PROs, event organisers must wise up to tech

Far too many are just plain wrong.

It is hugely frustrating and is becoming an issue because thousands of motorists now have these gizmos and they don't work unless one has the full address of where you are going.

No longer elitist

Now, it used to be only people who owned top of the range Mercs and Beemers who could afford these GPS-based navigation aids but portable models are becoming cheaper and cheaper and I would guess that more than half of all the guests invited to your average corporate function will have one in their cars.

The first criterion is the kicker – a street number. While some gadgets can simply find a crossroads, most of them need some sort of number.

Got us by the suburb

But, the most vital piece of information is the right suburb. Unfortunately a lot of these gadgets don't work on cities but insist on one entering the suburb name. And this is a killer because I have found that a lot of companies and events destinations have no idea what suburb they are in.

I remember when the IMC first moved to its new offices, its letterhead gave the address as Central Avenue, Houghton. In fact it wasn't in Houghton at all but some other little suburb next to Houghton I had never heard of before. My GPS system really beat me up over that one.

And this is what is going to drive the PR community crazy. Because it will be no good asking their clients what the suburb is or the street number because my experience is that they won't know.

But, it will make an enormous deference to those high-tech motorists who rely on GPS navigation aids to see information on invitations specially for them.

And, let's face it,. Good PR is all about attention to detail. So who is going to be first to pick up the challenge? Or, maybe someone has already.