Nic Newman

Wrapping-up PR and Disruption: Bringing theory and practice closer together?

07/20/2013 by simoncollister Leave a Comment

Just getting around to reflecting on the great conference, PR and Disruption: Embracing and Surviving Change we held last week at LCC.

Nic Newman’s keynote presentation: Media Disruption in the Digital Age from LCC_PR

Overall we had some great feedback (Storify here), but below are a couple of my key take-aways from the day:

Putting academics and practitioners into the same room is a great way to start bridging the divide between theory and practice (mainly abut the way in which we talk about the same things in different terms but also, more importantly, about the changing ways in which some of the key themes of the industry are understood)
Practical skills training, such as film-making, infographics, app development, are in demand among practitioners (handy for us as a university with graphic design, publishing and TV/film departments!)
Given the popualarity of the ‘face-off’ debate stream and discussions on Twitter there seems to be a real appetite among the industry (practitioners and academics alike) to discussion what’s happening in the industry and how to best deal with it. But where are these debates being held? Who’s facilitating them? Who’s listening? And what are they doing about it? We have our own ideas which we will be working on…

Oyvind Ihlen’s keynote presentation: PR and Disruptive Society from LCC_PR

But, don’t just take my word for it. We have a couple of great post-event reflections from participants, including key note speaker, Oyvind Ihlen’s hand-grenade casually chucked into the room: “PR shouldn’t be measured”; Paul Seaman’s argument that PR should be leading economic change and renewal; Arun Sudhaman’s great insight on how changes in the media business should be changing the way brands communicate and Heather Yaxley’s post offering a great summary of the day’s main themes.

Dom Burch’s keynote presentation from LCC_PR

Hopefully it’s clear that there was a lot to take in from the day – and we’ll hopefully be getting more reflections and reviewsin the days to come. In the meantime, we’ll be continuing to plan how we can bring the industry and theory closer together. Leave a comment or drop me an email if you have any ideas – I’d love to hear them!

PR and Disruption: Embracing and Surviving Change

06/05/2013 by simoncollister Leave a Comment

It’s been little while since I last posted – and one of the reasons for this is because I’ve been helping organise a one-day conference exploring future directions for public relations.

The event, PR and Disruption: Embracing and Surviving Change, takes place on 10th July 2013 at LCC in central London and aims to generate debate and reflection about PR’s identity and the future role it should play in the contemporary world, characterised by disruption. You can book a place here.

More specifically, the day will explore and map the knowledge, strategies and skills that communication professionals need to operate successfully and – ultimately – transform society. But we don’t just want the conference to be a talking shop so there will also be a series of workshops encouraging delegates to learn the skills necessary to survive in a disruptive world.

Speakers and participants will include:

Oyvind Ihlen – Professor of Media and Communications, University of Oslo and internationally renowned and prize-winning academic
Nic Newman – Digital strategist and fellow at Oxford University’s Reuter’s Journalism Institute
Dom Burch – Head of Social Media, Walmart-UK
Alison Theaker – Author, The Public Relations Handbook and independent academic
Drew Benvie – Founder and MD, Battenhall and ex-CEO, Hotwire
Paul Seaman – MD of West PR-Seaman and PR blogger
Heather Yaxley – Co-author, The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit and independent academic
John Shewell – Founder and MD at Colab and ex-Head of Communications, Brighton and Hove Council
Tom Allan – Global Engagement Manager, ActionAid

This great line-up and others will be involved in delivering by a range of keynote presentations in the morning, followed by three parallel streams in the afternoon: ‘face-off’ debates, case studies and the practical workshops. The complete list of speakers is on the conference website and a full itinerary can be found here. The day wraps up with a drinks reception and networking.

We’ve kept costs deliberately low as we are well aware of the time and budget limitations people have at the moment, so full-day attendance is £125 (inc. VAT) and half-day (morning or afternoon) is £75 (inc. VAT). On top of that I can offer a 10% discount on the full price. Just book via the alumni rate and enter ‘SCblog’ when prompted for ‘year of graduation’. What are you waiting for? Book a place now: http://bit.ly/PRdisrupt

As a footote, the event is designed by the BA and MA academic course team here at LCC to help shape the future direction of the PR discipline at LCC – and ideally – create a theoretical and practical platform from which we can establish a research institute that will be positioned to explore PR from its wider societal and cultural perspective, rather than just as a business function. The idea being – ultimately – to push forward the conceptual agenda and help organisations and practitioners (from multi-nationals to grassroots movements) better navigate and deal with the challenges and complexities of the modern world.

Nic Newman’s Journalism, Media and Technology Predictions 2013 is a must read

04/18/2013 by simoncollister Leave a Comment

I missed this when it first came out but Nic Newman‘s Journalism, Media and Technology Predictions 2013 is a must read.

There’s lots of detailed fascinating insight and analysis with case studies and examples and I’ve shared the executive summary below:

The coming year will mark the BIG switch to mobile computing. It will overtake desktop use for news – in turn driving more mobile first media
Improving video capability and data graphics will be a major theme for news organisations aiming to engage audiences using better screens and faster connections
Live pages, live streams and live workflows become a key focus in newsrooms – with newformats emerging for bite-sized news
The phablet is coming – a mix between a smartphone and tablet. Mid sized screens andaffordability will hit the sweet spot for many consumers
We’ll see a further deepening of the social revolution across all platforms – accompanied by a growing debate about the implications – privacy, control and all the new skills required to manage it (we said this last year but it is worth repeating)
In technology expect big advances in gesture control (LeapMotion), indoor location, 3D Printers – and the beginnings of wearable computing
More disruption in banking & finance, retailing and higher education as the Internet revolution begins to bite

While the document is really an analysis of the media and journalism sector it doesn’t take a leap of imagination for PR professionals to recognise the impact the predicted transformations will have on communications planning. There may well be future post in this – distilling the technology-led disruptions re-shaping the media/journalism space and what it means for PR practitioners. For now let’s just note that Nic’s prediction that at least two UK national newspapers will go behind paywalls in 2013 has already come to pass!