Am preparing tonite for my keynote speech at the “Future Of PR” event next week which PR Newswire and Business Development Institute are hosting in NYC.

Does the fact that there is no other CEO of a Top 50 PR firm under the age of 45 give you a hint as to my feelings about how outdated the leadership of this industry is ?

Public Relations has changed b/c:
There needs to be direct deliverables and it is connected to sales….
Blogs, the Internet and Email has arrived….
The Media moves quicker than ever before…

The PR industry hasn’t changed as other industry leaders have, and certainly PR firms and PR agencies havent…

Attend my speech and you’ll hear more… or I’ll post some thoughts after…

Ronn Torossian
5W PR

I am especially proud that we are deeply involved with one of the most important historical events of the decade, handling all media for the Groundbreaking Ceremony on the National Mall in Washington DC for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Project Foundation on November 13, 2006.

Distinguished guests and speakers (of whom we are working with for media and film crews) include the President of the United States, former President Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Maya Angelou, Senator Obama, Andy Young, Jack Valenti, Diane Sawyer, Bebe Winans, Tommy Hilfiger, Russell Simmons – among many others named individuals, truly there are too many to list. We are also handling the Gala Foundation Dream Dinner the night of the event with Gladys Knight and dozens of major corporate donors including GM, Toyota, Wal-Mart, PepsiCo and many more who have collectively raised over $65 MM of $100 MM needed to complete the project. 5W also secured performances from Ashanti and Brian McKnight, as well as the host of the evening, our own Nick Cannon.

The Los Angeles office is handling the account for the MLK Memorial Foundation — and working on the media and VIP coordination that includes every major network and media outlet pre-event, on site and post. There will be nearly 200 media in attendance the day of the event, which begins for the 5W team at 2:30 AM assigning crews prior to 5:00 AM, and into the evening for the Gala.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is the only non-President awarded a 4 acre Memorial plot on the National Mall and this is a prestigious honor for the agency to be selected to handle the media and honorable VIPs. We hope you will have a moment to tune in on Monday morning (to pretty much all major networks, but suggest CNN or GMA) even for just a moment to check out this incredible event.

Congrats to the team who is working on this event, they have been a gleaming example of 5W at its finest. Its really a proud moment for me as the owner of 5W Public Relations.

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

So… today’s a day to vent:

3 weeks ago to the day we received a call from a Fortune 1000 company who claimed an IMMEDIATE need for a new NYC PR firm…. They were in town that day and had to meet with us before 4 PM. They had researched us and thought we may be a fit. They had just fired their latest PR agency and needed someone now.

We scrambled, prepared and eagerly awaited the meeting. Long story short, the nearly 2 hour meeting ended with a request for a detailed proposal which “they would love to see ASAP”… so we worked all weekend and got a proposal to them Sunday night… and an email back on Monday that they’d get back to us shortly and thanks.

We spent a total of nearly 100 staff hours preparing this document proposal… and now 3 weeks later after multiple calls and emails, we still aren’t getting a reply… Does that sound fair ?

One of the best and worst things about the Public Relations field is the quickness of winning new clients – Unlike the advertising industry which has 3-12 month RFP and long decision processes, we often win clients in the course of 2 meetings or a few weeks… but it’s frustrating when we spend a lot of time and don’t get the decency of a reply.

…. Onward and Upward….at least for this NYC PR Agency….

Ronn Torossian
5W PR