World Public Relations Forum 2012 - Melbourne

"Communication without borders", this is the theme of the 7th World Public Relations Forum, which was held on November 18-20, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia. The event was hosted by the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and saw the participation of almost 800 delegates from 29 countries.

Sunday, November 18 - Research Colloquium

On Sunday, November 18, Dr. Marianne Sison chaired a successful Research Colloquium, where 100 people discussed and debated about the newest ideas and research in public relations.

All the papers for the Colloquium are now available online.

Click here to download the Research Colloquium proceedings.

Monday, November 19 - World PR Forum Day 1

The first day of the World Public Relations Forum hosted speakers from around the world who covered a wide range of topics on the theme "communication without borders", including public relations in sport, the laws surrounding social media and the implementation of the integrated reporting.

During the morning session on "Stakeholder-centred communication in global organisations", Jean Valin and John Paluszek, both GA Past Chairs, presented the Enel/GA Study "Who Has Seen The Future?". This study presents best practices from nine multinational corporations and relevant findings from four recent in-depth international studies.

In the afternoon Daniel Tisch, GA Chair, and Jean Valin, GA Past Chair, conducted the Melbourne Mandate Symposium, where delegates discussed and debated the Melbourne Mandate, a call to action of new areas of value for public relations and communication management.

Tuesday, November 20 - World PR Forum Day 2

The final day of the 2012 WPRF continued the trend of discussing the issues relevant to the industry and sharing ideas among the best PR minds across the world. A clear theme developing from the forum was around ‘story telling’, which was a phrase echoed in many presentations.

In the morning Richard Edelman delivered an impressive keynote speech focusing on the future of public relations and identifying what practitioners must do to keep up with our changing world.

The day came to a close with Daniel Tisch, GA Chair, and Jean Valin, GA Past Chair, presenting the final statement of the Melbourne Mandate, a document that will shape the code of PR practice for the upcoming years.

The Melbourne Mandate document is available for download on the Melbourne Mandate blog.

Daniel Tisch also announced that the next World Public Relations Forum will be held in Madrid, Spain, in 2014, hosted by Dircom, the Spanish association of communication directors. Click here to read the press release.