This week in PR (16 June)

Purpose, climate and ESG

Consulting, skills and careers

It won’t be AI that will replace you but people using AI – couldn’t agree more with @dansodergren #InnerRebel2023 pic.twitter.com/s5wm9Sd3JS

— Advita CommsRebel (@Advita_p) June 14, 2023

• Son Pham: Brendon Craigie on 20 years in PR, technology and human agency in the age of AI (15 June)
  ‘Having been working in PR for more than 20 years, Brendon still enjoys the process of trying to change people’s minds, and having his mind changed about things.’

• Emma Drake: Why now is the time to use audio content as part of your strategy [podcast] (15 June)
  ‘Audio descriptions are a form of narration that help make visual media more accessible for those who are visually impaired. Audio is a powerful tool that shouldn’t be overlooked as part of a strategy.’’
• Frankie Oliver with Katie de Cozar, and Nicola Koronka: Are PRs paid enough? [podcast] (14 June)
  ‘Our entry-level salary [at Missive] is £26,000. We’d love it to be bigger, but we can’t really afford to do that at the moment – and that comes back to what we can charge our clients at the moment for what we deliver.’

• Sarah Waddington: Identifying change drivers and developing strategy (11 June)
  ‘The Role of Public Relations in Strategic Planning and Crisis Preparedness, a joint 2023 report from the IoD and Chartered Institute of Public Relations, states that when employed as management function, public relations can: “not just help businesses navigate economic and political turbulence, but also thrive and grow.”’

Gender, diversity, health and wellbeing

• Sara Hawthorn: Making presentations accessible – from design to delivery (9 June)
  ‘Don’t wait for people to ask or hope that your presentation is inclusive. When you’re promoting it tell people the steps you’ve taken and the inclusive options available to them.’

Public and third sectors

• Darren Caveney: Are comms at your top table? (12 June)
  ‘I’ve worked with over 80 councils now – whether consulting, training or supporting – and a pattern emerges: Those organisations which have comms as a key member of their SMT tend to have better communications fundamentals, approaches, outputs and outcomes.’

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

I met Boris Johnson on 28 June 2007.
@Karenbruce was in labour a month early.
Floods meant most trains home from London to Leeds were cancelled.
The first to run was quiet
I thought I was alone in the carriage.
♀️ @Karenbruce called to say I had a daughter.

1/3

— Stuart Bruce | The PR Futurist (@stuartbruce) June 15, 2023

• Robyn Evans: Johnson comes out swinging amid damning Partygate report (15 June)
  ‘For Mr Johnson, who had so wanted to be remembered as a great Prime Minister, the biggest punishment from the report will undoubtedly be the damage it does to his reputation and whether this spells an end to his chances of returning to frontline politics.’

• James Surallie: Trade Tuesday: London Tech Week – Is the UK still an attractive place to invest? (13 June)
  ‘Despite initial fears about the international attractiveness of a post-Brexit Britain, with some studies suggesting that Britain leaving the EU could lead to a fall of inward investment by nearly a quarter, recent developments suggest that Britain is still a world-leading destination for investors, especially in tech.’
• Sabine Tyldesley: Dead, disgraced or deluded. Is this the end of populism? (13 June)
  ‘Polling and analysis indeed show that populism in the UK is in decline. At the local elections in England in May the populist right in the form of UKIP was eliminated,while the Reform party picked up only two seats.’
• Shimon Cohen: Responding to Political Change (no date)
  ‘The late great Lord Young of Grafham, another of my esteemed mentors, and whose memorial I attended this week, used to remark, “It’s easier to do what you want to do if people think well of you.”

Our award-winning Public Affairs practice is on the lookout for an Account/Associate Director to join the team. If you are a seasoned Public Affairs practitioner with experience of major corporate clients across a range of sectors, or have direct political experience at a senior…

— MHP Group (@MHPC) June 13, 2023

Research, data, measurement and evaluation

Internal communication

• Jenni Field: What is the AVID framework? (13 June)
  ‘The AVID framework was created by Dr Kevin Ruck and it stands for Alignment, Voice, Identification and Dialogue. It’s a contemporary framework for good internal communication practice that is linked to employee engagement and organisational success.’

• Rachel Miller with Advita Patel and Priya Bates: Building a Culture of Inclusivity: Effective internal communication for diversity, equity and inclusion (13 June)
  ‘We are working with human beings (and we can be complex), so we often deal with resistance to change – which isn’t unusual. People are often uncomfortable with changing something that has benefitted them for several years.’
• Dan Holden: Lessons from a global coaching and mentoring conference (12 June0
  ‘I wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference, but I found a lot of overlap between internal communication and coaching. At first, I was surprised, but on reflection, it seems to make sense. After all, both internal comms and coaching have a clear focus, helping the audience, whether it’s a wider colleague group when it comes to communication or an individual client or team when it comes to coaching.’

Media, digital and technology

• Dan Slee: KEY MESSAGE: I think the new WhatsApp Channels tool could be huge for you (15 June)
  ‘In the UK, Ofcom say that WhatsApp is the 3rd largest social channel with 39.8 million users. That’s 58 per cent of the population.’
• Ruby Tyson: The SEC Newgate AI Weekly (15 June)
  ‘In other news, the legend lives on with AI being able to ‘extricate’ John Lennon’s vocals for the release of an upcoming track, said former bandmate Paul McCartney to the BBC.’
• Ben Smith with Jane Wakefield and Aaron Kwittken: The Impact of AI Journalism [podcast] (13 June)
  ‘Chief among the worries is the way AI can spread misinformation. How are we going to tell what’s real and what isn’t?’
• Ann Wright: Our simple guide to journalistic jargon (12 June)
  ‘Off the record: Information given to a journalist by a source which they don’t want to be attributed to them.’

Looks like Elon’s realised he has a PR problem https://t.co/tqpZ2XfhJu

— Drew Benvie (@drewb) June 11, 2023

Academic, education and training

• Stephen Waddington: Research management: keeping track of literature and building knowledge (14 June)
  ‘This is a practical example of workflow innovation: approaching a problem by breaking it down into tasks and then figuring out how tools can support your work is far more likely to be successful than jumping on the latest shiny solution looking for a problem.’