Vienna, Austria -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/23/2010 -- This is what the PR guru Paul Holmes replied, when asked to define communication in an interview video-filmed at Davos, Feb 2010. See 13 more witty replies given by guest-speakers, now published online in the Media webpage of “Communication on Top” Forum, followed by full script of 3 videos!

http://www.forumdavos.com/media

3 famous speakers give their blessing to the new event and share observations/visions on:

• EU external relations and the messages voiced

Cristina Gallagh, spokesperson for the Spanish Presidency at the EU Council, focuses on the integration between communities and their communication with people: “The legitimacy comes from the local, but the problems will only be solved in a global manner. We always have to balance these two angles – proximity and the global.” Christina advises that we should consider the message itself and its specific perception, without forgetting that we live in a global village – what you say to a community is always heard and maybe understood differently by another such unit. Christina is convinced EU would be better liked through action than via simple messages for complex decisions. Explaining well what you do ensures better understanding and turns the situation of confrontation into a situation of cooperation. “Now”, she says, “messages go through the pipeline of the – I’ll say it in French – La Tritureuse: the machine to chop down.” She says media fragmentation is better today, but at the same time very complicated and making life more difficult: “it is a challenge, only if you are able to pass very simple and specific messages, but we live in a very complex world, where passing simple messages is not possible.”

• Modern PR facing new opportunities and higher demands

Paul Holmes, the founder of The Holmes Report and the SABRE awards, foresees much bigger demands towards PR experts: the higher level of transparency, the more information and misinformation, therefore reputations are constantly under threat. “Bad PR can hurt a company much more quickly and much more severely.” Paul thinks nowadays it all comes down to daily conversations. “Your brand is all the things that people tell each other about your company, organization, country, government – when you are not listening!” For him the nature of the modern PR lies in managing the relationship between the organization and all of its publics. “You do it by how you behave, not by how you talk: PR should be involved into setting a policy, rather than communicating it.” Paul defines 3 major drawbacks of the modern PR – it has failed at recruiting best talent, at building its own image & reputation, and at doing research, evaluation, and measurement. However, he is convinced that in today’s difficult environment of global economic crisis, the PR industry, unlike advertising, will bounce back very quickly, since the situation only favors more competition among the PR people. “Seize the opportunity or perish!”

• Technological singularity and its marketing effect on the consumer

Garrett Johnston, strategic marketing group director at MTS Group, defines technological singularity as “a point in time when the speed of growth of artificial intelligence overtakes that of biological intelligence”. He foresees an era of post-humans, a combination of artificial and human intelligence and he adds: “today we sell internet capacity, people consume minutes of traffic and text messages.” To him ‘the creative consumer’ is an outdated idea – he compares modern marketers to “Coca-Cola, yet not focusing on the drink, but on why people get thirsty, or trying to create ways they get thirsty.” Making choice easier, more accurate for the consumer, proves more profitable, hence Garrett’s advise: “learn to talk, even in a very primitive and un-precise level, to the segment of one customer, and you will be doing well in the crisis”.

All uploaded videos’ 2010 are available at YouTube on our channel forumdavoscom:
http://www.youtube.com/user/forumdavoscom

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or contact us on partners@forumdavos.com

Valentina Atanasova
Project manager