The judging panel of the very first "ICCA Best PR Award" has been carefully evaluating the PR coverage of ICCA members over the course of the year. A shortlist of five candidates will be presented on 18 October, two weeks before the ICCA Congress in Shanghai, China-P.R., at which the winner will be announced.
The ICCA Best PR Award recognises exceptional PR performance, covering both traditional print and web/social media channels. The unique feature of the ICCA Best PR Award competition, in association with International Meetings Review (IMR), is not only that it is open to every ICCA member, but there is no need to actually send in an entry. Instead, editorial representatives from each IMR publisher, along with ICCA CEO Martin Sirk and ICCA’s Marketing & PR Manager Mathijs Vleeming, have been carefully evaluating the PR coverage of ICCA members over the course of the whole year.
Sirk commented: "We have all been looking out for strong story-telling, for high-visibility coverage, for brand consistency, for PR that helps to overcome a crisis, and PR that showcases success. We have been looking for any of the skills required to deliver an exceptional PR performance, covering both traditional print and web/social media channels."
A judging panel, consisting of James Latham, executive producer of International Meetings Review, Martin Lewis, chairman of IMR’s Editorial Advisory Board and chief editor of CAT Publications, Roger Kellerman of Meetings International and Mathijs Vleeming, manager marketing & PR of ICCA, will present a shortlist of five candidates two weeks before the ICCA Congress in Shanghai, at which the winner will be announced during an IMR sponsored lunch on Sunday 3 November. All ICCA members on the shortlist will be invited to give a short presentation on their PR activities and the strategy behind it in a dedicated Media and PR session at the ICCA Congress.
Sirk also said: "We’re very excited to be working with IMR on this new Award and on other projects designed to help ICCA members gain the best possible editorial coverage around the world. We have long believed that PR is one of the most cost-effective yet under-utilised elements in the marketing mix, which is one of the reasons we launched the ICCA PR Kit, our free ICCA resource that will help to dramatically improve ICCA members’ PR performance. Our partnership with IMR ensures that more and more ICCA members will learn to become star PR performers!"
