Get started by defining your value
I have decided to restart my blog, after a few years of absence. I will also be activating my YouTube account and posting video content there too. I won’t promise frequency or depth, but I will try to post something once per week. I will talk about the things that I perceive to be important each week, with some side trails on topic so of deep personal interest to me: fitness, nature, faith, culture.
I hope you enjoy this blog and find it useful. I will be archiving my old blog so that it exists for posterity. For now, you can access it through the Wayback Machine.
CPRS National Conference 2025
I just got home from the annual conference of the Canadian Public Relations Society in Banff, Alberta. It was a wonderful three days of sharing and learning about communications management and public relations. Here are a few thoughts from me.
I felt very fortunate to be able to attend the CPRS National Conference - it’s Canada’s thought leadership forum for public relations and communications management professionals. If you aren’t a member of CPRS, I encourage you to join - it is a great way to connect with senior leaders and gain wonderful mentorship.
Power of AI to free your creativity
As I attended many different sessions, I was struck by a main theme - artificial intelligence (AI) and questions about the value of communications management and public relations. This is a good question - AI is an incredibly useful tool that will be adopted in most workplaces across the world. It is just too convenient for that adoption not to happen.
I represented the McMaster University Master of Communications Management program (where I teach) on a panel with Andrew Blanchette, moderated by Natalie Tomczak, where we discussed many things about how to integrate Gen AI into your practice and how Gen AI is changing professional communications.
To succeed in a world where AI is doing a lot of the work, communications practitioners need to think about which parts of their jobs are adding the most value. When you are considering this question, bear in mind that outputs and procedural tasks that can be automated will be automated - think routine writing tasks that don’t take a lot creativity or brain power from you right now.
You are better off automating the parts of your practice you can yourself and then focusing on the higher level, strategic value you are contributing (e.g., reputation, risk management, alignment to organizational values, lead generation, relationship management, audience knowledge, ethics, and so forth).
If you put off this audit of your workflows off, then someone will automate your work and then you will lose control over that process. Better to be proactive and automate your own practice using AI, than have someone automate you.
Professional communicators are the human factors experts in the world of corporate strategy and management. AI is a great opportunity for you to find the time to realize that value and prosper!
Take a virtual PD on Applied Gen AI course with me!
If you would like to learn my secrets on how to revamp your practice, you can click here to sign up for my Applied Gen AI for Communicators and Marketers professional development two-afternoon course - offered through McMaster University.
This course is full of insights and hands-on skills that will make you smarter at work immediately!
I was blessed to receive the CPRS National Mentor of the Year Award.
This award was particularly meaningful for me, since my greatest joy is seeing people succeed and thrive who have studied with me in the MCM program or our undergraduate programs at McMaster University, achieved their Accreditation in Public Relations with me or simply worked with me in my management consulting and training practice.
Here’s a photo of CPRS National President and MCM program alumna Claire Ryan, MCM, APR, presenting me with the award.