Precisely because we are perennial background guys, we love winning awards. Those are the rare opportunities we have to stand up in front of any audience of our peers and receive formal acknowledgement for our hard work and commitment.

This kind of recognition is especially important for Public Relations consultancies. While our industry continues to experience sustained growth – especially in the MENA region – a number of people, here and worldwide, are unclear about exactly what PR firms do. The most frequent source of confusion, of course, is the difference between advertising and PR.

That’s another reason why awards are important to our industry: they represent a key opportunity to highlight to the wider public the innovative and impactful work being produced by Public Relations agencies – educating audiences, in the process, about the sector as a whole.

The Dubai Lynx Awards, which took place in March, and the Cannes Lions, which were held very recently in France, are among the highest-profile accolades offered by the communications industry. These festivals, dominated by advertising, have recently introduced PR awards categories. I am concerned, however, that these events do not do full justice to the PR profession.

Look closely at the shortlist and winners of the 2012 Dubai Lynx PR Awards: that roster of names is impressive, but they are nearly all advertising agencies. Look harder at the teams behind the award-winning work: you’ll see dozens of creative directors, art directors and designers. And the key ingredient in the majority of the winning work is the ubiquitous advertising tool: the TVC. The development of television commercials is not, of course, a core service of PR agencies.

I have the highest respect for the advertising industry, and have many friends who are creative directors, art directors and designers.

Not one of them works for me, of course, since I run a PR consultancy, not an ad agency.

When I read recently in Campaign Middle East about the appointment of the members of the PR jury for the Cannes Lions, I experienced a similarly sinking feeling. Although I was proud to note that, for the first time in history, our region will be represented by two jurors, the title of the PR juror caught my notice. “Chief Creative Officer.”

I have absolutely no reason to doubt the skills of this particular individual – who has been described by his own firm as “having worked on some of the most iconic advertising to come out of the region.” However, I question why we select advertising industry professionals to judge the work of PR firms.

All of this surely explains the peculiar geographic mix of regional entries for PR Awards at the 2012 Cannes Lions. Just five entries were submitted this year from the UAE, the Middle East’s PR hub, while 18 were submitted from Lebanon, a country where the PR sector is still somewhat nascent.

This isn’t about sour grapes, not by a long shot. I’m delighted to see hardworking individuals and smart agencies recognised for their achievements – but only when they are judged for their work as Public Relations professionals, ideally by Public Relations professionals.

In the PR business, which mostly operates below the radar, we will continue to face the challenge of distinguishing our profession from the more publicly recognized work of advertising agencies. That’s a fact.

Industry awards should help bridge that knowledge gap, not create further confusion in the market. Until they truly do so, our industry will have little reason to celebrate – or even enter these awards.

(This appeared in Campaign Middle East )

A fascinating subject, Singhal explained the basics of data on the internet and what Google is doing to turn the information we receive through search, not only into knowledge, but a step further into wisdom. He said a key issue today is “quality noise” that needs smarter engines to understand things, not just strings. Every year, Google undertakes 500 improvements to its search, with the aim of giving us the most locally relevant results. The ultimate goal is to be able to provide us concocted wisdom on any query we search for. The recent launch of Google’s Knowledge Graph is a step towards that.

He believes that 5 years down the line, machines will have gathered enough artificial intelligence to compete with human intelligence. This will completely change how we operate by adding a different level of efficiency to our daily lives. He also said that he sees a future where we wouldn’t even need to take the effort to come to a device and type to search; it will all come to us in an easier, more natural way. Perhaps he is referring to voice search and Project Glass.

What was also great about the session was the quality of questions asked by the audience. Questions on how social media affects search, to which he said that it will perhaps increase in influence, however social search is still in its infancy. On the subject of Google owning the content vs just directing the user to the original source, he said that people actually want the results to be original sources, showing not much benefit for Google to own it. And on the subject of search engine optimisation that digital agencies undertake for clients, he said that by actually helping build websites that are better read by search engines, the service is doing them a favour as long as it is not abused. He also said that Google ads do not and will never have influence over organic results.

The recent debates over Google removing information upon government requests was also a great question posed, which Singhal answered by saying that Google needs to abide by the laws of the countries they operate in and content that goes against those laws is removed on request. However, they are transparent about why content was removed in their transparency report.

I have to mention here that he was beautifully media trained.

The talk and Q&A were intriguing and coming straight from the horse’s mouth, a rare opportunity to experience that. He managed to inspire even the two kids who attended with their Google t-shirts on, to ask him smart questions in front of a 150+ size audience. I left the room feeling lucky and inspired to have been engaged with the smartest man in technology today!

Here’s a video introduction to the Survey by our CEO, Sunil John. Full results of the survey can be found on www.arabyouthsurvey.com.

Held in Dubai between March 13-15^th, the 20^th Public Relations Word Congress was a landmark event, and not only because this was the first time this prestigious summit was held in the region. The relevance of the Congress’s theme, From the Arab Street to Wall Street, Communications in the Age of Dialogue, addressed the emergence of globalised protest and the rise of social media as a communications phenomenon; realities as valid in today’s Middle East as they are in the US or Europe.

In total, more than 500 industry professionals from 28 countries attended the Congress, to participate in presentations, panel debates and workshops delivered by over 35 world-class speakers from the worlds of PR, the media, politics and business.  The whole event was backed by an impressive list of sponsors, including Saudi Aramco, SABIC, Qatar Petroleum and Etisalat, that rank among the biggest companies not just in the region, but in the world.

Organised by the Gulf Chapter of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), the event demonstrated clearly and unequivocally  that  Middle East today is no longer at the periphery of global communications,  but is a place that boasts a  vibrant, dynamic industry that more than holds its own internationally.

And, in a closing ceremony that reinforced the 20^th Congress host city’s position at the heart of this industry, the Congress concluded with the reading of the “Dubai Declaration”, a short, concise roadmap outlining the way ahead for PR Practitioners the world over.

Informed by the debates and presentations over the three days of the Congress, The Dubai Declaration rests on four key pillars, which I would like to explain in a little detail.

The first pillar encourages us to foster the development of a culture of dialogue among stakeholders. The mutual exchange of ideas and the promotion of dialogue among all stakeholders, including but not limited to clients, media and civil society, will encourage open and transparent communications, which will in turn support the development of shared interests and the greater good of society.

The second pillar at first glance seems obvious. It calls on the industry to recognise and utilise digital communications in a responsible and effective way. By this, we mean we must all look beyond the traditional, top-down communications that have been encouraged by traditional channels, and embrace the new era of dialogue that the digital era has created.

New technologies foster the free flow of information – including promoting connectedness among and between peoples, cultures and nations. Only by truly understanding the advantages – and limitations – of these new channels, can the Public Relations industry use these tools effectively and responsibility. By doing so, Public Relations needs to ensure its place at the forefront of modern communications.

The third pillar is one that is particularly relevant for the industry in the Middle East. The industry must strive to contribute to the development of young professionals and to the profession. This means that we must support the education and career development of Public Relations students and young professionals – as well as those from related fields, such as social sciences, economics, healthcare and technology – and ensure that the profession is seen as an attractive career path by the very highest caliber of student.

The final pillar relates to the uncomfortable truth that the today’s world is one of mistrust.  We live in an era where public trust in companies, governments, the media, and even our own industry, has been eroded. Effective public relations will be essential to rebuilding that trust. That’s why this critical pillar of the declaration relates to our own house: we must observe and uphold the IPRA Code of Conduct. The IPRA code sets out the ethical and professional standards to which all PR practitioners should adhere to. Our clients entrust their reputations to us; only by observing the highest standards ourselves, can we ensure that trust is not misplaced.

For myself, a highlight of the Congress was a presentation by Harold Burson, the founder chairman of Burson-Marsteller and an inspiration to me. At 91, Mr Burson is one the few figures today who can genuinely claim to be an industry pioneer. He concluded his presentation with the pronouncement that, for the PR industry, “the best years are yet to come”.

It is my belief that by adopting the principles of the Dubai Declaration, the industry will go a long way to making that prediction a reality.

(This piece also appeared in Campaign Middle East magazine dated April 1, 2012)

If public relations is the art of reputation management, then it seems clear that the industry needs to take its own PR a lot more seriously. Like the proverbial cobbler’s children who go without shoes, public relations firms – worldwide and especially here in the Middle East –ignore the fact that their profession’s own reputation is generally on par with that of ambulance-chasing lawyers and used-car salesmen.

Worldwide, the PR industry employs about 60,000 people, generating around US$9 billion in annual fee revenues. At a time when related sectors like advertising and media-buying are suffering a global crunch, our business remains robust.

Yet we remain our own worst client. Seen as either subservient to media, or as masters of the dark art of spin, we need to address with seriousness of purpose our fundamental image problem. Our own future depends on it, especially here in the Middle East.

PR is relatively new to the Arab world. Yet, by 2009, barely a decade after the profession first became institutionalized here, total fee revenues reached approximately US$150 million. Today, the overall value of the industry, including work done by in-house communications departments, stands at about US$500 million. If current trends continue, there is every reason to believe that the industry will be worth US$1 billion annually within a decade.

That may sound like a fantastic growth curve, and in many ways it is. But we could grow even more rapidly if we more clearly communicated what we actually do, as well as the tangible value it provides the clients we serve.

ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, the firm I lead, recognised early the importance of managing the image of our industry, and of our own company. That is why, for example, we have been investing in conducting the annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey since 2008. The largest study of its kind of the region’s largest demographic, this survey is our contribution to the important, ongoing dialogue about the future of the Arab world.

This serious piece of thought leadership is also a positioning tool for us, which is intended to make clear to decision-makers our differentiating strength: evidence-based communications. Indeed, our focus is on providing consultancy, helping public and private-sector firms manage perceptions, internally and externally, so they can achieve their goals.

I believe that our efforts are bearing fruit, and that we can see this in the evolving composition of our clients. A decade ago, about three-quarters of our clients were multinationals seeking to raise their profile in the Middle East, while the remaining 25 per cent were local firms keen to communicate their success.

Ten years later, those numbers have been reversed: currently, 73 per cent of our revenues are generated from work for local clients (like Emaar, Etisalat and Emirates NBD), with the balance 27 per cent coming from consultancy for global firms (including Ford, Accenture, General Electric and Total of France).

This trend, towards localization, is an important indicator of the health of the regional PR sector, which shows that locally-based firms increasingly appreciate the value such consultancy can provide them. In the wake of the Arab Spring, at a time communication has never been more critical to both regional governments and companies, this ongoing shift should accelerate even further.

Perhaps this is a sign, after all, that our industry is finally on the verge of gaining the respect it deserves – and that, as the one-time cobbler’s children, we will be able to stride confidently into the future.

With among the largest per-capita carbon footprints in the world, it is not surprising that Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia are loath to back emissions restrictions. But developments in the region suggest that innovation rather than regulation holds the key to mitigating climate change.

Next year Abu Dhabi will commission Shams 1, the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant. A 100 megawatt PV facility is also in the pipeline, and now other Gulf states are committing significant resources to renewable energy.

Every year each square kilometre of land in the Gulf receives a volume of solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil. The region’s leaders know that every barrel saved by using renewable sources to meet domestic electricity demand is another one sold on the international market.

Exporting more fossil fuels may not seem like an effective strategy on climate change at first glance, but it is easy to overlook just how much oil and gas Gulf countries consume. Around a third of Saudi Arabia’s oil production goes to local industry and water desalination.

Achieving utility-scale renewable energy will help Gulf countries cut greenhouse emissions at home and potentially create a template for cost-competitive renewable energy abroad.

The Gulf has the capital, the land area and, where solar power is concerned, the feedstock to realize large-scale clean energy, irrespective of the Kyoto policy wrangling down in Durban. What they lack is the local know-how. Working together on research rather than rule-making is likely to be the mantra of Middle East states post Kyoto.

Jobs was a narcissist and a visionary; he was a hippie billionaire who pursued success ruthlessly but had absolutely no interest in accumulating riches.

Jobs was an often mean-spirited brat, who abandoned his own child yet was capable of giving speeches that moved millions. As the book shows, he was also someone who pursued perfection with a relentlessness that is, literally, almost impossible to believe

Consider this incident, near the very end of Jobs’s life: while he lies in a hospital bed, deeply sedated, a surgeon tries to fit him with an oxygen mask. According to Isaacson, “Jobs ripped it off and mumbled that he hated the design and refused to wear it. Though barely able to speak, he ordered them to bring five different options for the mask and he would pick the design he liked.”

Jobs’s perfectionism extended to the way his products were marketed: he drove his ad agency half-mad when they worked, first, on the groundbreaking “1984” TVC for Macintosh (which the company’s Board of Directors tried desperately to cancel) and then throughout the endless iterations of the “Think Different” campaign for the iMac.

Each successive high-profile launch – when Jobs would stride across a broad stage in his trademark black turtleneck, concluding, always, with the product unveil – was just as carefully managed.

With his complete faith in his own personal taste and obsessive-compulsive management style, Jobs is simply too idiosyncratic to be remembered as a role-model entrepreneur. Yet, in the end, he remains an inspiration. Why? Because, I think, he believed so incredibly deeply in everything he did.

In our disposable society, in this throw-away age, Jobs felt that every choice we make is important, and that no detail is ever too small to spend years considering.

That is why, unable to find the perfect couch, dining table or chairs, Jobs spent most of his life living in barely furnished homes. That’s also why he was able to create so many achingly beautiful objects that have forever changed the way we live, work, communicate and play.

Well, nowadays, I can safely say, East and West are looking closely at the inspirational movements of Arab Youth who have bravely and efficiently produced the 2.0 Revolution as Wael Ghonim stated in his recent TED speech.

In last year’s press conference launch in Dubai, only a few influential journalists challenged one of the Survey’s key findings; “democracy was one of the Arab Youth priorities”. Tunisia’s #Sidibouzid and Egypt’s #Jan25 were a solid response to everyone who had doubts about the ability of Arabs to rise again and have changed the fundamental realities of our region, which has, for so long, especially following 9/11, been associated with radicalism and terrorism — an association empowered by the systematic Islamophobia propaganda machine.

In January 2006, I was enjoying a live blues band performance at B.B. King Blues Club in Manhattan. The lead vocalist spoke for a while about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, critiquing (in what was soft criticism in my opinion) the authorities in the way they handled the disaster, and suddenly he closed his short speech by saying “I don’t wanna get too political”. For the last two decades, this statement brought my blood pressure up to alarming levels. Everything surrounding us is “too political”, from global warming, the battle against HIV in Africa, the rights of widows in India, all the way to artists refusing to perform in Israel.

The guys in Tahrir have taught us that being “too political” is cool, and that you can also have a wonderful career, have concerns about social welfare, environment, technology, and economy, all the while remaining “too political” in your thinking. The age of “Grey Suits” Arab politicians has come to an end.

The 3rd ASDA’A B-M Arab Youth Survey unveils that democracy is the number one priority for Arab Youth. It is important to note that we are talking about a pure version of Arab democracy, unlike the unpopular neoconservatives’ democracy that was brought to Iraq through military invasion, which was followed by sectarian violence and division.

Another interesting and obvious finding of the survey is that the “internet makes more inroads with social media growing in influence”. Internet and social media did NOT create the Arab revolutions and movements; they simply facilitated them, as leaflets did in classical revolutions, and as the audiotape did during Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

Arab youth holds a historical commitment and mission, primarily to their local community and to the entire world: the building of the new, progressive and tolerant Arab World; a world empowered by knowledge and technology, that strives from its unique cultural values and embraces its remarkable ethnic, religious and cultural diversity. A secular and liberal Arab World must become the reality of this region and it is definitely good news to every citizen of this world.

The behaviour of Palestinian youth is determined by how they can make a difference, how they can overcome day to day challenges, how they can be free and dream about a journey of success. A typical day for them is portrayed in a colorful painting of feelings; joy of getting a promotion, sadness of being frisked at a check point, proud of little brother’s football skills, cautious of the dark days, confident of decisions, betrayed by heritage and identity theft, longing for relatives in an Israeli jail, and grieving loved ones’ loss.

Democracy and freedom of speech play a significant role in our life, and luckily because of the internet and social networks, youth in Palestine have even more space to express their interests and opinions, and are no longer limited by clashes, bombs flying around, tanks, jeeps, check points, and curfews.

While Palestinian youth fight every day for their common traditions, heritage, identity, history and existence that they share with all Arabs and wish to have a very peaceful life, I always found a twist and an add-in to be Palestinian growing up in the occupied lands. We are always looking for a positive vision, we want to experience the rush of excellence and success, we are born with passion that feeds enthusiasm.

www.arabyouthsurvey.com

Go to www.arabyouthsurvey.com for full results.