perfecting PR Strategy boutique conference attended by 50 senior level PR professionals.
The over-arching theme of the day was how to put public relations at the heart of organisational strategy and the full programme can be seen at www.cipr.co.uk/strategy.
Without an effective strategy, you are winking in the dark
Vikki Stace from Trimedia set the scene by looking at how to put together an effective PR strategy, the importance of linking this to your business objectives and how vital it is to measure the results of your PR efforts in terms of their impact on organisational goals. As she said, “Implementing a PR programme without an effective strategy is like winking at someone in the dark – you may know what you are doing, but the audience doesn’t.”
Yorkshire Water’s Rob Salmon talked about ensuring corporate strategy is generating the right reputation externally; and Susannah Randall, The Wellcome Trust, suggested ways to get employees to buy into a strategic approach and develop a sense of shared ownership.
After a delicious lunch, Penny Lawson from ITV talked about how they changed their strategy with their high profile, award-winning Brand 2010 campaign following a merger, and communicated the new brand vision internally and externally.
Last but not least of the speakers, Kevin Reed and Fiona Battle discussed today’s multi-media world and how YouthNet’s communications strategy makes use of the very latest technologies to reach its target audience of 16-24 year olds.
In a packed day, delegates also had the opportunity to attend two themed discussion groups on either Internal Comms or Crisis & Issues Management. This was a time to share experiences with peers and discuss different ways of tackling these issues.
A dynamic day, filled with discussions begun in the Q&A sessions and break-out groups, which continued into the post-conference reception. The general consensus was that a good day was had by all!
What delegates said about yesterday’s CIPR Perfecting PR Strategy conference:
“Lots of ideas to take back to work – I think the course will have cost-justified itself with one new strategy!”
“Really useful pointers that I can take back to the office.”
Delegates will have access to selected presentations from the conference shortly; if you attended, keep an eye out for an email from us with your access information.
