ICCO President Maxim Behar and Chief Executive Francis Ingham, who is also Director General of PRCA, are among those awarded the Pro PR Award for 2017, organisers announced yesterday in Zagreb.

Pro PR is an international conference held in Croatia for the past 15 years, and since 2002 an international committee has voted for people who have contributed to the promotion of public relations, and have increased standards in business all over the world.

“We do recognize this way the significant role of ICCO in setting new and modern standards of public relations business globally, but also its role to unite so many different countries, cultures and business visions into one world organisation”,  Danijel Koletic, President of the Organising Board of Pro PR said.

Maxim Behar, ICCO President said: “This is a great recognition for all ICCO members, for our teams and what has been done for the past couple of years in the organisation. We are also very happy with our good cooperation with the Croatian Association for Public Relations and look forward to expanding activities in the region.”

Francis Ingham, ICCO Chief Executive said: “I am deeply honoured to have been chosen for such a prestigious award. Our global PR and communications industry is the epitome of vibrancy, and if I have played some small part in adding to its lustre, then I am proud to have done so.”

A list of other award winners can be viewed here.

Top international experts from the United States, UK, Singapore, India and Australia are the first speakers to be announced for the world’s top conference on measurement being held in Asia for the first time in May.

The AMEC Global Summit on Measurement is being supported by ICCO, whose members can attend the event at a special discount.

The Global Summit is organised by AMEC, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication and will be held in Bangkok on May 17/18. AMEC is the world’s largest media intelligence and insights professional body with over 150 members in 85 countries.

The Global Summit will also include the awards presentations of the annual AMEC Awards, which aims to promote best practice in communications research, evaluation and insights.

AMEC also hopes that ICCO members will also enter the AMEC Awards, the largest event of its type in the world. Details on the Awards scheme can be found at http://amecawards.com/.

International speakers will talk at the Global Summit about the latest techniques and thinking, in addition to a series of practical workshops to help educate PR and communications in South East Asia about the latest measurement techniques.

The first speakers to be announced are:

• Luisa Megale, Vice President, International Public Affairs and Communications, Asia Pacific, American Express. Australia.
• Deepa Dey, Head of Communications, India Sub Continent, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. India.
• Jamin Spitzer, Senior Director of Platform Strategy, Microsoft. United States.
• David Watson, Head of Campaigns in the UK Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office. H M UK Government Communications. UK.
• Jim Macnamara, Professor of Public Communication, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology Sydney. Australia.
• Scott Kronick, President & CEO, Ogilvy Public Relations, Asia Pacific. China.

More speakers will be announced soon.

Barry Leggetter, CEO of AMEC, said: “As our Strategic Partner, we receive tremendous support from ICCO. We hope it will be possible for some ICCO members to attend the Summit in Bangkok.

“The international quality of our speakers will be a major factor in making the Global Summit a ‘must attend’ event for PR and communications professionals in South East Asia.”

The Summit is organized by AMEC. Headline sponsor is Isentia, Asia-Pacific’s leading media Intelligence Company.

EarlyBird registration discounts are now available through the Summit website, together with a special rate negotiated at the AVANI Riverside Hotel, Bangkok, where the Summit will be held. Accommodation can be booked on this link.

– Ends –

About AMEC
AMEC – the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication – is the world’s largest professional body for communications research, media intelligence and insights with more than 150 members in 86 countries.

For further information contact:

Barry Leggetter
CEO, AMEC
Mobile: +44 7748 677504 or +44 1268 412414
barryleggetter@amecorg.com

Article by Francis Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO

ICCO ended 2016 in better shape than ever before, and begins 2017 with enormous optimism and confidence, not only for the future of our organisation, but also for the future of the global PR and communications industry.

So what did we do in 2016?

We grew: Associations in Armenia, Serbia and Hungary, as well as PRCA MENA joined as members; and Interel Group and IPREX as Direct Consultancy ones. This means that we now represent over 2,500 agencies, via 37 Associations, operating in 48 countries. We also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese International Public Relations Association with the African Public Relations Association; and with Iranian Public Relations House. We are unquestionably the world’s largest PR organisation now – and our size is only going to increase in 2017.

We expanded our range of services – our Global Matchmaker service matching agencies with partners from around the world; our international Professional Development platform; our Global Diploma in PR and Communications.

Our World Report, delivered in conjunction with PRWeek, provided the definitive analysis of the size, shape, composition, and future direction of our global business. And it showed the vibrancy of our business – with growth in every single region of the world.

Charlene, Maxim, and I chalked up the air miles, vising plenty of members and speaking at dozens of your conferences and award ceremonies – and we look forward to seeing even more of you in 2017.

We put on three keynote events throughout the year, each of them a great success.

In June, we represented our industry at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Not only did we sponsor the Young Lion competition, showcasing the best agency young teams from around the world; we also hosted the House of PR – a focal point for our members to meet, network, and share experiences through the week.

The ICCO Global Summit was hosted in Oxford, and saw over 180 agency leaders from more than 25 countries gather in the most elite conference of the PR calendar.

And finally, the ICCO Global Awards were bigger and more prestigious than ever before, showcasing the fantastic work that is delivered in countries from all around the world.

To reflect this progress, we’ve reorganised our structure. We now have 5 Regional Boards, each headed by an elected Regional President, giving every part of our increasingly-diverse membership a voice.

This structural change will drive much of our activity in 2017. We will, for example, stage an ICCO conference each year in each region of the world, giving members more opportunities to engage with one-another than ever before.

We will use this wider-than-ever reach to establish common global benchmarks, spreading Communications Management Standard; introducing Continuous Professional Development; making our Global Diploma the mark of personal professionalism in PR; launching on-demand learning to enhance the offering we offer to Associations and agencies alike.

At the 2013 ICCO Global Summit in Paris, I said that our organisation was a sleeping giant whose time had come. Well, the giant is awake; taller than ever; and strutting around the globe.