DISQUS

Trevor Cook · 3 years ago

Good stuff, Lee

Shel Holtz · 3 years ago

Just two things to mention, Lee, that might ease your suffering. One, "hired" isn't the right word, since it was a volunteer gig. And two, as I recall I was approached based on my authorship of the "Blogging for Business" book (which was, in fact, the title of the teleseminar).

Not that the PRIA shouldn't have gone with a local son or daughter. Just thought I'd pass that along, though.

Gerry · 3 years ago

As a Scot-turned-Aussie, I've seen a bit of 'prophet from another land' syndrome here (which I, naturally, play on a bit). Much of what I learn in blogland comes from homegrown (Oz) talent but maybe PRIA were going for a 'big name' they thought would be more marketable?

Lee Hopkins · 3 years ago

Hey Shel, thanks for that, mate. No one has a 'beef' with you about this, trust me, but we would be as equally incredulous if your PR body or IABC in USA suddenly approached us to talk to them. Sure, I can understand why they approached you (you did, after all, write the book on the subject [grin]), but cannot fathom why they didn't also invite any of us country yokels. Ooops - snark alert!
:-)

Trevor Cook · 3 years ago

Should we take bets on whether the PRIA will ever respond and when

Shel Holtz · 3 years ago

Ah, keep in mind, Lee, the "I" in IABC is for "international!" IABC would and has had speakers from across the globe. And by hook or by crook, we shall see you at the next INTERNATIONAL conference in June!

Lee Hopkins · 3 years ago

I am busting to be in New Orleans in June, mate!!

Now, I wouldn't sell my right arm to be there, but if anyone is in the market for a little grey haired ol' grannie... [LOL]

Andrew Parkinson · 3 years ago

Lee, thanks for your post, I found it entertaining. Couple of points:

*We use home-grown talent all the time - every year we provide hundreds of hours of content across dozens of events throughout Australia.

*Since you mention him, Gerry (McCusker) has already agreed to help us with a Sydney event on 20 February - http://www.pria.com.au/events/id/41026

*We run web conferences to reach the parts other events can't reach - in this case overseas contributions, and at relatively low or (for PRIA members) no cost. Members tell us they value that.

*Shel was indeed a fantastic draw. This was also our first US-sourced web event. We're extremely grateful to Shel for taking time out to support it; and to our members for their participation.

*We have more activity planned around this emerging issue next year, exploring members’ views, providing training and other resources, and through events including our National Conference in Sydney from 14-16 October.

If there are other activities people feel we should be leading or involved in we'd be pleased to hear about them - email national@pria.com.au

One of the main reasons organisations like ours exist is to connect people with others that share their values, in our case over 2,500 students, practitioners, academics and others across Australia; a professional body is nothing more than a reflection of its membership.

The best way to make a difference?

Join.

Have a fantastic Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

PRIA member · 3 years ago

Lee, thumbs down to your 'cringe' - it's called parochialism. Thumbs up to Andrew's response on behalf of PRIA and for providing a high quality FREE CPD activity for it's members with a world leader in the field - something that would otherwise have been impossible for me to benefit from. Does the term Global Village not mean anything to you? PS: this is my first blog posting!

Trevor Cook · 3 years ago

No actually 'pria member' that was a comment, to make a blog posting you have to have a blog - perhaps you should review your seminar notes!

A different PRIA member · 3 years ago

I agree with PRIA member -- it is great that the PRIA is providing these free, high quality CPD activities. Sure there are experts in our country, but why not hear the perspective of an international speaker sometimes too.

Thanks to Shel for a great seminar and the PRIA for putting it on.

Dean · 3 years ago

as always lee, leading the aussie pack. i remember once reading that australians had one of the world's largest "personal space" bubbles on the planet. as i recall the thesis was that our convict ancestory lead us to distrust others, thus keeep our distance. again and again i see this bowing down to "knowledge from afar". i ackonowledge that it is part of culture, however i support with a two handed vote that we should be pissed, that we should "fire up", and attempt to transend this "blind spot" in our psyche. cheers dean

Lee Hopkins · 3 years ago

Thanks everyone for your comments!

My goodness -- HASN'T there been a lot of emotion here! I have to say that I *really* do appreciate Andrew weighing into the conversation -- I didn't expect that, thank you Andrew! I take it from your tone that you are a member of the PRIA executive, for which I commend you for your involvement in this conversation.

As for the two anonymous commenters -- I appreciate, too, your involvement, but the blogosphere is much more likely to take your comments credibly if you give us your real names (see my post http://leehopkins.net/2005/09/28/we-move-from-e...)

But I accept that your heart is in the right place and so I welcome you to the conversation and look forward to hearing that you, too, have started your own PR-focused blogs. That will definitely help your credibility, rather than (as it appears at the moment) that you have 'joined the conversation' as partisan interests. One cannot help feeling that the 'PRIA member' tag of one sort or another means that people were 'roped into' offering some sort of opinion without necessarily having the full background information on which to base it.

I would love to hear from Annabelle herself, but understand that her business interests may keep her away from the blogosphere and from entering into this discussion.

Let me reiterate -- I am not a PR practitioner, nor never have I strongly proclaimed myself to be one. For some bizarre reason everyone seems to keep lumping me into the 'PR' bracket -- I consider myself, primarily, someone who is an evangelist for online communication IN WHATEVER FORM, be it internal or external to a company. My biggest 'communication' love (apres internet) is for internal communication.

My PASSION is for finding ways for companies and individuals to 'tell their story' honestly, openly and frankly, in order that within the new paradigm that the internet operates under they might find new souls equally interested in their passion.

I have no doubt (and those who have *actually* read my blog before and listened to my FIR reports would easily attest to this) that Shel would be the perfect person to interview regarding 'business blogging'.

What I find egregious is that no 'local yokel' was also asked to add their two cents' worth. PLEASE correct me if I am wrong.

I have been fortunate to be invited to be a guest presenter on a panel with several other PR folk -- including Ross Monaghan and Dr Collette Snowden (http://leehopkins.net/2006/08/30/public-impact-...) .

What stunned ALL of us is that not ONE PR person was present in the audience -- despite Ross having visited several major PR companies here in Adelaide the day before. This was an event that was heralded much in advance, yet no PR person deigned to show up.

It makes me wonder how much the Australian PR industry (which I am not a part of) is keen to bury its collective head in the sand and pretend that newspapers, TV and radio are the only media worth worrying about.

In which case the PRIA has MUCH work to do in Adelaide if it is to bring the SA body into line with 21st century communication practices.

Even an old-salt journalist at the seminar, from Murdoch's 'Advertiser' rag, commented that she uses Google to find her 'experts'. Ask Shel, Trevor Cook, myself or any of the aforementioned folks in this original post about how blogs are very 'google' friendly...

I look forward to hearing what the PRIA is doing in South Australia to bring its membership into the 21st century.