Dan Janal | Publicity and PR Leads Blog

For me, this is the year of learning.

If there’s an interesting conference, I’ll be there. It is time to learn new things and realize that I don’t know it all. Of course, at one time, I did know it all, but the world kept on moving and I didn’t!

Here’s the twist. We’ve all gone to our industry conferences but after 15 years, it all sounds the same.

So, I’m going to conferences outside my area to see what I can learn from other industries!

You’ll see the findings of my scholarship in posts on my blog.

If you can’t go to conferences, then pick up magazines you’d never think of reading. On a recent plane trip, I picked up complimentary copies of Black Entrepreneur, Parents and the Economist. It is truly fascinating to see what is going on out there — and how it can be applied or adapted to your business.

Today’s chipping point: Read magazines in other fields, and attend conferences that are distantly related to your industry.

No much.

It is amazing that the PR industry is so resistant to change, especially
when it comes to technology that changes the way people communicate.

Case in point: Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, attended a big PR
convention in San Francisco this week and writes:

“Blogs are the hottest thing going. Yet the vast Majority of PR people here
have the deer-in-the-headlights look when you mention
blogs. Several I met are almost belligerent toward them. Others said
Their bosses already have said, “absoloutely no blogs.” Amazing.

I can’t say I’m surprised.

I faced the same reaction when I spoke at PRSA in the early 1990’s about
using email to communicate with reporters.

I faced the same reaction when I spoke to PRSA in the mid 1990’s about using
websites and ezines to communicate with reporters, employees and the
community.

In fact, I did a paper survey after the second talk and found that among 127
people who responded, just about everyone considered the Internet a bother.
In the words of one person, “It’s just another (expletive deleted) thing I
have to do.”

It is truly amazing that people who supposedly dedicate their lives to
communication resist tools that make it easier to communicate!

How do you pull your foot out of your mouth?

PR LEADER Shelle Rose Charvet offers expert NLP advice for Harvard President Lawrence Summers who has enraged academia over his views on women’s abilities to become scientists. That advice can help you to.

“Many people think that it’s game over once they have made a blunder. They also believe that “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” But it’s not over until YOU decide it is! You get many chances to make a second, third, fourth and fifth impression,” she says. What’s her advice? Click on this link to find out.

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