As part of an active effort to expand the global presence of the ICCO community, national or regional trade associations that might be interested in joining will now receive a wealth of information about the organisation in the form of membership packs. The New Member pack contains useful documentation about the benefits of membership, the Stockholm Charter, the Consultancy Management Standard and much more. Observer Member packs, meant to help guide Observers to Full Member status, provide working examples of association bylaws, membership applications, events calendars and so on as well as quarterly assessment forms for tracking progress.

If you know of a consultancy-based trade association in a non-member country that should receive a New Member pack, please e-mail details to the ICCO Executive Director at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Data is currently being compiled to produce the next ICCO World Report. This edition will represent a more in-depth view of the industry than in years past and promises both an overview of PR firms’ performance globally in 2007 and a look ahead to business prospects for 2008.

A final report will be published during the first quarter of the year. Watch www.iccopr.com for updates.

The Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) of the UK has launched an optional ‘international’ component to complement their well-known Consultancy Management Standard (CMS), a certification tool adopted in a number of countries within the ICCO network.

This newest certification element testifies to a consultancy’s ability to deliver PR support successfully on an international scale – be it directly from a hub office, via an international network of own offices or through cooperation with local partners. It was designed with the UK consultancy market in mind but can easily be adapted for use in other countries.

For more information, visit the PRCA website at www.prca.org.uk or e-mail This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Communications budgets remain high for Switzerland’s top 500 companies, with 86% planning to maintain or raise PR expenditure levels in 2008, according to the annual Communication Index of consultancy Farner PR.

These figures indicate a healthy outlook for PR over the coming year despite a dampening in growth prospects for the economy as a whole. It also underlines the trend among the world’s largest companies of a shift in investment from traditional advertising and other marketing activities to public relations.

To see the complete Communication Index, visit www.farner.ch/media/kommunikationsindex/.

During a recent ICCO Board meeting in London, leading publication PRWeek took advantage of the presence of our Executive Committee to conduct one of its series of roundtable interviews. Although the complete ExCo was unfortunately not in attendance, President Lou Capozzi, Treasurer & Finance Chair Christian Koenig, Industry Chair Richard Houghton and Membership & Ethics Chair Jean-Leopold Schuybroek were on hand to answer questions about the current trends affecting the PR industry globally.

The article, which appeared in the November 9, 2007 edition of PRWeek, is reprinted with permission. PRWeek retains all copyrights for distribution. Click here to read.