Does it feel any different having finally being conferred with my Diploma in PR? Not really. Saturday was the day and having been through two conferrings before it was a little uninspiring. It was good to catch up with class mates and lecturers and I was waiting to hear what the President of the PRII, Pat Montague had to say for himself.
He chose to focus on the need for PR as a profession to stand up for itself saying that, " we don't give enough credit to ourselves". He went on to call for well-defined standards to be applied to the public procurement process for government PR contracts.
The public relations industry should and does embrace the robust discussion of its role. We have set out minimum requirements for entry and are backing that through investment in the improvement promotion and management of an enhanced education programmes......The combination of minimum standards of qualification with a more transparent procurement system such as that promoted both by the PRCA and Quigley is in everyone’s interests and should be become the required norm as soon as possible
He went on to highlight, briefly, the role PR plays outside of corporate and consumer fields referring to its contribution to Tsunami fundraising appeals and to a recent anti-pollution campaign, Race against Waste.
Perhaps I'm being overly critical but while the overall intent of the address was worthy, I really wasn't particularly affected by its content. My guests were also a little surprised that more wasn't made of the opportunity to imbue a real sense of future into the new recruits and that they were entering a fantastic profession. I suppose it should be about what we do and not what we say but "doing" for us is meant to be communicating.
Tags: PR, Public Relations
