Members of PR Seminar, which describes itself as the "premiere organization of senior communications and public affairs executives of the world’s most influential corporations, non-profit organizations and PR agencies," is refusing to reveal the names of this year’s speakers to registrants.
Registrants are complaining that the program was usually revealed at least two months before the meeting but they have been unable to obtain it this year.
Cancellation deadline was April 8 for the meeting that will take place May 20-23 at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, Calif. |
Almost all registrants go as couples, paying $3,350 which is used for speakers’ fees, banquets and entertainment.
A single registrant would pay $2,250.
Veteran members say they are shocked that the list of speakers is being withheld.
Speakers are usually editors and executives of major media, professors, authors, and current and ex-government figures.
One theory is that the speakers do not want to be identified as attending a corporate meeting at an expensive resort because of all the criticism that followed a meeting of AIG representatives last year at such a resort.
None of the media ever report the existence of PRS.
Bartiromo, Clift at 2008 Seminar
Margaret Carlson |
Maria Bartiromo of the "Closing Bell" on CNBC, Eleanor Clift, Newsweek columnist, and Margaret Carlson, Bloomberg News columnist, were among the speakers last year.
Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York and founder of Bloomberg, was a speaker in the 1990s and Judith Czelusniak, head of global communications of Bloomberg, has been a member since 2005.
AIG was criticized for holding a meeting of its representatives at the St. Regis resort, Monarch Bay, Calif., last October, after receiving billions in federal bailout funds.
A similar AIG meeting was planned at the Ritz-Carlton at Half Moon Bay but was cancelled on Oct. 9, the day after Bloomberg reporters Erik Holm and Hugh Son wrote about it.
Maria Bartiromo |
Catherine Mathis, VP-communications of the New York Times, attended PR Seminar in 2005.
Speakers have also included editors and executives of the Washington Post, Fortune, Forbes, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Business Week.
Members include PR executives of a number of companies and banks that have received bail-out funds from the federal government.
Among members are Nicholas Ashooh, senior VP of communications, AIG; Steve Harris, VP-global communications, General Motors, Gary Sheffer, executive director, corporate communications and PA, General Electric, and Michael O’Neill, senior VP, corporate affairs and communications, American Express.
Interact Throughout the Year
Seminarian literature says that members not only meet once a year to "review issues of major consequence to the institutions they serve," but also "interact" during the year by exchanging with each other "ideas, information and best practices."
Charlotte Otto |
Leaders this year include Charlotte Otto of Procter & Gamble, who is chair of the 2009 meeting; Johanna Schneider of the Business Roundtable, program chair, and Joan Wainwright of Tyco Electronics, secretary/treasurer.
Otto has not been available for comment. She has named New York counselor Michael Paul as official spokesperson for PRS. He said the names of speakers are known to those who need to know them although there is no printed program at this time.
Several members who have registered said they do not know who the speakers are.
Twenty-one of the 30 members of the Seminar committee are also members of the Arthur W. Page Society, whose principles call for openness and transparency. "Telling the truth" is the main Page principle. |