Back from holiday where I had a chance to sink my teeth into Scoble and Israel’s Naked Conversations — a most worthwhile read for anyone toiling in our profession. I don’t buy into all the disintermediation stuff and the perspective tends to skew to Silicon Valley PR, but the blogging case studies have tremendous and undeniable value for PR pros.
I was especially enamored with the melding of e-commerce and blogs, and the subsequent boost in sales that blogging produced (versus static websites). And I agree that those wedded to commanding-and-controlling the message in the age of dialogue are in for a very rude awakening. I hope to post more on the book at a later date.
Before I left, I came across a posting by John Cass that I found incredulous. It concerned the 3rd Annual International PR Conference to be held in Iran! Here’s a link to last year’s event. Is this for real? Are bona fide PR practitioners actually heading to Tehran for this event in November?
If so, I am shocked and call for a boycott by our profession. Not only has Iran become a pariah state, but I need not tell you about its Holocaust-denying, terrorist-supporting, unstable and dangerous president whose frequent public pronouncements send shutters throughout the civilized world.
IPRA, PRSA, and all the other “representative” organizations should take a firm stand against supporting this event or any other event this radical government sponsors.