It seems perverse to be writing about trends in PR at a time when the whole of Europe has been thrown into unspeakable turmoil and Ukrainians are facing a deadly existential threat. But actually, if we didn’t all know it before, the last few years have only served to highlight the vital function of good communication and PR at a time of crisis.  

Maybe then it is quite opportune to be launching the Global Alliance’s Trends and Transformation Month in March. After all, it is a time when a strategic and ethical approach, at senior level, with honest, accurate information, based exclusively on truth, plays a vital part in saving lives and deciding outcomes. 

I was honoured to be invited to join the European Regional Council (ERC) of the Global Alliance for Communications and Public Relations (GA) last year. The Global Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation, represents the world's major PR and communication management associations and institutions, including the CIPR. Through these organisations it reaches over 320,000 practitioners and academics around the world.  

I have always enjoyed working with multi-cultural teams and the ERC is no exception. Chaired by Silvia Arto, a Spaniard working in Paris, we also have French, Poles, Italian, Portuguese, Finnish and German members on the committee. This month the ERC has been tasked with running the “Trends and Transformation Month”. We have all been preparing to launch our March month when we are looking at the trends, which affect PR practitioners globally and how best we can transform ourselves and the industry to respond to new challenges. 

All the events organised for this month are free and open to all members. We have a great agenda and we hope that many CIPR members will join them.  

The first activity for the month was to issue a survey, first to all our European member organisations and then to the other five Regional Councils and members. We wanted to find out which top three trends are affecting PR professionals, their businesses and organisations in their country and how we can help them to adapt most effectively. 

A webinar on 10 March at 16.30 hrs GMT will explore the European results with a team of leading speakers from Europe, including Mandy Pearse, Vice President of the CIPR. We very much hope you will join us so do please register here to get the webinar link. 

But in order to make this a truly global event we also asked GA’s other five Regional Councils for their thoughts. I am excited to be facilitating that webinar at which we shall be discussing this on 30 March at 13.00 hrs GMT, where the chairs of all six Regional Councils will participate and we will unveil the global results.  

 

The spread of Global Alliance organisations and speakers on 30 March

 



* includes Malaysia, Vietnam, NZ. Australia, S Korea, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Japan

** includes India x 5, UAE x2

In the interim, why not make your voice heard by participating in this month? Is one of the trends digital transformation, or the impact of Covid, or maybe the urgent need for climate change action? Whatever your views perhaps you’d like to write a blog, or prepare a short video about the trends you think are the most important and how PR needs to adapt to succeed in these changed times. If you let me know at mail@maclainecomms.com what you have prepared, we can get it featured on the Global Alliance website.