East London hosts PRISA national conference

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Margaret Moscardi, PRISA executive director, said that it was the first time that the conference was being held in East London. She said that the Eastern Cape Region fully deserved all accolades for the success of the conference. This region had scooped the 2002 Gold Region of the Year Award for the second consecutive year at the last conference held at the Drakensburg.

"We are thrilled to be hosting the PRISA National Conference in East London," said Taryne Smith, chairman of the PRISA Eastern Cape region and director of Tri-Skye Public Relations. "We have worked long and hard to bring this conference to East London and we believe it is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our city and expose our local practitioners to worldwide trends in the public relations and communication profession.".

The theme for the 2004 PRISA National Conference is Public Relations and Communication Management in a New Context. "We in South Africa are celebrating 10 years of freedom and democracy in 2004 and this conference will look at the dynamic changes that are shaping the profession as well as the developing trends," said Moscardi. "We are also taking the opportunity to launch our "Continuing Professional Development" (CPD) model to our members. CPD is a global trend and practitioners need to retain their competitive advantage and exceed the highest expectations of their clients and employers. CPD will encourage the concept of lifelong learning and includes education and training, personal development and professional practice. The system ensures that junior practitioners take the knowledge and senior practitioners impart the knowledge," she added.

PRISA was established in 1957 and has about 1 400 senior members and 2 500 students from Southern Africa. The Public Relations Consultants Chapter numbers about 50 members. However many individual members have their own consultancies estimated at about 250 in total. PRISA is a founding member of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, which has worldwide public relations institutes, societies and other organisations as members.