Meet your match at the Global PR meet

Chennai: Even as the foreign public relation (PR) agencies are signing up business partnerships with the Indian PR agencies these days, the ICCO Global Summit 2006 is expected to accelerate that pace.

ICCO, the apex body of over 850 public relations consultancies across the globe will be holding its annual summit in New Delhi, India on 4-6 October 2006.

On the first day itself there will be a matchmaking session aimed at bringing together the foreign and the domestic PR agencies so that they can discuss possible business alliances. The session, organised by the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI), will give foreign PR agencies a chance to meet two Indian PR agencies of their choice. Interested agencies have to pay a fee of $500 per matchmaking session.

The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) supports the summit, which has been organised in association with PRCAI. According to Nandita Lakshmanan, president, PRCAI, "The ICCO Summit is a great platform for global communication leaders to see the vast opportunities that India offers. It is also the right time for both the Indian PR industry and its counterparts worldwide to explore the synergies and dichotomies between economies, to leverage the opportunities and beat challenges posed by globalisation."

The main summit has a session on the future of independent agencies and whether they could stand on their own. The summit will be attended by the heads of leading communications firms worldwide including, Harold Burson, founding chairman, Burson-Marsteller; Harris Diamond, CEO, Weber Shandwick; Helen Ostrowski, CEO, Porter Novelli; Aedhmar Hynes, CEO, Text 100; and Lou Capozzi, chairman, Publicis Public Relations & Corporate Communications.
The theme of this year's summit is, "Forget Best Practices, Think Next Practices," shifting the focus from today to tomorrow, and underlining the need for the communications business to pen a whole new rule book to remain relevant in a rapidly transforming world. Speakers will also include corporate chiefs and ambassadors from the new media.

According to ICCO president John Saunders, "The communication industry is at the cusp of a rapid change being led by digitalisation. The industry collectively needs to think about the next practices that are going to define our future and drive growth."

Added Prema Sagar, president of the organising committee, ICCO Global Summit, "India is the perfect setting for this summit as it is an emerging economy with a vast diversity that is experimenting with new communication channels and technologies to reach its large population."