Is everything PR? The Los Angeles chapter of Public Relations Society of America thinks so.

"Yes, Everything is PR" is the provocative theme of PRSA's western district conference slated next month and hosted by the LA chapter. General Motors is footing the bill.

prThe theme signals the transformation of PR driven by the collapse of traditional media, rise of social communications and increased use of Big Data analytics to form/target messaging.

Conference organizers have lined up two unconventional keynoters.

Golin CEO Fred Cook is the author of "Improvise," which maintains improvisation skills and real-world experience are keys to a successful PR career.

Before entering PR, Cook worked as an Italian leather salesman, cabin boy, record company exec, chauffeur for drunks, cross-country tour guide, high school teacher and doorman at a four-star hotel, according to the book. Cook believes each job contributed a lesson that inspired his career choice.

Nigel Lythgoe, another keynote speaker, is producer of Fox's "American Idol" reality show and executive producer and frequent judge on "So You Think You Can Dance." He'll talk about where the consumer is headed.

Los Angeles Times publisher Austin Beutner is an invited keynoter.

PRSA/National adopted a formal definition of PR in 1982. [O'Dwyer's readers offered their own definitions in the early 2000s.]

In 2011/2012 the organization led a push to update the definition via a crowdsourcing campaign and public vote that resulted in the wording:“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

If the LA chapter is correct and everything indeed is PR, PRSA needs to ditch its definition to reflect today's anything goes world of communication.

Of course, if PR is everything there's nothing that's special about the practice, making it a hard-sell to clients.