Live blogging was done by me from the venue.  The report is available from http://prpoint.blogspot.com.  Please see the slide show of the pictures.

Prime Point Foundation and Chennai PR Club organise one-day UnConference PRCamp – Edition1 at Chennai on Sunday the 14th December 2008.  PR / Corpcom professionals, PR students,  PR teachers, journalists who want to enter PR field, Corporate CEOs who want to know about PR may attend.  For more details and registration,  click

http://wiki.prpoint.com/mediawiki-1.12.0/index.php/PRCamp

Challenges faced by working women – An interview with Dr Sangeetha Madhu

http://www.primepointfoundation.org/presense/presense0708.pdf

http://www.corpezine.com/2008/07/june-2008-international-association-of.html or

http://www.poduniversal.com/2008/07/international-association-of-business.html

The June issue may be downloaded from
http://www.primepointfoundation.org/presense/presense0608.pdf

Presently, many institutions are providing UG / PG programmes on Public Relations throughout the country. . Advertisement and Journalism are traditional subjects for a long time and the faculty members are sufficiently equipped to handle these subjects.  But PR courses are being introduced in the past 5 to 6 years in many institutions. 

When I interact with the students of such PR courses, I find that PR classes are being handled by totally unconnected people or by the people who have studied PR in their text books.  They read the chapters in the class rooms  as available in some traditional text books.  Even in big centres, where practising professionals are available, the colleges are hesitant to involve them even for interaction. 

A student of a city college remarked to me, ” the faculty members are afraid that their incompetency and ignorance of PR will be exposed if the professionals come for interaction”.  Whether there is a truth in it or not, this is the perception, the students are carrying silently because of the attitude of these colleges.

One of the  Colleges started a MA (PR) Course few years back.  They had included my name and few other senior professionals name in their brochure / website as if we are taking sessions.  Though, four or five batches have completed their course, till date none of us were invited to interact with students even for one hour.  I came to know about the inclusion of my name after 18 months (!), when a student approached me for some help. 

Three years back, another college included me in their Advisory panel for developing their MA (PR) course.  Three months before the start of the course, there was a meeting for one hour (!) to finalise the course syllabus, which they had prepared.  The purpose of the meeting was to crreate a record that professionals were involved in developing the syllabus and to get approval from University/UGC.   We received the invitation for the inaguration of the course.  Till date neither myself or any other professional had any interaction session with the students.

With personal contacts,  some students get internship with some of the PR Agencies / Corpcom  and enter the PR profession.  I also observe none of these colleges / Departments handling PR courses have any knowledge of the PR Companies or Corporate Communicators. They also do not have contact with professional bodies.

I have personally found that many of the faculty members handling PR subjects do not even show interest in joining the discussion groups  like this for updating their knowledge and to network with industry professionals.

Some well known institutions like Symbiosis, Pune take interest in involving the practising professionals and seeking their advise.  I am associated with Symbiosis in their Board of Studies.  They invite the members for serious discussion.  Many practising professionals also are invited to interact with the students.  That helps the students to develop contact with the industry.  May be very few institutions involve the industry professionals for the benefit of students.

Why many of the educational institutions running PR courses shy away from involving the practising professionals?  Does it reflect their lack of confidence?  Why many of the PR faculty members do not show interest in updating their knowledge or networking with industry?

May I requet members to suggest ways as to how we can bring academia and industry together.  I invite students, and young professionals who have completed their PG/ UG courses, Faculty members also to share their views. 

Small and Medium companies (popularly known as SMEs) are in a disadvantageous position. I have been brooding over this matter for the past four or five years. I have even consulted CII and FICCI experts. I am planning to organise an exclusive National Seminar for SMEs on this theme of ‘brand building’, if the industry organisations support.

My friend Palin has brought out this issue in his bog, suggesting five simple methods without going to professionals.

He has talked about (1) designing professional logo, stationery, etc (2) not using yahoo or gmail ids for companies, (3) phone courtesy by employees, (4) smartness in dress and (5) Using the internet capabilities like blog, youtube, etc. All the suggestions are cost effective and can be practised at ease.

Presently, in India, SMEs face lot of challenges like quality in production, finance, marketing, etc. In addition, major companies and Government exploit these SMEs by delaying their payment.

Currently, SME segment is growing fast in India. Their contribution to GDP and employment are very high, when compared to major industries. Though, there are lot of figures available, definitely they contribute a minimum of one third of the GDP and more than 60 percent of the employment.

If the Industry organisations agree, Prime Point Foundation can help them to design a suitable model for ‘brand building’ of SMEs

My concern is why Public Relations is to be confined only to media relations.  Almost all the PR Agencies feel comfortable in handling media relations.  Now PR is moving towards stakeholders perception.  PR strategies need to be worked out for a long term benefit of the client. PR need to be integrated with HR and Marketing.

Now a time has come for the PR Agencies to include the other strategies like HR branding, internal communication, investor communication, Marketing communication, social media,  liaison/networking, etc.  Unless PR Agencies include such varieties, clients also will not be able to understand the concept fully.