Global PR Summit: industry at a cross roads

An industry at a cross roads was the rallying cry from Paul Holmes as he opened the Global PR Summit today in Miami.

With US attendee numbers down due to Hurricane Sandy, Holmes addressed a more international audience of PR leaders than expected – about challenge & opportunity, about continual misconceptions of PR and of a future in which PR is becoming more central to brand building and corporate success.

Personally I'm fast becoming a PR-bear. By that I mean that when I look around I fear for our future with so little notable thought leadership globally. Some of the best thinking about our so called profession seems to come form those outside the actual industry – marketers, business leaders and social media experts in particular. And those pundits would suggest our biggest challenges are this:

1. Measurement
2. Integration with other forms of communication or campaign elements 
3. Social media 

To be fair all three of things, if right, are opportunities not just challenges, as Holmes suggested at the outset. But the intelligent debate isn't coming from the PR folk – maybe we're just too close to it.

It's the first time an event like this has been run, and while numbers were down, registrations exceeded all expectations. Why? In part because Holmes has been successful, through the Sabre Awards and The Holmes Report, in broadening the geographic footprint of the Holmes Report brand and its associated events.

I'm tweeting from the event using the conference hashtag of #PRSummit today/tonight (Wednesday AM AEDST) and tomorrow. Blogs will be posted here with the best of the thinking from the conference.