Eleven Public Relations professionals from various agencies, supported by The PRomise Foundation have joined hands to create the first-ever PR Club, with an approach like that of a loyalty program. This is a way for these PR professionals to give back to the fraternity.
The PR Club is a membership-led knowledge-sharing collaboration for the betterment of the professional community. The PR Club – as the initiative is referred to, is based on a long-felt need to offer continuous learning to the community. In an exclusive conversation with Medianews4u, the founders shared the following.
Sharing the need for creating the PR Club, Co-Founder of the PR Club and CEO of One Source, Sandeep Rao said, “There are several forums that exist today for networking, for the corporate communication and public relations industry. However, the need to bring on-ground practical knowledge to a large cross-section of the industry has been a long-felt one.”
Continuing he said, “With the support of The PRomise Foundation, the hope we co-founders have, is that we will be able to fulfill that need. Long-form jargon apart, the need has never been greater than today to upskill into a world where corporate communication goes beyond press releases, Q&As, and tweeting out a brand’s stories. But to service our clientele better, we need to service our industry first. It was this seed, this idea, that has flowered into The PR Club. With sessions ranging from video storytelling to understanding measurement to managing media relations in a VUCA world, the hope with The PR Club being formed is that we will look at bringing the entire industry up-to-speed with what we have learned over the years, while concurrently taking the opportunity to learn from each other and the fraternity at large.”
Shedding light on the objectives of the PR Club, Tarunjeet Rattan, Co-founder, The PR Club & Managing Partner, Nucleus PR said, “The PR Club was created with three objectives of Collaboration, Learning, and Betterment of the professional. That is why the name CLUB where C,L,B stands for the objectives.”
Differentiating between the many webinars happening all around and the knowledge sessions planned by the PR Club, Vikram Kharvi, Co-founder, The PR Club & Vice President, Adfactors PR, said, “The difference between the webinars (which are generally for an hour) and these learning sessions that will be held on first and third Saturdays between September and July are three-fold:
a) We are partnering with organizations that are the best in a specific area to deliver a workshop over 2-3 hours.
b) There will be individual or team activities every quarter and
c) A cross-section of professionals from varying age groups, both in-house and consultancy based will learn together.”
On who and why one should join, Aniruddha Atul Bhagwat, Co-founder, The PR Club & CEO, Ideosphere Consulting said, “Anyone with a basic understanding of Public Relations can join. This is mainly for professionals working in corporate communications departments and PR firms. However, former journalists, freelancers, marketers, homemakers who have taken a break from a job, and academia (faculty and students of public relations) may join. The objectives are the reasons to join. Collaborative learning from the best business with over 20 sessions ranging from two to three hours each this experience promises to be enriching for all.”
“This is indeed one of a kind,” said, Tarunjeet Rattan.
Rattan added, “The belief is that good professionals will become better and the better ones will end up becoming the best over a period of time. Every year the learning topics and the ones delivering will change. A lot of thinking has gone into creating this platform. The dynamics and the gamification will be unique experiences for all members.”
