Agency leadership is more than ensuring the company is financially successful. It requires setting the organizational tone with a clear vision, purpose and authenticity. Employees, clients and even prospects are seeking to work for and partner with agencies where work has an impact well beyond their own walls. A purpose-driven approach to agency leadership can be a significant driver toward making positive, and lasting, change and impact.
In the PRovoke Global Summit panel, agency leaders from PROI Worldwide will discuss how and why they consider values and company purpose front and center for everything they do, including recruiting and career pathing; informing employee educational initiatives; choosing which clients/industries to support; engaging with their local communities; and more. They will share their experiences on how they use their corporate values as a competitive advantage and how employees are embracing these values.
PROI Worldwide represents 90 entrepreneurial communications firms in more than 65 countries, with a combined headcount exceeding 8,800 people and over US$1.128 billion in revenue. The non-profit organization helps these leading agencies share best practices, leverage resources, and efficiently serve their clients around the world.
This session will bring together a panel of prominent PR firm CEOs to discuss the two considerations at the bedrock of every successful firm: securing excellent talent and utilizing competitive retention strategies. Drawing from industry experience, the panelists will cover a host of considerations and issues, such as how to properly incent key employees (including those who are “remote” or “partially remote”), incentive compensation arrangements (cash, equity and phantom equity) and how to properly design compensation arrangements to drive growth and profitability. The panel will highlight incentives that are most attractive in today’s ever changing work environment. Rounding out the discussion, industry-wide findings will be presented from Davis+Gilbert’s 11th Annual PR Survey Highlights and Trends Report.
You probably thought Barbie was a doll. With a few careers and a penchant for high heels. But that was before the Summer of 2023, when the tiny, 64-year-old fashion icon who launched a gazillion playdates, launched a mega-watt, big screen-to-every-screen gender equality movement – awash in pink – Pantone Barbie Pink (219C) that is.
Oh and Barbie – the movie – broke box-office records to become the first woman-directed film to gross more than a billion dollars. If you missed the movie, you would have had to be way off-the-grid to also miss Taylor Swift’s colossal, culture-quaking, money-making Eras tour – friendship bracelets anyone? – or Beyonce’s most recent The Renaissance ‘tour de force’. And if, unlike Harry and Meghan, you didn’t snag the VIP box to catch Queen Bey – maybe you checked out The Women’s World Cup? It broke ticket sales and TV viewership records.
Beyonce herself asked and answered the question 12 years ago, “Who run the world? Girls.”
The Summer of 2023 proved that Bey knows all and a doll with very small shoes can make a giant leap for womankind. We’ll start our discussion there.
Candace Bushnell, journalist and author of Sex and the City, The Carrie Diaries and more, is no stranger to giant leaps. In Manolos, with a cosmo in hand, perhaps. She dared to celebrate the power of women’s relationships with each other – and lots of others – and built an enduring multi-platform franchise that shape-shifted the lives of twenty-something women everywhere. And Ashley Etienne, Senior Advisor at Powell Tate, CBS News Senior Political Contributor, former Deputy Assistant to President Joe Biden, Communications Director to Vice President Kamala Harris and, prior to that, Communications Director and Senior Advisor for Nancy Pelosi, who knows that shape-shifting women’s lives takes policymakers willing and able to push the boundaries to obliterate them.
Gail Heimann, CEO of Weber Shandwick, will moderate a candid and likely spirited conversation with Candace and Ashley that will celebrate Barbie, Taylor, Beyoncé, Carrie, women athletes and policymakers; pushing us to consider what the world of marketing/communications can and must do to propel the she-conomy and keep the wave of Barbie Pink — and gender equality, above all — going.
Flooding. Fires. Famine. Droughts. Greenhouse gasses are unleashing unprecedented weather events and natural disasters, posing grave danger to people and the planet. According to the UN, the scientific evidence of climate change is unequivocal, and “any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future.” Time is running out…and for many, so is hope. Today’s climate issues are dire, urgent and complex – incrementalism is not enough to turn the tide of devastation if we don’t act now. Enter these bold disruptors seeking not to simply improve the status quo but to transform it through courageous vision and game-changing innovations, including the world’s first solar-powered community, the first ever marine biodegradable straws, and zero-waste, plastic-free laundry strips transforming the household cleaning category.
The importance of the 50+ population has never been greater. Seniors are big consumers and bring political clout that will become more acute in the 2024 U.S. election cycle. Engaging seniors has also become increasingly tricky for companies and brands to navigate. This fireside chat will tackle the important conversations that are wrapped up within the broader topic of aging and what brands can do to reach seniors.