By Steve Radick

Over the 15+ years that I’ve been involved with PRSSA and PRSA, I’ve had the privilege of attending several International Conferences in some great locations, including Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Chicago. At this year’s conference in Indianapolis, I was also honored to speak at my third International Conference, and gave a presentation on “Building Value That Has Value Beyond Likes, Comments, and Clicks.” The slides are available here if you’re interested in seeing those, or just email me and I’d be happy to talk with you about them. Fred Cook, CEO of Golin, also did a wonderful presentation on the Global Communications Report from USC’s Annenberg Center for Public Relations. Some of the biggest insights from this report include:

• Industry leaders, both at agencies and at brands, believe future growth will be driven by content creation and social media. 
• Both agency and corporate leaders believe that the ability to attract and retain the right talent is their greatest challenge and that the PR industry is generally bad at sourcing talent from outside the PR industry to fill these gaps. 
• Writing skills is ranked as the most important PR skill to have, but that the industry needs more curiosity, creativity and critical thinking to meet future demands. 
• In total, PR executives are predicting that 63% of all media outlets will offer paid placement opportunities in five years. 
• By the year 2020 (just three years from now!), only ¼ of agency leaders believe the term “public relations” will clearly and adequately describe the work they do. 

In addition to the conference, PRSA National also held the annual Leadership Assembly, comprised of all PRSA National representatives and delegates from every PRSA Chapter, district and section. During this day-long meeting, we discuss everything from the future of our profession to how we govern ourselves. Below are the four things you need to know from this year’s Leadership Assembly:

1. PRSA National unveiled the new 2017-2019 Strategic Plan – “Framework for the Future.” Email me if you would like to view it.

2. PRSA has released a new mobile app (Google Play and Apple) that we should all download.

3. PRSA is FINALLY launching a new National PRSA.org website (more details coming soon!).

4. PRSA Pittsburgh is the proud pilot chapter for the new PRSA EasySites website development program. Our development site was highlighted to the rest of the country here, and our new and improved site should be up and running in early 2017.

If you have any questions about the PRSA International Conference or Leadership Assembly, please get in touch with me, or our PD Day Chair, Robin Rectenwald, who also attended. 

Steve Radick is the Vice President, Director of Public Relations at Brunner in Pittsburgh. Find out more about Steve here.