#FuturePRoof, a crowdsourced book and community with the bold ambition of asserting public relations’ value as a management discipline launched today. I have contributed one of the book’s 33 chapters.
No one can predict the future – just ask Mystic Meg. That doesn’t mean we have to walk blinkered into tomorrow.
There are those who strive to anticipate, understand and adapt. Those who arrive at their destination – but don’t truly know how they got there. And, those who don’t move with the times. Become irrelevant and fade away.
In today’s complex and uncertain times we need to look outside not just our firms but outside our industries. We need to have one foot in today whilst keeping the other foot outstretched into tomorrow. We need to equip ourselves with new skills to solve tomorrow’s new problems.
#FuturePRoof is a call-to-arms. It looks to the future as a place of opportunity. The book is a practical guide aimed at driving up standards and professionalism within the public relations industry.
The brainchild of public relations consultant and agency owner Sarah Hall its intention: to engender innovative thinking and encourage PR practitioners to create disruption, not just embrace it.
Sarah has curated and edited 33 chapters from renowned academics and practitioners. Topics include emerging areas of practice such as PR’s move towards paid, mapping workflow and freelance business models. It also covers more traditional topics like measurement and evaluation, ethics and stakeholder management.
“#FuturePRoof is an ambitious project. Its purpose is to explore the opportunity for public relations right now and in the next ten years” – explains Stephen Waddington Ketchum’s chief engagement officer who provided the book’s foreword.
Its purpose, says Sarah, “is to remind ourselves and the business community of the inherent value of PR and to raise awareness of the role it plays in driving organisational success.”
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Industry-leader endorsements for #FuturePRoof
The book has already attracted high-profile endorsements.
“A diverse range of voices that provide illuminating insight into the dramatic evolution of public relations, #FuturePRoof’s contributors offer timely observations and compelling lessons from an industry that is changing fast.”
Arun Sudhaman, Partner/Editor-in-Chief, The Holmes Report
“#FuturePRoof is an excellent reminder and guide for those committed to PR as a potent, sustainable force for good, now and well into the years to come.”
David Gallagher, Senior Partner / CEO Ketchum EMEA, Immediate past-president / International Communications Consultancy Organization, Past chairman, UK Public Relations Consultants Association
“This carefully edited guide aimed at reasserting PR’s value as a discipline explores the opportunity for public relations today and embraces topics such as skills and professional development, the move to paid, C-Suite reporting and much more. Featuring 33 highly skilled practitioners, many of whom are PRCA members, #FuturePRoof is set to become an indispensable handbook for managers of comms teams everywhere.”
Francis Ingham, Director General, PRCA, Chief Executive, ICCO and Master of The Company of PR Practitioners
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How automation changes PR workflow
My chapter is called: “How automation changes PR workflow”. I argue that today’s PR practitioner needs to do more than create effective outcomes. These are just table stakes. Today we need to create effective outcomes as economically and efficiently as possible. Building automation into the PR workflow harnesses all three Es.
Where to by #FuturePRoof edition 1
Copies of #FuturePRoof are priced at £25.99 from Blurb. It is also available as a free download through the community’s website.
Thanks Scott. I’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone who contributed to #FuturePRoof in terms of time and expertise, including yourself. Your chapter is an important one and I hope people look it out. I’ll certainly be pointing people in its direction.