Conference 2013 was all about Enduring Relationships, Enduring Communities. Where better than Christchurch to hold a gathering of public relations practitioners and communication managers focusing on the real heart of communications.
While we are living with rapid and multiple technological advances, the one thing that hasn't changed is the basic recipe for good communications: knowing your audience, planning clear strategies and evaluating measurable outcomes. And the proof is the creation of enduring relationships that provides the PR professional with enduring communities of interest.
Message from Southern Division Committee Chair, Lee Harris
in 2012 the PRINZ Southern Division Committee saw an opportunity to help the city’s Recovery
efforts and to show colleagues from around the country what’s been happening since the crisis points of September 2010, February 2011 and subsequent earthquakes. We wanted to show a city that’s surging forward because of the enduring relationships that have been formed – either over years and years of connections, or through working together in times of crisis.
We wanted to illustrate how important these relationships are in developing enduring communities – whether real and tangible communities or “communities of interest” (stakeholder groups). And we wanted to draw on the myriad of expertise that is embedded in the city – some that has arrived since our big events and some that endure and have built on existing good practice to become world leaders in their fields.
Drawing on our local networks, the PRINZ Southern Committee (Lee from CERA, Ray and Rachel from CCC, Jan from NZTA, Ady and Gerald from Ecan, John from the University of Canterbury, and health sector communicator Michele) were joined by Fellow Felicity Price and seasoned practitioner Lee Howden in pulling together a conference programme that offered a good mix of common sense and best practice.