At 10.05 this morning, I was due to take the podium to inspire and pour a dose of optimism on a pragmatic audience of PR Practitioners. The venue was the central Radisson SAS in Golden Lane. The audience of over 100.

It was sponsored by Lexis Nexis, Coca-Cola Bottlers, Business Wire and mediacontact.ie

First up was Eddie Hobbs, advising us on Oil Scarcity as a future business issue that will affect us all. He veered a little off track from the scheduled talk he was to give on how we might ‘talk ourselves out of the recession’. That said, he was informative, if a little long. Not that I am peeved he ate into my thirty five minute slot. Matt Cooper presided over the proceedings and at times, looked a little bored. I took to the podium, armed with the usual powerpoint deck. My task was if there are winners in recessions, how can communications businesses be one of them?  

I guess I gave an honest point of view. There is no denying that spend is down in the advertising market. Global recession, pressure on global clients to use global ads, sterling pressure and massive pressure on suppliers from Tesco, who are relentlessly focused on driving their costs down. Our business is 20% down, so how do you cope? The success McCann has had is based on one key thing. Ideas and Creativity that build clients brands, yes, even in a recession.

Never before has there been such demand for creativity in building business success. An ensuring clients get a big idea, that’s integrated is key. Kathie Thomas, Director of Innovation at Fleishman-Hillard shared the importance of innovation, and advised on the tools and processes to ensure you deliver. She has held 220 sessions in 11 countries, including one with FH in Dublin only yesterday, so I guess she absolutely knows the subject. I’d love to have seen more examples. Although she did mention the ipod and how we never knew we needed it, until it came on the market. Fair point.

So, back to how you cope? Evaluate what you want to achieve? Be completely focused. Get Digital to the heart of your business. Do the math and make the cost cuts.  Manage your business. Get entrepreneurial and stay focused. Kathie made the point, strategy and innovation without leadership is a no-win. She is right. I shared examples of how other companies are staying focused on what consumers want and how they are communicating with their customers. Something I think some Irish businesses are forgetting.

The Banks have single handedly ignored the opportunity to speak to us, directly and inspire us with how they are going to move forward. Maybe the banks have more to hide and aren’t ready to come clean. Jane Ryder, Press Officer with the Food Safety Authority was excellent. The handling of the Pork Crisis was her focus and she simply and clearly told the story of how this was excellently managed and how Siobhan Molloy at Weber Shandwick supported her and her team to manage the crisis back in December. I thought her comments about getting into their building on a Sunday, it being cold and not having 24 hour contact numbers for the full team were insightful and honest. I enjoyed her speech.

I missed the last speaker unfortunately, but overall, a good conference and some good ideas. Cyrilla Costello at PRII and Gerry Davis did a good job to get the attendance levels they did. It was sad not to see other leading lights from the PR industry attend. Many of the senior executives from Top PR companies were missing. I guess everyone is busy dealing with business pressures.

The Onion takes a humorous view of the recession: