Tiffany Guarnaccia
Tiffany Guarnaccia

“The Value of PR” was the theme of this year’s Communications Week, which included events in New York, Chicago, London and Germany that ran from Oct. 14 to 18.

The Communications Week New York sessions featured 22 speakers from organizations including Ketchum, MWWPR, Affect PR, Walmart, Entercom, Refinery29 and Vox Media.

Kite Hill PR CEO Tiffany Guaranaccia, who founded Communications Week in 2014, said that determining the value of public relations in today’s environment is more complex than ever—but also more important. “As an industry,” she said, “we have to go further into metrics and redefine PR and experiences to elevate the impact of PR for the growth of businesses.”

Ketchum president of client experience Michael O’Brien, the event’s keynote speaker, gave a talk entitled “Choose Your Own Adventure: Identifying the Right Applications of PR for Your Client.” O’Brien stressed that for PR practitioners, being a businessperson is just as important as being an expert at communications. “We shouldn’t be asking to be at the table anymore,” he said, “Our actions should demand that we be at table.”

Other panels addressed such topics as the importance of non-traditional content, ways to effectively employ audio when promoting a brand, and how to align PR and sales in the marketing mix.

In addition to hosting 10 events worldwide, Communications Week also included an online webinar, which was available internationally.

Organizing partners for Communications Week 2019 included Global Women in PR, the Hispanic Public Relations Association, New York Women in Communications and the PR Council, as well as PRSA’s New York chapter and PRSA-Tri-State District.