Where's Gregory?

Where's Gregory? This has been such an incredible holiday season that began right after my return from the 2006 PRSSA National Conference on Nov. 14. While I was in Salt Lake City, I was only able to post here twice. I was having serious issues with my laptop. I was able to attend some excellent sessions including the Roll Call breakfast with Keynote Speaker Richard Edelman, president and chief executive officer, Edelman Public Relations.

Edelman discussed the evolution of the horizontal axis of communications currently complementing the traditional top down vertical axis. It is considered the democratization of information. Edelman continued by discussing what is called the Me2 Revolution. This is the process of peers relying in a web of trust of other peers. He noted that Edelman's Trust Barometer 2006 showed that 68% of individuals felt the most credible source of information in the US was from a "person like myself." He pointed to the fact that more large companies like Microsoft are relying on their employees as their best source of PR in conjuction with their PR department. But he also pointed to the fact that this can also backfire as is the case with Delta by their inability to adapt to this horizontal axis and found themselves the subject of "DeltaReallySucks.com."

I found it extremely interesting the current trends that are shaping the newspaper and weekly magazine publishers. These publishers are losing advertising money left and right due to the desire of audiences to have a more imediacy in what they read, watch and listen.Newsweek now shares it's content on Facebook in an effort to reach a younger audience. Business Week now places 46% of its content online compared to 33% in 2005. Similar changes are underway in network television broadcasting. Currently 300,000 people download the ABC Nightly News via I-Tunes each week. Social media is a force to be reckoned with for many businesses that continue to struggle with adaptation to the concept. I will continue more on this session in another post soon.

Okay, so I got off on a tangent. The PRSSA Chapter at UTSA held elections for a new Executive Board on Nov. 30 and I am excited to announce that I have been re-elected as President. I am excited to begin the new year with nine other highly motivated individuals and continue working on all of the great things we began over hte last eight months. On a personal note my partner and I closed on a house on December 19 and will be moving around the first week in Feb. So as you can see the last few weeks have been very exciting and busy for me. I will work harder to post more often.