Annual Conference 2009

Paddy Hughes, MPRII, President PRII

Opening address

Eddie Hobbs, Financial Adviser & Author

Can we talk ourselves out of recession?

With consumer confidence at rock bottom is there a role for professional communicators to deploy their skills of persuasion to positively influence an economic upturn

Eddie Hobbs has been a consumer campaigner and advocate since 1991 when he took up the mantle of director and finance spokesperson for the Consumers’ Association of Ireland. He performed this duty on a voluntary basis until stepping down in 2006, following his appointment to the new statutory National Consumer Agency by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment.

An authorised financial adviser, Eddie is best known, however, for presenting RTE's blockbuster Rip Off Republic and RTE's double-award winning personal finance series Show Me The Money. He is a frequent speaker, writer and broadcaster on consumer-related issues and has published two Irish bestsellers – Short Hands, Long Pockets on debt management, and Loot! on investments.

Orlaith Blaney, Managing Director, McCann Erickson

Thinking outside the box – turning small concepts into big ideas

There are always winners in a recession. And history shows that you can be one of them if you apply a vision to your business that excites people and motivates them.

Orlaith Blaney joined McCann Erickson Dublin in 1998 and held various positions including client services director and deputy chairman of the Board before being appointed Managing Director of the agency in 2003.

She has a team of 48 people and billings of €45m under her stewardship with local and global clients including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Powerade, Sprite, Heineken, SuperValu, Tayto, L’Oreal, MasterCard, Nescafe, Nestle Cereals and Tullamore Dew.

Orlaith was elected to the Board of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI) in 2003 and in 2008 she chaired the IAPI Task Force on Pitching Guidelines. She also currently serves on the Board of Unicef in Ireland. Apart from being a regular contributor to the media on key marketing issues, Orlaith has featured in the Business and Finance Top Irish Business People in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and in Media and Marketing Europe’s Top 40 under 40.

Niall O’Dowd, Journalist and Author

Lessons in political PR from Obama

Barack Obama crossed several new frontiers as a presidential candidate, not the least of which included catapulting political campaigning into a cyberspace arena. Can Ireland – or indeed Europe – simply imitate his actions? Should we? And can Obama himself maintain the trendsetting momentum by healing some of the international wounds inflicted by a tarnished ‘brand America’ with a triumph of substance over style?

Niall O'Dowd emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1979 and subsequently founded the Irish America magazine and Irish Voice newspaper in 1985 and 1987, respectively. A leading member of the Irish-American community, he has been named among New York’s most influential people by New York magazine.

An active Democrat, Niall was a founding member of the Irish Americans for Clinton campaign and was extensively involved in the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement following Bill Clinton’s election as president. He is currently a member of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s finance and strategy working group, and remains a leading proponent of comprehensive immigration reform in the US.

Niall was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater University College Dublin in 2004 and was appointed an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2008.

Jane Ryder, MPRII, Press and PR Officer, Food Safety Authority of Ireland

Case study: Ireland’s pork recall

The temporary decimation of the Irish pork industry in December 2008 has provided a text book example of crisis communications at its best.

Jane Ryder, MPRII, joined the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) in 1997 and has held a variety of communications-related roles there since. Currently, as the Authority’s Press and PR Officer, she is responsible for the organisation’s communications, public relations and advertising functions. Prior to joining the FSAI, Jane was a marketing executive for A&L Goodbody Solicitors.

Kathie Thomas, Director of Innovation, Fleishman-Hillard

Unlocking creative potential to achieve powerful results

Proven tips and strategies on how to inspire and promote innovation in well-intentioned, but distracted, organisations.

Kathie Thomas has had one abiding passion – creativity – over the course of a 28-year-career that has spanned graphic design, branding, public relations and management. Now, as Director of Innovation at Fleishman-Hillard, she is charged with instilling that passion in her colleagues, and with helping the firm’s clients unlock their creativity at a time when CEOs and other business leaders increasingly view innovation as a critical success factor.

The innovation practice group Kathie leads offers proven tools and approaches for helping organisations and teams inject a new level of innovation and productivity into their strategic planning and programme development. The goal is not creativity for its own sake, but the systematic fostering of new ideas that deliver value.

Kathie has been extensively trained and certified in creativity, innovation, and thinking skills and, in addition to developing programmes for Fleishman-Hillard employees and clients, has lead more than 220 sessions with over 3,750 participants in 11 countries for a number of Fortune 500 companies since 2005.

Lunch

Bob De Laney, Director of News & Business, LexisNexis

Future proofing your PR strategy for 2010 and beyond

An insight into new ways to identify and exploit the influencers and channels that matter in media 2.0.

Bob De Laney is Director of News & Business for LexisNexis (United Kingdom & Ireland), where he has responsibility for content licensing, and product development and strategy for the Nexis portfolio including the flagship Nexis product, NexisDirect, LexisNexis Analytics, and the anti-money laundering products KYC and KYC-ID.

Prior to joining LexisNexis, Bob was the director of Factiva Consulting (EMEA) in London and of Factiva parent, Reuters, in New York. In previous roles with Alacra, Thomson Financial and Bloomberg he has held positions in research as well as in business development in London, New York and Toronto. Bob has spoken at numerous conferences on a variety of knowledge management topics including content integration, workflow applications, content procurement and licensing and media analysis.

Panel discussion: Suzy Byrne, Brendan Hughes, Harry McGee and Shauneen Armstrong

Meet the bloggers

• Is blogging relevant within an Irish media context?
• Which blogs or bloggers are influencing the news agenda and why?
• What motivates bloggers to get online and write?
• How can PR professionals engage meaningfully with the blogging community?

• How can you effectively track and monitor the blogosphere?

  Should we be jumping on the Twitter bandwagon?

Chairperson and blogger Matt Cooper will lead this interactive discussion designed to highlight the myriad of opportunities the world of blogging holds out to professional communicators.

Suzy Byrne is author of the news and current affairs blog http://www.mamanpoulet.com, which won Best News and Current Affairs Blog and the overall prize of Best Blog at the recent 2009 Irish Blog Awards. She is also a regular contributor to Irishelection.com.

Brendan Hughes is e-Commerce Manager with FBD Insurance, where he is responsible for the company’s blog and Twitter activities. He is also Chair of the Irish Internet Association's Social Media Working Group which has recently published a whitepaper on business blogging in Ireland. Author of http://brendanhughes.ie, Brendan uses his personal blog to discuss the impact of the internet on business and communications in Ireland.

Harry McGee is a well-known political correspondent with the Irish Times. A respected journalist and commentator, Harry has also worked as a correspondent and political editor for the Sunday Tribune and Irish Examiner, respectively. In addition, he is a former editor of Magill magazine. He has been blogging since 2006 – initially at http://www.harrymcgee.com and, more recently, at http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/politics/.

Shauneen Armstrong is a press officer for the Labour Party but blogs in a private capacity at http://redmum.blogspot.com. The mother of a teenage daughter, Shauneen is best known for the online public campaign she initiated to have the controversial government decision to abandon the cervical cancer vaccine for 12 year-olds reversed. Within days of launching, the campaign had signed-up over 8,000 supporters and subsequently attracted significant media attention.

Paddy Hughes, MPRII, President PRII

Closing remarks