The last couple of days have been a whirlwind in terms of getting engaged in not only PR research, but also traveling. I have been in Slovenia for the last few days to attend and present at the BledCom Conference.
Bled is probably one of the most beautiful places I have seen where you not only are you appreciative of the landscape, but you want to be out there all day! We did play a little bit before the BledCom conference and checked out the landscape and hiked around. It was quite a workout, but the views were worth it! We also had a chance to experience the local cuisine and discovered Bled’s famous cream cake. It is a must try – absolutely fabulous!
So, what were some of the major takeaways from the BledCom Conference? There were several presentations I felt were good, but one that really stuck out to me as not only being right on target, but inspiring, came from Stephen Waddington.
Stephen is the Director of Digital and Social Media in the UK, and his keynote address focused on the bridge between practice and academia. Hearing Stephen share his insights on where both fields need to go to become more of a collaborative community was exactly what we (professors) needed to hear. I felt he did an excellent job in not only talking about what the practitioners needs to do, but what we as professors can do to help and be part of this cause.
Creating a collaborative community, publishing content to be shared and discussed across both areas of PR, applied research, mutual understanding and appreciation, and networking at conferences where both professionals and researchers are at. To hear this being discussed at this conference was music to my ears. Make sure to bookmark, share, and read Stephen’s great post on his keynote and follow him on Twitter – he’s definitely a great professional to follow, listen, and network with. It was a true honor to be able to talk with Stephen and discuss some of these topics and brainstorm ideas for where the field (for both practitioners and researchers) can go with this in the future.
I’ve been a strong believer of this and do consider most of my research to be applied. Yes, there is of course a core theoretical foundation to the work I do in PR, crisis, and social media – but I try to consider how these results, implications, and best practices could be applied for an agency, client, or individual working in the field.
Overall, in many ways, this conference reminded me a lot of the IPRRC Conference held in Miami, which I have been to just a couple of times. I think we had a good experience in having the opportunity to network with fellow collaborators and professionals with the same mindset on applied research for PR and social media like Stephen has.
Plus, Slovenia is a beautiful country and we enjoyed taking the time to share our work, brainstorm ideas for future collaborations, and have the chance to experience the local cuisine and atmosphere of a wonderful city.
Again, it was great to meet some great professionals at the conference and have their support in our session. It was also good to see fellow PR professors and friends Melissa Dodd (University of Central Florida) and Tim Coombs (University of Central Florida) and Flora Hung-Baesecke (Hong Kong Baptist University) at the conference as well. Thank you for taking the time and support to come to our presentation and taking such great pictures! Really appreciate it.
Hope you all are having a great day.
Best Wishes,
Karen
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