What does it take to be creative? What is the promise of disruption in the digital era? What is the impact of millennials on brand reputation? What role does reputation management have in the age of artificial intelligence and virtual reality? These are some of the topics that were presented and discussed at the PRAXIS 2016, a Public Relations and Corporate Communications Summit on September 23 in the Aamby Valley in India.
This year at PRAXIS, I was a presenter and met professionals across diverse sectors, industries and countries. The theme of the conference was “Reputation is Everything” and was well-attended by professionals from more than 170 organizations. Global leaders from various agencies included Kathy Bloomgarden of Ruder Finn, Aedhmar Hynes of Text 100, Pascal Beucler of MSLGROUP, Alan Vandermolen of WE Communications and Jon Higgins of Ketchum were part of a power panel and gave a global perspective on reputation management.
For my session, I was joined by Roger Bolton of the Arthur W Page Society and Gregor Halff of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management to talk about research, academics, and the role of the new CCO to transform organizational reputation. Gregor and I discussed ways academia and industry in Asia could work together. Other panels included founders and corporate communications heads of start-ups on how to build reputation, young professionals on how to create great content, and PR leaders on how the role of chief reputation officers is evolving.
The discussions around creativity, digital, storytelling, technology, and real-time marketing were very enriching. My presentation on the role of research in building reputation walked through the process of research and how professionals can use the power of research in building and strengthening corporate reputations. Conferences like PRAXIS are a great way to understand how professionals in other countries are advancing the profession and how IPR can help them discover the science beneath the art of public relations.
Details of the conference can be found here.
Sarab Kochhar, Ph.D., is the Director of Research for the Institute for Public Relations. Follow her on Twitter @sarabkochhar.
