What the Future Holds for Public Relations?

Courtesy of Adobe Stock.

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

Last week I took in a very informative and somewhat eye-opening webinar hosted by the Public Relations Society of America.  The presentation, “Future Watch 2025: Key Trends Every PR Professional Should Have on Their Radar Screen in the Coming Year,” offered me a perspective on a wide range of topics, issues, and developments that are projected to be a significant part of the national dialogue in the year ahead.

And, of course, the hour I spent online provided greater insight on the profession and resulted in the poignant subject for this post.

Led by an engaging communicator and futurist named Stephen DuPont, APR, Fellow PRSA, the focus of the conversation centered on a broad scope of what will be making news from today through December 31.  (Learn more about Mr. DuPont from his website.)

Early on, Mr. DuPont advised communicators to work on anticipating upcoming events and developments — a sound practice for sure– and noted that futurists need to be storytellers.  An aside: As I noted in this 2022 post, I am still struggling with the “evolution” of the profession into storytelling.  But let me continue. 

I scribbled down notes during the talk, and in no particular order of importance, here are some topics addressed by Mr. DuPont:

• Divisive politics and an uncertain economy driven by the potential impact of tariffs. 
• A possible resurgence of the pandemic and the stubborn bird flu. 
• How to screen for threats following the brazen murder of a healthcare executive. 
• Energy and climate change, technology, technology and more technology.  And, of course the role of AI. 
• The potential dismantling of diversity/equity/inclusion initiatives. 
• The impact on the agriculture industry if undocumented immigrants are deported.
• Cyber wars, more robots, the emergence of the alpha generation, and the decline in the number of high school students. 
• The dawn of the greatest transfer of money from Boomers to other generations. 
• One more: The explosion of weight loss drugs that are now available!

There were other topics presented, but the above provides a solid perspective of what’s ahead. For communicators, these can be considered as highly specialized areas that I believe may require advanced education and solid practical experience should one be charged with managing strategic communications. 

The question that arose following the webinar: Will the incoming generation of public relations professionals need specialized education and work experience to effectively serve clients or the companies or organizations who employ them?  Or from another perspective, is the age of the public relations “generalist” truly over?

Reflecting back on my career, the vast majority of clients I served or organizations I worked for concentrated in commercial real estate and urban affairs; now, I manage communications for a university transportation research unit.  My “experience” in real estate centered on living and working in Chicago for most of my life, and as for transportation, I was — and still am — an active rider on Chicago Transit Authority trains and buses. 

When I served on the Universal Accreditation Board, an initiative was advanced to award a new accreditation to those charged with military public affairs. The result was the APR+M designation. And, if memory serves correctly, there were UAB discussions years ago regarding similar specialized accreditation programs for communicators in large-scale industries like healthcare and business. 

Perhaps it’s time to hold that kind of discussion again with educators and on an industry-wide level.  Now it’s your turn: Does the public relations profession need to cultivate communicators who have the specialized skills and knowledge needed to serve in this rapidly changing world? 

The floor is yours. 

Washington, DC: A Travelogue (and Commentary of Sorts) 2025

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

For the past decade or so, the first PRDude post of the year has centered on my trip to Washington, DC for the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.  Well, on New Year’s Day 2025 I tried something else, as noted in this post.

What follows is a combination of some thoughts and images from my visit last week to the TRB conference in the nation’s capital, which had to cope with some unseasonable winter weather while preparing for a monumental change due to the new administration that will take over next week.

Yes, I could use this space to offer thoughts on where the nation may be heading, but I’ll save those posts for another time. What the images and captions that follow do demonstrate is that Washington — an amazing city which contains the very foundation of our democracy — is a way cool place to visit.  Yes, even after a snowfall. 

The rare snowfall January 6 and 7 resulted in reduced traffic here along K Street across from Franklin Park. The scene is more akin to a northern city rather than Washington, but still beautiful and serene.

Historic St. John’s Church is a short walk from my hotel. On my recent visit, I noticed this plaque on the back pew along the far right. Yes, I sat there for a while.

Another compelling moment while in St. John’s Church: Someone played the pipe organ, filling the small church with beautiful and powerful music — just for me.

With the Washington Monument in the distance and the U.S. Treasury on the right, I had this evening vision of a major thoroughfare in the nation’s capitol to myself.

Much of Lafayette Square across from the White House was cordoned off as workers prepared for the January 20 presidential inaugural. A little snow wasn’t going to stop the construction work. And, the White House was open to visitors.

On a bright, sunny morning, the Washington Monument stood majestically. Walkways were cleared of snow, testimony to the efficiency of the men and women responsible for providing access to our great public spaces across the District.

One presentation that’s on my must attend list: The TRB awards for recognizing excellence in Communicating Concepts with the Public. This year’s top awards focused on programs that addressed safety in transportation.

As I’ve noted often, one great benefit of my current position is the opportunity to meet and work with tremendous people from all over the world. My friend Dr. Takanori Sakai is one of those people.

The giant TRB letters in the Washington Convention Center main lobby offered an ideal photo platform. For some reason, I found this rear view more captivating.

Looking down Pennsylvania Avenue, the U.S. Capitol stands in the distance and flags were at half staff in respect of the recent passing of the 39th President of the United States.

One excellent temporary exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery featured compelling black and white images of Hollywood movie stars from a bygone era. Okay, who is this blond bombshell?

In the Presidential Portraits room at the National Portrait Gallery, purple bunting draped across the portrait of the late Jimmy Carter. History has shown that regardless of how he was viewed as a president, his life was one of honor, service and dedication.

Offering #567 in Year #15 for #2025 New Year Challenge

All the tools I need to craft a PRDude post are shown above. Well, a beverage can certainly increase the creativity.

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

The other day, the nice people at WordPress, the open source content management platform that hosts this blog, sent an email to subscribers seeking contributions to the #2025 New Year Challenge.  

The guidelines were simple and straightforward:  Publish a post New Year’s Day 2025 that offers some insight into what of significance took place in your personal blagosphere (just made that word up) over the past 365 days. 

Now, the challenge of what to structure the post around.  

A quick analysis revealed I had published 20 PRDude posts in this calendar year. Seven focused on — you guessed it — public relations, three were travelogues on trips to Copenhagen and Portland, Maine, one featured a profile on a public relations leader, one reflected on the 20th anniversary of me earning the Accredited in Public Relations credential, and the balance addressed “other stuff” like politics and popular culture. 

Altogether, a relatively similar account of the posts published in recent years; back when I launched the site in September of 2009 and in subsequent years, I published more regularly. 

So, what to write about here in the waning hours of 2024?  I got it: Look at the numbers!

This January 1, 2025 post will be the 567th published by The PRDude.  And, the year 2024 marked the site’s 15th anniversary.

Not sure where this stands in the WordPress community, but must say I remain committed to publishing thoughts on public relations and more during the 356 days that follow. 

Happy New Year everyone. I think it’s time to celebrate with a little bubbly.