Day: May 12, 2006

We are having a great time!

Before flying out to London for the New PR conference tomorrow morning, I attended the first All-Ireland corporate social responsibility event, which was jointly organized by BITC Ireland and BITC Northern Ireland.

It was an interesting event with a strong turn out and provided a great opportunity to catch up with a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a while.

One former colleague informed me she has discovered this blog. So ever the egotist I asked what she thought. Her response:

“You seem to rant an awful lot.”

I thought that summed it up nicely.

The first roundtable session of the day was hosted by RTE’s Mark Little who did a fairly good job. Of course one of the issues he came back to again and again was how do you address the widespread cynicism of corporate social responsibility.

I think it’s an important question to ask, however it got even more interesting when the session was opened to the floor.

The first question was directed to Little himself asking how did he see his corporate social responsibilities (or maybe “viewer social responsibilities”) given the increasing pressure on journalists to get the juicy story… in some cases ignoring the facts.

He dodged the question and bounced it to the panel. It’s an interesting perspective – and it’s a pity he wasn’t pushed on it.

One of the other really interesting discussions (not in the sessions unfortunately) was around the cost, budgeting and measurement of CSR (and community involvement).

It was interesting that there was divided opinion. Some believe you must tightly measure the success of your CSR efforts, while others believe that the more you focus on ROI, the more it moves from CSR to marketing….

London: I arrived into Heathrow this evening (BMI) for the third "Delivering the New PR" event. Of course we had the usual Heathrow delays and hassles, which combined with the heat and a driver who drove me around in circles made for a stressfull trip.

Of course it's been worth it to catch up with Chris, Elizabeth, Neville, Philip and Nicky.  Unfortunately Stuart isn't arriving until the morning.

Earlier in the day I was at the first All-Ireland CSR conference.  They got a great turn out and it was fantastic to catch up with a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while, but I think there could have been more content and sessions.