Last night’s Wessex CIPR (Hotel du Vin, Winchester, Hampshire) ended in a lively debate which was prompted by Sue Wolstenholme, recently elected as CIPR President for 2013, who addressed the theme of professionalism in the PR industry.
Every now and again I meet people who’s PR agency sound as though they take a lot of money for not a lot in return. This really sticks in my craw. To err is human, but to not deliver your client what I consider to be the very basic elements of a solid media relations programme is tantamount to a rip-off!
The section on this website which looks at why Blaze PR is different raises a lot of the basic issue that clients have with their PR agency. It’s not rocket science, so get it right please as it makes the PR industry look pretty poor and takes us one step back from the professionals we were all talking about last night.
One of the many interesting points that Sue made is that to be a PR practitioner in Nigeria you need a licence from the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. The Law mandates NIPR to regulate the practice and direct the development of Public Relations as a profession in Nigeria. The law also makes it illegal to practice Public Relations, under any title, in Nigeria without NIPR certification. Is this totalitarian or a way to ensure high standards of professional and ethical practice? A whole new debate for another time I think! However, we all agreed last night that it would be wonderful to see all 48,000 people employed in Public Relations in the UK, strive for professionalism.
