PRCA director general and chief executive of ICCO, Francis Ingham shares his top takeaways from the annual ICCO Summit, held in Oxford this year

On 29 and 30 September, a couple of hundred people from 39 countries gathered in Oxford for the annual ICCO Summit. What was the message people took away at the end of two days’ activity?

Confidence is the first attribute I’d identify. Agency heads recognise that our industry is changing. They’re at the coalface, and they see better than anybody how rapidly our industry is transforming into a new one entirely.

But they seem to face that change with an optimistic outlook, with confidence, and with a self-belief that every piece of data looking back over the last few years would lead one to say is justified.

The second is a willingness to embrace that change. And let’s be clear – that outlook was challenged. Peter Chadlington, founder of Huntsworth, told delegates that the PR industry resembles a hamster wheel that continues to spin round because of its momentum rather than anything else: because the hamster at the centre of the cage is dead already. He meant that the agency model we have today is buggered. Well, they took that message on the chin, and said that they’re up for the challenge that change brings.

Third, they’re looking constantly to improve. Executive director for government communications, Alex Aiken, provided what even by his standards was a pugnacious, impassioned call for the industry to raise its game. And in doing so to look at the bigger picture. To see Britain and its place in the world. To think about democracy and freedom of the press and of speech. And to share best practice too -and being Alex, he matched words with deeds, sharing his own work, and inviting everyone present to join the Government Communications Service.

Fourth, the PR community is at different stages in its development. We had representatives from big markets, and small ones; from developed ones, and ones at the beginning of their journey; from ones where the press conference and the press release are the essential tools of the trade, and others where digital is the name of the profession. And you know what? We can all still learn from one-another.

The fifth point is that we are all on a journey. The practitioners I spoke with who you might say are at the apex of the industrial pyramid all recognised that they don’t have a monopoly on wisdom. All recognised that they had something to learn from colleagues elsewhere in the world. And – delightfully and reassuringly – were eager to share.

Because here’s the sixth point; the PR and communications world really is rather fraternal. Even rivals recognise that we have more in common than divides us. That the ‘team of rivals,’ as president of growth and development at Omnicom, David Gallagher, has often termed it really does exist – people who compete ferociously against one another, but also move the industry forward by sharing perspectives and experiences.

And my seventh and final observation is this: there’s a pretty much unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Our industry is populated by inquisitive, ambitious people. People whose default position is curiosity. Who abjure the status quo, and instead seek out new ideas.

When Helsinki was announced as the venue for next year’s summit, there were still dozens of lively, engaged people there to hear and welcome that news.
I left Oxford exhausted, sated and yet also hungry for more – and imbued with a great confidence in the future of our industry. As I said when launching our World Report on the Friday morning – PR’s future is bright. And getting brighter.

Francis Ingham is director general of the PRCA