Guillaume du Gardier, who hosted Blogging Europe on IAOC in June, announced today, "I am leaving my entrepreneur's life" to join Edelman, "the only independent global PR firm, counting 1900 employees in 43 countries worldwide and 272 M$ in 2005."

Guillaume was founder of a Paris PR boutique, PR Planet, and Blogging Planet, a European agency focused on RSS and all its related applications, such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts.  In addition to his PR Thoughts blog, Guillaume recently launched a podcast. Among his first interviews was IAOC member Philippe Borreman (IBM Belgium and Luxembourg) who talked about  IBM’s use of RSS, blogs and wikis and the company’s embrace of micro media (13.24 min.).

After two months in limbo, I will be packing up and heading back to New Orleans tomorrow...   more »

At noon today, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) issued a news release cancelling the trade organization's 2005 International Conference due to the potential impacts of Hurricane Wilma to host city Miami, Florida. The PRSA conference was scheduled to start tomorrow and run through Tuesday, October 25. Wilma is projected to reach Miami sometime on Sunday, though forecasters have revised their estimates of the timing and strength of the hurricane several times in the past two days.

As late as 9:00 p.m. ET last night, PRSA was still holding out hope for a favorable turn in the forecast. PRSA President and CEO Judith T. Phair said in a written statement "we are teaming with local officials to identify safety triggers that will guide future decisions." One of those triggers was the declaration of a state of emergency. Florida Governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency on Thursday and this morning the PRSA cancelled the show.

I was scheduled to present a workshop at the PRSA Conference but had to cancel due to complications from Katrina. The PRSA did the right thing to cancel in time for everyone to evacuate if necessary. We all remember hearing about convention visitors stuck in New Orleans who later ended up evacuating after eduring days without electricity or running water. The PRSA Board put safety ahead of the organization's finances, which are sure to take a severe blow courtesy of Wilma.

The PRSA is going to need our help in the coming year to recover from this set-back. If you have suggestions for what we can do to assist the PRSA, why don't you post them here and we'll see what we can do to make them happen?

In Sympathy,
STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice President, IAOC
and still a Katrina Refugee...

Wal-Mart's response to Hurricane Katrina is the best PR campaign I have ever seen -- because it's not a PR campaign. It's people taking action -- in their own self interest and out of genuine concern for human suffering -- deeds, not words.   more »

Two weeks ago, after a pre-Rita reconaissance of New Orleans, I put together a list of items returnees would need and started contacting Red Cross shelters and administrators asking to have these items available for people coming back to the Crescent City (see post dated September 17)...   more »