Justin Green, President & CEO,
Global Alliance for Public Relations & Communication Management –
2023 Presidential Address
Ladies and gentlemen – friends and colleagues, peers in the public relations and communications profession…
I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak to you as we begin a new year.
Wherever you are in the world, 2023 brings with it the promise of fresh opportunities and challenges, along with new horizons to reach for.
I encourage you to look up, look forward and grab the new year, and all that it has to offer with gusto.
Don’t just wait for good things to happen – go out and make them happen!
Having set our ambition high, I also want to acknowledge that this continues to be a time of elevated stress and our profession is certainly not immune from that.
While the darkest days of the global pandemic are hopefully now firmly behind us, 2022 brought with it the war in Ukraine and the many ripple effects of that far beyond the country involved.
If any good could be said to have come from the invasion, it has been a powerful reminder to us of how interconnected we all are in this time of global trade.
Few could have foreseen that an invasion of a European country would have such widespread domino effects on global food and energy security.
We have also been reminded by the Ukrainian authorities of how powerful a weapon human stories can be, and there will doubtless be many books written about how that country has influenced public opinion globally, so that they win the support they need to survive.
We can now only wish that the year ahead brings many better days for the people of Ukraine, whether they remain in the country or have been forced to leave it to find safe harbour elsewhere.
From our profession’s perspective, the war in Ukraine – in common with the pandemic I mentioned earlier and the ongoing climate emergency - has again underlined the huge societal value of reliable information.
It has long been said that bad news travels fast, it sometimes seems that fake news travels even faster!
This makes our role as a bridge between our organisations and their audiences ever more important.
It also means, that we must constantly earn and keep the trust of those audiences.
Doing this means behaving ethically and being seen to do so. There are no short cuts.
While we will always present facts favourably, we cannot compromise on truth or create our own reality.
As well as behaving ethically and using our huge talents and creativity for good, I also encourage you in 2023 to think where your skills, experience and energy can take you. Explore new terrain - if you haven’t already, consider what part you can play in the growing focus on environment, social and corporate governance.
Don’t allow yourself to be pigeonholed as someone who “just does PR” or “just does communications”.
You are a skilled professional who has earned their place at the top table alongside our counterparts from disciplines like Finance, Human Resources and Engineering.
Your skills are certainly no less valuable and often more so.
Don’t undersell yourself or the profession you are part of.
Stand up and be proud!
As Global Alliance President, one of the things that gives me most satisfaction is getting to meet colleagues and peers who work in so many diverse roles and settings right around the world.
Wherever I go, I see that our profession is making progress on its own diversity journey so that we are truly representative of the communities we live and work in.
To be it, you need to see it and I encourage all of you to think how you can be great role models for those coming after us in this great profession.
The future belongs to them – you can help them design and build it better!
While we all need to be mindful of our carbon footprint and wider environmental impact, there is no substitute for the brilliant energy and vitality that you get when people who communicate for a living come together in-person to share their insights and ideas.
In whatever way makes sense where you are in the world, I encourage you to get out more and meet more people in the year ahead.
When smart people come together, great things happen and we can achieve so much more together than we ever can apart.
So, be open to learn and use your membership of Global Alliance and other professional bodies as a way to reach out and up and to stay connected with current and emerging thinking.
We learn and grow best when we learn and we grow together.
To close, I also want to ask that you continue to pay attention to your own wellbeing this year. These aren’t easy times and for the first time, many people are seeing that each year is not inevitably better than the one before it.
Allow yourself space and time to navigate this new landscape.
Be careful of who you spend the most time with and ask are they bringing positive energy to your life.
Engage with social media in a healthy way that works for you but don’t let it take over and certainly don’t mistake the voices you hear there as representing wider public opinion.
For all its turbulence, we live in an amazing and beautiful world with eight billion incredible people all on their own journeys.
Make the most of each new day and remember to make magic happen rather than waiting for a magician!
Thank you,
Justin Green, Hon. Life Fellow APRA, Hon. Life Fellow PRSK, Life Fellow PRII, Hon. Life Fellow ABERJE, Hon. Life Fellow ASEAN, Hon. Life Fellow PRGC, Hon. Life Fellow EIC, Hon. Life Fellow SCCECRL, Hon. Life Fellow APCE, Hon. Life Fellow PIC, Hon. Life Fellow TPRA, Hon. Life Fellow FERPI, Hon. Life Fellow ARPPR, Hon. Life Fellow PERHUMAS, Hon. Life Fellow IPRM, Hon. Life Fellow VNPR.
President & CEO, Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management