The First Gathering

July 23, 2009


Wow.

The passion is still there!


At our PR gathering last night there was general agreement that the way businesses and governments function today has changed the role of the practitioner.

Mark Thomas, Elaine Commissiong and Carroll Edwards championed the role of the Society to train and offer opportunities for the continuing education for practitioners. The maturing of sports associations, NGOs and community based organisations has created more practitioners who need support to carry out their roles, Pat Gillings and Allison Christie Binger reminded. Carroll also informed the group that PR certification was being offered not only by UWI but at other universities and that the graduates were employed and doing well.

Alison, who noted that we should not be seen as functionaries but counsellors, saw the Society as key to engaging CEOs and Ministers of Government on how best to utilise their PR people. Misha Lobban and Leo Mc Ewan gave examples of the urgency of this imperative.

The question of how many practitioners are active in Jamaica right now was discussed and there was acknowledgement that the public sector has seen the largest growth over the past decade...yet many of us do not have the skills to be effective or to counsel our bosses.

We have the evolved skills in communication Mark says and it us up to each one of us to get into the heads of the economists, technocrats and other specialists so that the organisation can achieve its communication goals with its key stakeholders.

As Keith Brown says, "Obama has done us the biggest possible favour...this man has created something that is phenomenal and at the base of it is public relations."

Then there is public service...our upcoming and star athlethes need media grooming and we are best placed to do this service for Brand Jamaica.

It is an exciting time to be a business communicator and it needs the involvement of every one of us to shape a modern vision so the PRSJ can function as a Society again.

Coming soon...our Facebook page and an event in August.

To hear a clip of the discussions yesterday, go to the link below.

File will remain active for: 7 days

Link to file: https://sites.google.com/site/gojamaicapr/system/app/pages/admin/attachments
or
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/717081052/f70aba1e0f853ff8f6b0dc45f36e096a

Regards,
Gwyneth Davidson
Member