World Communicators’ Day – October 28: WCC celebrations underway

In the beginning, there was no press release!

And, PR pioneer Ivy Lee said on October 28, 1906: Let there be a Press Release!

The press release was created following a train wreck on October 28, 1906, in Atlantic City, N.J., that left more than 50 people dead. The train was owned by Pennsylvania Railroad, one of Ivy Lee's clients.

NY Times

In fact, that also marked the beginning of formal PR and the birth of Crisis Communication.

We at Public Relations Council of India, under the aegis of World Communicators’ Council (WCC), have decided to observe October 28 as the World Communicators’ Day.

Since we have enough time, let us plan in advance for the Day and look at conducting some professional activities.

Let us not focus on mere felicitations and awards. We have several of them. In fact, the awards should be just annual – part of our Global Conclaves. Frequent awards and felicitation for no rhyme or reason devalues PR movement. As it is we enjoy a bad reputation of popularising the pink shirt phenomenon.

Now to the activities for October 28. Since it is a Saturday and if it creates any issues of not being a working day, let us plan the celebration a day in advance – and not a week later.

Let Oct 28 be sacrosanct.

What we can do?

Since the day marks the issuance of the world’s first press release, we can plan a Media Relations workshop for the younger generation.

We can also plan workshops/chat shows under YCC banner.

Why not conduct a tour of young communicators to a media house?

Or a session on writing press releases?

Or skits on what the youngsters perceive of media?

We can have senor journalists coming and guiding us.

From the headquarters, we plan to do a national essay competition on few current topics and bring out a Digest. Please get as much participation as possible.

So, let’s plan in advance and get going.

-BNK24x7

Lanka Ahoy! Watch PRCSL launch snapshots on your channel - PRCI NOW

PR Council of Sri Lanka takes off

• ​Under the banner of World Communicators' Council
• PRCI actively coordinates​

COLOMBO: Seeking to strengthen professionalism in communication, the World Communicators’ Council (WCC) has launched Public Relations Council of Sri Lanka (PRCSL).

The brains behind the WCC are the office bearers of Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) which has

​successfully ​

launched unique communication campaigns.

Mr Aruna Weerakoon who is in involved in communicating with the farmers in Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) has taken over as the Director of PRCSL. Mr T S Prakash, who is the president of SriLanka India Society and Secretary of Indian CEO forum, takes an additional responsibility as the Chairman of the PRCSL.

Mr. M B Jayaram, chief mentor and chairman emeritus of PRCI, said close cooperation among communications professionals across the world would contribute to an improved understanding among the people at large.

R T Kumar, Chairman of the PRCI’s governing council, said the Council is very keen to work closely with the Sri Lankan unit on networking and knowledge sharing.

PRCI national president B N Kumar explained that the organisation has successfully implemented a novel idea of communication for social causes such as water conservation, educating girl child for empowering India, focusing on suburban train infrastructure in Mumbai and environmental issues. “We have a unique guest faculty pool drawn from across media, PR, adverting and HR for visiting colleges and universities that teach mass communication,” he said.

PRCI international director T Vinay Kumar said the WCC will soon have chapters in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and UK.

PRCI’s young communicators’ club chairperson Geetha Shankar said the organisation is keen to promote knowledge sharing and skill development among mass media students.

Mr K Ravindran, secretary general of PRCI, said the council also focuses on communication skill development for professionals in corporates.

Mr U S Kutty, chairman of the organising committee of the Sri Lanka launch, pointed out that PR and other communication professionals have appreciated the PRCSL idea and on the need to work closely with their Indian counterparts.

Mr Weerakoon said PRCSL could learn a lot from the PRCI’s experience in India and work towards communicating the positive aspects life to the society at large.

Mr Prakash said networking and exchange of information and knowledge could lead to enhancing the professionalism among communication professionals and even heads of companies.

PRCSL hopes to involve various corporate, CEOs, educational institutions teaching communication and marketing to further its cause and meet the WCC’s mission – communicating for a better world.