Institute for Public Relations

Tom Martin: Professional Support of Events Key to Furthering Education This column appeared in PRWeek, July 2, 2007, and is reproduced with permission. I recently attended two academically focused summits with some of the leading educators in our field. As a new teacher, it was both humbling and illuminating to listen to the issues of those entrusted with developing the next generation. What was more meaningful about these events is that they would not have been possible without tangible demonstrations of support for our profession made by both the private and nonprofit sectors. The first was an academic symposium co-sponsored by the Arthur Page ...

Many PR people take a pass at the entire concept of measurement for a simple reason. Blind, rank fear. They don’t know how, or they fear their research won’t hold up to leadership scrutiny. We hear “measurement” and immediately are assailed by unhappy memories – math homework, the tyranny of columns of numbers, complicated algebra. Heavens, it’s why a fair number of us wound up in PR – the warm embrace of words, the freedom of expression unbound by arithmetic rules, the lack of one, singular, “correct” answer. But what if measurement could be notional? What if we used research ...