PR conferences – are they worth the bother?

In the past month I have been privileged to attend to partner PR conferences – both in Europe and both requiring travel, expense and a great deal of juggling between the day to day at Active PR and the focus that these events require not to mention the preparation required for each one!

Is it worth it I hear you ask? What benefits do these bring you rightly say? Well in a sentence – Yes they are and the benefits are both immediate and long term.

Let me explain.

We as marketing professionals preach visibility, top of mind awareness and perception and we tell our Clients that this is what we can deliver for them amongst other things and – at Active PR at least – we do! But what about ourselves? How do we market ourselves?

One way is to attend these events and forge new relationships, counter or enforce any perceptions our European and US partners may have of us collectively or individually and message that we are a professional, reliable and responsive partner for them in a region not renowned for these elements when it comes to our profession or all of those that practice it!

To actively participate and to be “high profile” is beneficial to the Agency. To take every opportunity to engage and input and represent the caliber of the team we have is an investment in the continuing growth of Active PR and must be seen this way by the representatives attending – in this case me!

In addition it’s also about listening and learning whether this be about social media and the latest stats and innovations or about measurement of PR and where this is at and the various approaches and arguments around this or it is about the latest work processes or profiling the latest generation of individuals joining PR around the world. All of this is extremely useful if not to think about implementing or reproducing in our Agency, then to reinforce that we are doing the right things to grow the business and to nurture the people that stay loyal to it.

The most recent example – Hotwire Boot Camp in London – was very useful, very relevant and very effective in dealing with various aspects of the profession we are in, looking at the challenges we all face now and in the future and how to deal with these.

What is also delivers is new business, new contacts and new opportunities to generate revenue and that is what pays the rent, pays the salaries and grows the Agency to provide new talent opportunities, take us into new areas both with new as well as existing Clients and challenge us. Afetr all it’s the challenges that keep us engaged, interested and excited.

That brings me back to why we attend these events they keep us engaged, interesting and attractive to Clients, the media and the people we interact with!

I look forward to more!