{"id":126533,"date":"2019-11-18T15:45:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T14:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=126533"},"modified":"2021-12-23T17:16:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T16:16:44","slug":"7-lessons-from-the-cipr-national-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/7-lessons-from-the-cipr-national-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Integration, responsibility and cake: 7 lessons from the CIPR National Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s CIPR National Conference \u2018Preparing for the Digital Future<\/a>\u2019 focused on getting attendees ready for the challenges the industry will face over the next few years. Big issues highlighted at the conference that are already impacting PR and comms included mental health issues within the workplace, irresponsible use of data and CEOs resistant to necessary change.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What can we do to get ready for what\u2019s coming, and what\u2019s already here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out the main takeaways from the speakers this year and where they believe time, energy and resources should be spent (the first is definitely the most doable…).<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. \u2018Cake always wins\u2019<\/strong>
\nKatie Lawson, head of fundraising and communications at Tiny Tickers<\/strong><\/span>
\nLack of budget and goodwill came up in questions to speakers a lot during the conference \u2013 naturally, not every team or corporation is going to have both. During the CIPR Not-for-profit Group Session \u2018Digital communications on a shoestring\u2019, Katie Lawson from charity Tiny Tickers talked about balancing the goodwill of her audience with a lack of funds. Want attention on social media? Office cake is the answer. Katie\u2019s advice: take photos of any cake that shows up in the office and post on Twitter \u2013 this also goes for dogs.<\/p>\n

2. \u2018Spending money on content that isn\u2019t engaging is money down the drain\u2026 what you\u2019re doing is boring more people\u2019<\/strong>
\nHelen Reynolds, communications and social media trainer at Comms Creatives<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnd on the subject of what works on social, Helen \u2018The old lady of social media\u2019 Reynolds also had advice during the panel on working with tiny budgets. Everyone wants more money for what they\u2019re planning, but for Helen \u2018the work is what\u2019s important\u2019. As discussed during this talk (which also featured thoughts from Leanne Manchester from The Wildlife Trust), no amount of budget is going to make content that\u2019s lacklustre more interesting \u2013 it\u2019ll just be much more expensive.<\/p>\n

3. \u2018Focus on the human aspect of work \u2013 if we\u2019re not more open and transparent, I think we\u2019re going to be forced to\u2019<\/strong>
\nPeter Cheese, CIPD<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u2018So, I\u2019m the HR guy\u2019 is how Peter Cheese started his talk \u2018Rebuilding trust from the inside out\u2019. Peter made the point that companies are part of communities and society, and therefore important stakeholders to be considered. Moves to sustainability within offices (the increasing popularity of recycling initiatives and paperless working) and the adoption of workplace charities shows that a greater focus on the human side of big business is already happening. But it can\u2019t merely be lip service. Like the RSC dropping BP as a sponsor<\/a>, genuine steps must be taken for the wider community to see legitimate considerations for the future. Full accountability for bigger brands and high-profile people (Amazon was mentioned a lot during the conference, as well as a certain US president) might not be the reality yet, but it\u2019s coming and is worth planning for now. Communities demand, and deserve, better from the corporations that serve and sell to them.<\/p>\n

4. \u2018Reputation management needs to be holistic and integrated. It\u2019s vital and necessary to speak out on the big issues of the day\u2019<\/strong>
\nTony Langham (CEO, Lansons)<\/strong><\/span>
\nIn \u2018Reputation on the line\u2019, Tony Langham highlighted a growing area of the PR and comms industry being within organisations. Employee engagement is where PR is heading, and employees need to be able to trust their companies and those higher-up on the food chain. And this is possible even when it\u2019s not necessarily deserved; according to Tony: \u2018People will forgive anyone if they like them\u2019. So, be trustworthy to your employees, if you have them. Or if you can\u2019t quite do that, be likeable.<\/p>\n

5. \u2018If you don\u2019t take a stand on technology ethics, you\u2019re still taking a stand. There is no neutrality in this space\u2019<\/strong>
\nDr Stephanie Hare, researcher and broadcaster<\/strong><\/span>
\nDuring one of the most passionate talks of the day, Dr Stephanie Hare (in Ethics of Our New Technologies) urged those in the audience to take forward a greater understanding of how to use their influence and skillset. Particularly when it comes to GDPR. For her, \u2018the way that we are treating data isn\u2019t working\u2019 and the technology we use isn\u2019t without discrimination or potential harm. Having penned an op-ed on the subject for The Observer<\/a> the weekend prior, and citing the recent controversy with Apple Pay\u2019s gender discrimination<\/a> during her talk, Dr Stephanie made the case that \u2018building better tech is about building a better world \u2013 you\u2019ll have a better PR story if you get on the right side of history\u2019.<\/p>\n

6. \u2018The same way that companies can track us, we can track them and what they\u2019re doing \u2013 corporate digital responsibility needs to be applied in-house\u2019<\/strong>
\nDr Lawrence Ampofo, Digital Mindfulness<\/strong><\/span>
\nAlso advocating for greater responsibility in the tech space, Dr Lawrence Ampofo argued for greater human interaction in the development of technologies and services, as well as with customers. Technology, services and products need to have the \u2018friction\u2019 of humanity alongside the benefits of AI (also a big topic during the conference, unsurprisingly). What humans can bring that AI can\u2019t (yet) is responsibility to employees and clients \u2013 that\u2019s only going to get more important, going by how many times it was talked about by the speakers and in audience questions.<\/p>\n

7. \u2018Get your boss involved in decisions to be part-owner of solutions. Ask \u2018what do you think?\u2019 Take them on the journey\u2019<\/strong>
\nJoanna Blackburn, Government Digital Service<\/strong><\/span>
\nMoving away from pure profit considerations and towards a more mindful approach for the wider community we serve and the colleagues we work with has to come with CEO approval. What do you do when you don\u2019t make all the big decisions at your company, and have a particularly resistant person in charge? Bring them on the journey with you, said Joanna Blackburn when talking through her successes with bringing about change at the Government Digital Service. And for those holding the power in organisations, her warning was that job titles don\u2019t guarantee respect anymore and that workplaces are filled with intelligent people quick with questions for those in charge.<\/p>\n

To be ready for the future of PR \u2013 wherever you are in your company hierarchy, or whatever your budget \u2013 the lessons from this year\u2019s CIPR National Conference speakers was to be open, ethical and considerate. But also, to help get that started, bring more cake into the workplace. Also, dogs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s CIPR National Conference \u2018Preparing for the Digital Future\u2019 focused on getting attendees ready for the challenges the industry will face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":126553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126533"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137657,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126533\/revisions\/137657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}