PRonto1 NCR

Welcome to the blog for more information on PRonto1. As we go forward we will number each of the PRonto evenings just to eliminate confusion and help people connect on Twitter better using the hashtag. The next PRonto in Mumbai and Bangalore to be held in March and April respectively will be Pronto2 and Pronto3. The PRonto4 will take place in New Delhi in May since Pronto1 is taking place in Gurgaon unless the unanimous choice is to continue with the same venue.

#PRonto1

We are excited about having the PRonto1 on the third thursday of this month which is the 21st of February between 7 pm and 10 pm at a venue dedicated to the world of media. The Media Cafe is located on the 3rd Floor at South Point Mall on the Golf Course Road, next to Genpact in Gurgaon.

We have two options to register at the venue by cash: RS 600/- for two drinks and a snack or Rs 900/- for unlimited drinks (between 7 and 10 – no sharing) and a snack. If you pay by card this price will vary with the addition of taxes.

Things to remember –

Carry cash and business cards as the mall does not have an ATM

Until 11 am on Feb 21st you may register at a price point of Rs 400/- online (which includes a snack, a drink and a Rs 500/- discount when you sign up as an individual to PRAXIS2013. This discount is not available for registrations done at the venue).

For those who have registered online already you are free to let Liza Saha at the venue at the time of check in that you would like to upgrade to the unlimited drinks option by paying Rs 500 extra by cash.

Sab Miller is giving the first 50 to arrive at the venue and pay up a complimentary pint of Indus Pride. Make sure you get yours as long as you are the first 50 and have a happy hour.

The Media Cafe is offering the first 30 who register online an extra drink coupon. So for Rs 400/- you can actually get a drink, a snack, a pint of beer, a discount to PRAXIS 2013 and an additional drink for registering early.

PR Moment India is offering one lucky winner a free training programme. LEave your business card with Liza to be eligible to win.

A team of three professionals co ordinates the PRonto evening. PRonto1 is led by Liza Saha, Text 100 and supported by Tarun Nagrani of Edelman India and Shrey Khetarpal of Genesis BM

For any query send us a mail at prontoevenings@gmail.com from your official email address .

PRonto – bringing the community together

PRonto is an initiative born out of the after hours conversations at PRAXIS 2012 in Pondicherry and brings to life the theme of the first summit – OUR TIME IS NOW. PRonto is an evening of cocktails and conversations, held once a quarter in each of the metros. The designated date is the third Thursday unless specified otherwise and the exact venue will be announced two weeks before each PRonto evening.

At the core is being at an event with no agenda where the corporate communications and Public Relations community gathers together and has a good time. We are working on two models – one where walk ins are recommended and the other where one pre-registers for a nominal cost that entitles the individual to a drink and a snack. Additional drinks and snacks maybe purchased at the venue on actuals.

The first set of dates are – Feb 21^st – NCR; Mar 21^st  – Bangalore; Apr 19^th – Mumbai; May 16^th – NCR; Jun 20^th – Bangalore; Jul 18^th – Mumbai; Aug 22^nd – Chennai. Mark your calendars and gear up PRonto – because that’s what it means to gear up quickly and wrap up when its still safe to go home. 7 pm then – in a city of your choice.

Agency and Industry are not bad words but wrong words

It has become a habit for us to refer to the companies we work in as agencies and the eco-system we are part of as an industry. However, no respectable PR consultancy will use that word on their website or in official communication because they know they are not an agency. They also know PR firms are modeled around law firms and consulting firms and those firms are part of the larger business environment and never the industry.

Agency and Industry are not bad words. They are just wrong words and they create the first hurdle in building a favourable reputation for our profession. So, we at The PRomise Foundation are trying to take a conscious decision to avoid use of these words as there are better alternatives.

Firm, Consultancy and Company can easily replace ‘agency’. Community, Profession and Business can easily replace ‘industry’. This is the last time we will ever use these words; catch us if we do and we PRomise to make good.

Proud to be part of Global Alliance as India’s only member

Global Alliance for PR admits The PRomise Foundation as its only Indian member

• The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management is the confederation of the world’s major public relations and communication management associations and institutions

India, October 16^th 2012: The PRomise Foundation for Public Relations, a non-profit set-up with a goal of doing PR for Public Relations has become the only Indian entity to be admitted as a member of the Global alliance for PR and Communication Management (GA). The GA Board formally ratified the membership to be part of the Global Alliance for 2012.

The PRomise Foundation thus becomes the youngest entity and the only Indian organization to be a member of The Global Alliance, at present. The Global Alliance is headquartered in Switzerland. It works on the cooperative efforts of communication professionals to tackle common problems with a global perspective. By partnering with regional, national and international bodies to increase professionalism in Public Relations and Communication Management, this Alliance works to enhance the influence of the industry among its constituents around the world. It represents 160,000 practitioners and academics around the world. The Global Alliance’s mission is to unify the public relations profession, raise professional standards all over the world, share knowledge for the benefit of its members and be the global voice for public relations in the public interest.

The PRomise Foundation is a unique initiative founded by volunteers who work in corporate communications across various organisations and professionals from various PR firms. It was founded in June 2012 and is organizing India’s first weekend summit – PRAXIS for PR and Corporate Communications professionals in Pondicherry in November. The event called PRAXIS plans to bring over 150 professionals and students of PR together for two days of learning and sharing. The Foundation launched with a scholarship offering to students of Public Relations who are currently pursuing post-graduate studies.

“One of key elements of the Global Alliance’s mission is to advocate public relations in the public interest, and we see an exciting alignment with the goals of The PRomise Foundation,” said Daniel Tisch, Chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management. “India is one of the countries of the future, and that Global Alliance aspires to work closely with all representatives of the nation’s dynamic public relations profession in the years to come.”

According to the founding catalysts – “It is a matter of great pride and honour for us to be accepted as members of the Global alliance which is the largest body of Public Relations associations and institutions from around the world. It is also heartening to know that we are the only Indian organization that is part of the Global alliance in its 12 year history. We look forward to collaborating with other like-minded organization around the world to offer the Indian professionals the best resources as we go ahead”.

Shane Jacob and Amith Prabhu – both of whom work full-time with leading Public Relations firms in Bangalore and Chicago respectively are two of the prime movers of the Foundation and are event co-chairs of PRAXIS 2012.

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About GA: The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management  (www.globalalliancepr.org), established in 2000, is the confederation of the world’s major public relations and communication management associations and institutions, representing 160,000 practitioners and academics around the world. The Global Alliance’s mission is to unify the public relations profession, raise professional standards all over the world, share knowledge for the benefit of its members and be the global voice for public relations in the public interest. The GA is the convenor of the bi-annual World Public Relations Forum, to be held next in Melbourne, Australia, from November 18-20, 2012.

Come be our guest…

Are you an Indian PR or communication professional who currently works outside India? Then this blog is for you. The first 10 professionals who write to us at promisefoundationforpr@gmail.com with ABROAD in the subject line will be our guests at the first National Weekend Conference for PR and Corp Comm professionals in November.

All you have to do is plan your travel so as to be in Chennai on the morning of 23rd November. We will offer you transportation from the Chennai airport to the venue in Pondicherry, complimentary registration, free stay for one night   and a drop back to the airport on the 24th evening. You can stay beyond the 24th evening and bring your family as well and plan your own return to Chennai.

Our offer for registration and stay for one person is available for the first 10 who respond on or before August 31st. We are indeed celebrating the communications professional. Come be our guest.

Finances at The PRomise Foundation – a transparent approach

Running a non-profit with support from volunteers who have full time day jobs is not easy. But a start has been made and ideas are pouring in. The question that everyone has is how will we fund the programmes?

The answer is simple: From donations of time and money that the founding Friends and Supporters make. In a desire to make the entire operation transparent we will not accept corporate sponsorships directly into our accounts. We will merely be catalysts and direct corporate sponsors to pay our vendors, suppliers and partners directly.

However, in 2013 we intend launching a membership programme for individuals and organisations. We will use that income to build a corpus and hire a full time community manager. Until then each of us from the Founding Friends will contribute different amounts of time on a weekly basis after work and on weekends.

Therefore, no cash from any of the sponsors goes to the Foundation for the 2012 Conference and for the 2013 Workshop series. Once a sponsor agrees to come on board we link them up with either our venue/hotel manager or travel agent to whom they will pay directly. Because we are in this for the love of PR, not for the love of money.

The Promise of PRomise Foundation

Having spent eight years in the Public Relations business I realised it was time to give back to the profession. I had decided that when I complete ten years as a PR practitioner I must give back my first year’s annual salary to a cause that benefits Public Relations in India. While I will complete 10 years as a working professional in 2014 I completed 10 years this month as a student of Public Relations (PR).

To mark that milestone I’m contributing Rupees Two Lakh and Two Thousand  – equilavent to my first annual salary towards setting up of The PRomise Foundation. The PRomise Foundation has evolved from several conversations I have had over the last couple of years with fellow communicators both  in-house and at PR firms. The PRomise Foundation is straight forward in its approach and has been created keeping in mind the student, the fresher, the mid-level manager and the leaders of Public Relations and Corporate Communications.

The first initiative of The PRomise Foundation is a scholarship for post-graduate students of Public Relations and Corporate Communications studying in India. The scholar will be selected based on an essay submission to be judged by an eminent jury. The author of the winning essay will receive upto Rs 40,000/- that will go towards an ongoing education loan and if the person is from Middle India (small town India) he or she is eligible for an additional Rs 10,000/- making the entire scholarship worth Rs 50,000/-

The second initiative  is a quarterly newsletter called PRISM. It will be sent free of cost to subscribers once a quarter containing articles on reputation management, public relations, corporate communications and the changing landscape of media in an ever evolving digital world. The first edition is being planned around November and will follow every three months thereon.

The third initiative will be the National Public Relations ‘weekend’ Conference and the first edition is proposed to be held in Pondicherry in November. The name of the conference, whether Pondicherry will become the permanent venue for this annual property and other finer details are being worked out. While information on this event is floating on Facebook, a microsite will be up and running by mid-July. In a nutshell this event is for professionals who have three years or more of work experience and are willing to invest two days for learning, sharing and ideating for their own future and the future of Public Relations in India.

The fourth initiative is co-funded by two of my former co-workers who are now friends for life (Thank you Bodhisatya and Chitrangada). This event/programme is being fleshed out and is aimed at professionals in 0-3 years of their career, who have just begun their professional journey. Since freshers are not encouraged to attend the weekend conference until they have three years or more of work experience, this initiative is exclusively for them and will be announced in March every year.

All these above mentioned programmes will feature on the Foundation website. There are two more initiatives which are planned for the second phase  of the Foundation and I will write about them in due course. These are little drops in the ocean of giving back to a profession that is evolving in India from teenage to youth.

I hope these programmes go a long way in bringing the Public back into Public Relations and enhancing the Reputation of Reputation Management. All this would not have been possible without a handful of people who have been sounding boards, secret supporters, silent admirers, suppliers of inspiration and solid advisors. I want to mention their names in no particular oder so that this goes down in history:First set of the Founding Board of Advisors (Indrajit Gupta of Forbes India, Anant Rangaswami of Firstpost.Com, Roma Balwani of Mahindra Group, Lloyd Mathias of Green Bean Ventures, Senjam Rajsekhar of Vedanta Group); Silent Admirers (Amit Misra, Akshar Yadav and Sonia John); Secret Supporters (Ajit Pai and Shane Jacob); Suppliers of Inspiration (Prema Sagar, Jaideep Shergill, Ravi Kiran, Robert Holdheim, Valerie Pinto, Ragothaman Gowthaman, Paresh Chaudhry and Radhika Shapoorjee);  Sounding Boards (Umesh Nair of Fleishman Hillard, Shrey Khetarpal of Burson Marsteller, Supriya Morde of Waggener Edstrom, Liza Saha of Text 100, Vishwajeet Ganpate of Edelman, Bhuvaneswari Joshi of Mumbai Indians, Mariam Joseph of Hanmer MSL and Shreysi Chandra of Weber Shandwick) [In case I missed out your name and you think you contributed let me know and for those of you mentioned here in case your name is spelt incorrectly let me know]

The entire premise of these  initiatives is that goodness and happiness move around in circles. I have experienced good and I want to give back that goodness. It is all possible if one starts small and thinks big.

This logo is straight forward – the way PR should be. The P stands for People who make up the Public and for Public Relations the profession. The double C it creates in mirror ‘image’ is for Corporate Communications. Together PR practicioners and corporate communications professionals lead organisational and brand reputation. The smile  denotes the happy people the practitioners ought to be and ought to make of its clients and organisations various stakeholders.

Click on highlighted text below to be directed to the external page:

Twitter – @PromiseFdn

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/groups/iprcc/?ref=ts

Blog short link –  http://bit.ly/PromiseFdn

Website – http://promisefoundation.com

The PRomise Foundation for Public Relations

A not-for-profit initiative with one goal – Doing PR for Public Relations in India

What are the objectives to achieving the goal?

The three objectives of the PRomise Foundation are:

• Offer inspiration to students of Public Relations and practitioners of the profession by way of online initiatives
• Create high standards of world-class practices for PR professionals to take the business to higher levels
• Increase the reputation of reputation management in India knowledge sharing through awards and events

       Why the name Promise?

• The least Public Relations professionals can do is do some public relations for their own profession
• It is a PRomise to build a solid and positive reputation for the art and science of Public Relations
• It is a word that we use all the time in dealing with various stakeholders especially clients

Who is the PRomise Foundation?

The PRomise Foundation is a group of PR professionals guided by an advisory board. (To be formally launched in end-June 2012)

What will PRomise Foundation do?

The PRomise Foundation has six key programmes. One of which is creating an event that brings together professionals from different organisations – both consulting firms and in-house.  The other five programmes will be announced in due course.

How will PRomise Foundation raise funds?

The PRomise Foundation will raise funds through sponsorships, donations and registration fee at events.

More to come on promisefoundation (dot) com in July. In the meanwhile  write to me at amithpr at gmail dot com