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.