Blog post by Francis Ingham, CEO, ICCO; Director General, PRCA UK & MENA

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting South Africa for the first time. It’s a beautiful country, and home to a vibrant PR and communications industry, so I was thrilled to be there.

The occasions were ICCO’s Global Board Meeting, and PRISA’s National Conference, both held in Johannesburg. The discussions around the ICCO Board were detailed; the speeches and debates at the PRISA event couldn’t have been more engaged and engaging. And by the way, if you haven’t heard it yet, I strongly recommend you listen to David Gallagher’s presentation on expectations; exploding engines; and the current scene. All the better for having a bird sitting next to or above him in the hall throughout his comments….

What did I take from the event? Quite a lot actually, and here are six highlights:

1. The industry has a natural desire to network and to exchange ideas, experiences, predictions. We had representatives from around 20 countries in Johannesburg, having made often quite significant commitments of time and money to be there, and all of them eager to learn from one-another.
2. There is more than unites us than divides us. The key issues facing the industry in world region after world region, and evidenced by the ICCO World Report, is talent. Though we might live and work thousands of miles apart, there truly is such a thing as an ICCO community and commonality of interests.
3. What’s driving growth around the world is digital and content creation.
4. But that growth sits happily with older PR and communications skills -e.g. media relations. We have reached a happy place of equilibrium, where our industry can provide the old and the new skills and services alike.
5. Everyone is worried by fake news; by political turmoil; by the need for our industry to stand up for ethical behaviour. Speaker after speaker raised those three issues. And we need to address each of them seriously.
6. And finally….. ours is the industry of the future. Vibrant around the world; represented by committed, passionate, intelligent people; confident in its future

The title of my presentation on trends within our industry was this: Bright. And Getting Brighter. I stand by those words more so now than ever before. Happy days to be in PR and communications.