Hello from RGU Scotland!

Hello all,

What a brilliant idea Michelle! I don't quite know why we didn't come up with this sooner!

At the moment myself and Nicola (Undergraduate Rep) are in the midst of planning our event. Our university for the past few years has held a joint CIPR and GPRG (Grampian PR Group) even in Aberdeen which generally tends to showcase both the CIPR and GPRG, and our lecturer thought that this would be the perfect opportunity for us to use our CIPR briefs. So Nicola and myself are planning the joint event. Unfortunately it will take place after our projects are due to be handed in, but this is mainly due to the committments of the students at RGU around this time of year as the 4th years are busy with their dissertations and the postgraduates are away on their placements so we had to fit the event in when most students could attend. We are still hoping that our event will be a success. At the moment we are looking at people to invite PR professional wise and our regional CIPR  group CIPR Scotland have been very welcoming and helpful and have offered their services if we so require one of them to speak at our event. We have also asked Behind the Spin if they would come up and talk to the students about this and possibly do a workshop similar to the one they did with us on our training day!

Anyway i'd better get back to doing some uni work! Will speak soon!

Lauren xx

Hello from Bournemouth!

Hey everyone,

This is such a good idea - Michelle! Hope everyone is well and it would be lovely to see everyone again soon. It was good fun when we went out for drinks afterwards in that tiny pub. I ended up actually doing a Meet the Professionals event as the committee and my uni were keen to do it again after last year's success. It went really well! It was hard work inviting people but I went round to all the 1st year classes and had slides come up in lectures which was a little bit embarrassing! I managed to get David Claire (from Behind the Spin) who came to meet us on our rep day to come down and give a little talk. I also managed to get Alex Epstein free of charge which was good fun. He ended up getting fairly drunk but it was probably half my fault as I kept topping up his wine!

Anyway, hope to hear from all of you soon.

Check out my blog: www.francescas-prthoughts.tumblr.com 

Ches xxx

Post from Edge Hill University

Hello to all the CIPR Student Reps,

Thanks for inviting me to this blog. Well done Michelle, great way to keep us together. Just a quick post to let you all know what i've been doing here in Lancashire. When I came back at Christmas I gave a presentation to the first, second and third year PR students (very nerve wrecking!) about the CIPR, and why they should join. It went quite well, there was a lot of interest generated. I also spoke about behindthespin, and encouraged them to write for the magazine, and how beneficial it was to them. How's everyone else getting on with their CIPR rep of the year briefs?

Unfortunatley I haven't had much luck with my local CIPR Reps, I wonder has anyone else from the North West been in contact with them? I e-mailed one member, but have not heard back.

I definitly think we should plan a meeting in April, like Michelle suggested. I'm back home from University on the 11th of April, Let me know if anyone else has any suggestions.

From,
Holly Windsor
Edge Hill University CIPR Student Rep

Current Issues & Trends in PR, from a student perspective

PR issues and trends are always going to be rotating, whether it is the use of media, political surroundings, ethical issues, social trends and so on. Here are a few that the students at The University of Greenwich came up with the other day.

• B2B shifting to B2P- the communication shift and relationship changing to the people and consumers rather down the business to business line as people are being put first.
• Companies become their own media- with many channels of communication being open to organizations and people therefore being able to own their media more, rather than delegating it off, such as social networks ( twitter, facebook pages).
  
• Increase in Media training for individuals/organizations, Misuse of Technology- Now the person has more control of what is said specifically written online, we need to know when to reply and to whom, what can be said and what is classed as sensitive (Good example; Nestle Facebook reply and comments).
• Transparency -More businesses are now letting the internal be external with most on show. This allowing us to tell apart the good and bad between them, who keeps information hidden and who fears nothing.
• Loss in Traditional Media- With the increase of smartphones, notebooks and touch pads media is inserting its self in different technology more accessible and ease of use for the public. Where will we be reading papers in 10 years time, the traditional paper newspapaer?
  
• Government Dominoes and Social Media- Egypt, Libya with the imprisonment of social networking. Who will fall next, North Korea, China?
  
• Influential Bloggers- The Public are now turning to their favorite bloggers to find information on current issues, lifestyle and general news. How no one can become some one with the power of writing. Who do you look for, for information, is it trustworthy source?
  
• PR being a main generator for money in a business- Some statistics now state how powerful PR is in any given business and brings in most of the money. PR constant grow and need within organizations.
  
• Being Unable to Define paid and earned media- Good or bad? When looking through a paper can you tell if the business has truly earned the space through good doings or simply paying someone.
  
• Social Networking, Less face to face- 6 Degrees of separation can be made more accessible through online networks, we can start conversations and relationships without meeting someone in person. (e.g. Linkedin) Keeping up relationships and in touch is no longer a letter or phone call but a quick message or comment.
  
• Ethical Guard- Are we forgetting our ethics and throwing them out of the window, not thinking before we right or talk, linking in with the loss of control.
  

(Nestle's losing battle)

What will be next, what are the next steps for Public Relations?

Hello from Cardiff University Student Reps

Hello everyone, thanks for the invitation to this blog. It's really nice to hear everyone's thoughts. Rep work can be pretty stressful sometimes ;-) Everything is ok at Cardiff Uni, nothing major to report except that our department is hosting a CIPR Wales event towards the end of March. Will post further details when my course director updates me. Keep in touch everyone x0x0x0x0

CIPR Reps 2010-2011

Quick Snap of some of the CIPR reps for 10-11
Blogging to come from all!