Thoughts on the 19th Annual Conference of the International Society

Today, I attended the 19th Annual Conference of the International Society for extra credits but it turned out to be a great and enriching experience.

The topic of discussion for this year's conference was Meet the Mormons: Public Perception and the Global Church. We had the opportunity to hear from President Cecile Samuelson from Brigham Young University (BYU) and Elder Callister Douglas L. and Elder Wickman Lance B. from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church)and other church and school leaders.

I found it very interesting how three different entities collaborated to create such an impressive and influential organization and most shocking to me was how nobody, even me, knew nothing about it.

The International Society (IS), which is form by the LDS Church, BYU and the State of Utah, has been collaborating with government official across the globe and inviting them to visit, participate and most importantly to change their views on Mormonism and Utah. This initiative, in my opinion, is good public relations.

These ambassadors are greatly influential individuals in their countries and by giving them the opportunity to experience our lives and understand our views on different topics, they become our own ambassadors in a divided world. So far, IS has given to 157 ambassadors from 91 countries the chance to experience what Utah has to offer and a better knowledge of the LDS Church. These ambassadors' reviews have contributed to create bridges and good relationships with countries like Ukraine, China and so forth.

IS focuses his attention on ambassadors representing poor countries and also on those with whom the U.S. don't have great relationships. The decision is made by comparing the interests of the church, the state and also BYU and when a decision is reached, a letter, signed by President Samuelson, is either mailed or delivered personally to its recipients. Later, upon acceptance, they receive a booklet with a detailed schedule of the events that will be taking place and the name of other officials involved in the different aspects of their visits. Among selected countries figure the following nations*: Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, China, Chile, Australia, South Africa, Egypt, Jordan, Germany, Russia, France, Spain and Ukraine.

BYU got involved in IS because school officials thought it fit their mission statement by helping them to: Enlarge BYU's international influence in a world they wish to improve - BYU mission statement - by developing enduring relationships with strategically important countries and government leaders.

As a fairly new religion, this tactic is very profiting to BYU who has had, and continue to have, many challenges in getting accepting in some countries and changing people's views about mormonism and Church owned institutions. Among some of these challenges figure:

1- Changing the cult mindset, which create difficulties in obtaining credibility and
difficulty when trying to reach people or get accepted into a country

2- Ending or minimize ppositions from dominant religious leaders and faith who
sometimes hurt the LDS church's public image

3- Reaching communist and former communist nations in which some faiths have to
diminish their public involvement and/ or change the wording of their doctrines

4- Changing the perception which presents the LDS Church as a U.S. institution for
propaganda, recruitment and surveillance

IS also offers young and experienced professionals, from everywhere in the world, the opportunity to network with influential members in various sectors such as Public Affairs and Government offices.

For more information on the International Society and their mission go to ldsinternationalsociety.org.

* some of these countries don't fit in the "poor" nations category. They have been previously selected and maybe have already contributed for many other reasons which fit IS goals and objectives.

Click here for slide show - sorry, but I took the pictures with my phone :(.

Bradley PR: a Fresh Air of Opportunities For BYU Public Relations Students

Brigham Young University students getting a head start in the field of Public Relations with in-house agency

The public relations program of Brigham Young University (BYU), like many other programs on campus and at other universities, is offering its students real-life experiences with the re-launch of the Bradley Public Relations agency, a public relations firm run by students and overseen by faculty.

“In years past, the Bradley Public Relations agency has had a dozen or more clients and upwards of 80 student participants at any given time,” said Jeffrey DuBois, the new faculty adviser for Bradley Public Relations. “Lab participation was accredited, but volunteer-based and highly rewarding as it provided a fantastic opportunity for students to gain experience and build their portfolios prior to graduation.”

Often, communications companies require impressive portfolios from their applicants and at least two years of experience. This trend has brought programs in the Communications Department to recognize the need for their students to get involved now in order to establish good work ethics for themselves and gain valuable skills. The Ad Lab, another agency also run by BYU students, has won many prestigious awards and given its volunteers priceless opportunities.

“The best thing that the Ad Lab does for students is giving them real clients experience they can’t get anywhere else,” said Tom Robinson, an Associate Professor in BYU’s advertising program. “They apply for internships and thanks to this experience which makes them more qualified than other interns, they get the jobs.”

Employers are actively looking for graduates with hands-on experience. Students in various disciplines are starting to notice the contributions and opportunities offered by these on-campus agencies to their education. In a phone interview, one communications student talked about his experience with the BYU newsroom.

“As I have talked to students in other colleges about their broadcast journalism programs, I’ve realized that our program is state of the art and one of the best in the country,” said Joshua Molina, a BYU student majoring in broadcast journalism. “Whereas a lot of colleges offer weekly newscasts or a few times a week, ours is shot, written, edited and air statewide by the students on a daily basis.”

The Bradley Public Relations agency was created 22 years ago, and during its time running has been acknowledged six times by Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) as the best chapter firm in the United States.

The reorganization of the Bradley PR planned for this coming fall aim to bring more structures to the agency and enhance the mentoring experience of its students.

DuBois is looking to fill various positions within the lab with public relations students in the next couple of months. Positions will require students to have taken certain classes offered by the program. Their participation will be application-based. For example, students applying for the Account Executive and Jr. Account Executive positions will need to have already taken respectively Comms 421 and Comms 318. Comms 390R students will need to have completed Comms 235.

DuBois expressed his hope that this reorganization will help Bradley Public Relations to break away from local and smaller companies and open the door for larger nationals businesses. These larger firms, according to DuBois, would greatly benefit from this collaboration because of the low cost of Bradley’s services and the level of education offered by the public relations program.

“It’s a true win-win for organizations who want to augment their communications efforts,” said DuBois. “Especially given that our public relations students have always excelled at knowledge-driven, and not assumption-driven, public relations initiatives.”

Students and faculty are hoping for the best and gearing up for the re-launch of Bradley Public Relations, which should bring a fresh air of opportunities to the program.

“I am happy and excited to be a part of the next phase of Bradley Public Relations,” says DuBois. “I look forward to working closely with other BYU faculty and students to make the Bradley Public Relations into something extraordinary among public relations programs throughout the nation.”

click here for more info on Bradley PR

Public relations strategy process

For those of you in the PR field, how accurate do you think this breakdown of the public relations steps are?

Public Relations in Today’s Global World

BYU is finding new ways to improve the marketable skills of its future professionals when it comes to preparing its public relations students to enter a highly competitive and global workplace.

Public relations firms across the U.S. are expanding more and more their service to foreign regions, which represent profitable markets. According to the Omnicom Group, which public relations holdings include Fleishman-Hillard, Ketchum and Porter Novelli, worldwide revenue increased by 11.6 percent, from $11.3 billion in 2006 to $12.6 billion last year.

“In my opinion, if someone wants to be competitive and marketable in today’s world, it is imperative to understand and be familiar with different cultures and at least master a second language,” said Karine Hachon, a senior from Paris, France and previous resident facilitator in the BYU Foreign Language Student Residency (FLSR).

“In terms of public relations, understanding different cultures is extremely important when you begin to craft targeted messages or build relationships,” said Dave Schefcik, president of the BYU chapter of PRSSA. “In an increasingly global market, many communications employers are looking for international experiences.”

In order to address this issue, BYU has developed various programs to help students improve their understanding of the new global marketplace. The FLSR program, for example, offers students the opportunity to learn eight different languages with the help of native-speakers living in each apartment. These languages include Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Through daily practice and interaction with the resident facilitators, students become fluent in their target languages and gain a better understanding of these different cultures.

“The FLSR helped me gain real world experience with real people from other cultures,” said Joshua Molina, a senior from Jersey city, New Jersey, majoring in broadcast journalism. “It helped me interact with interesting people that gave me different ideas on the stories that I wanted to do and broadened my understanding of different cultures.”

Many public relations leaders are actively looking for future professionals with a broader vision of the world and ability to not only communicate fluently in a different language but also to comprehend cultures other than their own.

“You will be working in a more global world. The ability to speak a second language fluently and understand other cultures will be a requirement. Therefore, I would recommend that you take a foreign language and achieve fluency,” said Richard Edelman, president and chief executive officer of Edelman, during his address at the PRSSA conference held in Salt Lake City two years ago. “English alone is not sufficient for the PR leaders of tomorrow.”

Mistakes or Calculated Tatics?

Last week, Hillary Clinton gave a speech in which she highlighted as usual her contributions to the world as First Lady. During the speech she exaggerated some facts and said the following words:

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

When asked about the mishap, she simply said that she misspoke! In her book titled "Living History," she describes the same event (a trip to the Tuzla Air Base, Bosnia-Herzegovina) as followed:

"Due to reports of snipers in the hills around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with local children, though we did have time to meet them and their teachers and to learn how hard they had worked during the war to continue classes in any safe spot they could find."

According to Clinton's own words, she has spoken millions of words a day which means that she had probably given thousands of speeches and has had thousands of opportunities to check her facts, practice and prepare her speeches.

Does a country need someone who is going to excuse his or her misrepresentation of facts that show character as a "minor blip?" Should accounts of international relations in the Middle East be in the "minor blip" category when everything proves a major need for understanding and clear communications and representation? How many times have we been duped into taking a position which we would have been completely opposed to if we had clear and complete facts?

Here's one of the many articles published on Clinton's "minor blip." Does reading it give you the sense it was just a minor error in recollecting the event or a very calculated attempt to mislead the public?

Click here for the article.

How far does your money goes these days?

Amidst the economic crisis faced by different sectors of society, it is becoming more and more pricey to afford the minimum. Here are some articles that might interest you.

http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/americas_money/2008/

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