PR leaders from 22 countries gather @ AGM; new board takes office July 1st MILAN, Italy, June 26 2015
The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management held today its 13th Annual General Meeting in Milan, followed by the Association Leaders’ Worskhop. Over 40 public relations professionals and academics participated in the events, with more global representation than ever before.
A new board of directors was also elected at the AGM, taking office July 1 2015. The incoming board includes leading practitioners, academics and industry association leaders, with representation from every continent.
“It’s a great honour to have earned the trust of our members and a privilege to be serving on a GA board that is the most diverse ever,” said Chair-Elect Gregor Halff. “Together, we aim to help the public relations industry strike two crucial balances: As an industry, we need to balance the need for joint global standards on the one hand, with ever more diverse practices on the other. As associations, we’re balancing the traditional value of industry bodies with the need to adapt to a world that’s ever more volatile and networked.”
The board members expressed their sincerest gratitude to Global Alliance Chair Anne Gregory, whose achievements include the first Global Credentials and Accreditation Summit held in Lugano in June 2014, the acclaimed and successful 2014 World Public Relations Forum in Madrid, the Madrid Momentum initiative, and the Global Survey, the world’s first global on-going study of public relations practice.
“It has been my privilege to work with colleagues from every continent in the last two years, I’ve seen that our global profession is strong, yet we face challenges and opportunities. Our opportunity is to bring our unique communication view, our professional capabilities and ethical principles to the task of building relationships between the organizations we represent and their stakeholders, while at the same time serving the wider interests of society. Our challenge is that this requires us to be leaders not only to support leaders” Gregory said. “There has never been a greater need for communication leaders, and I am grateful to my colleagues in the Global Alliance for their ongoing commitment to drive our profession forwards.”
The 2015 Annual Meeting was hosted in Milan on Friday June 26 by FERPI, the Italian Federation of Public Relations. The AGM was preceded by a successful conference on Food, Sustainability and Communication organized by FERPI. Italian and international communication professionals and academics participated in the event, focusing on how communication can help, support and improve the transparency of the food industry and its sustainability.
The program for the rest of the weekend includes the Association Leaders’ Workshop and a visit to EXPO on Saturday, June 27, where delegates will explore different cultures and traditions and taste the world’s best dishes.
