PRSA Issues Statement on Bloggergate

The PRSA has issued the following statement in response to the recent flap over their conference.

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has included the subject of blogging in its Professional Development course planning for the past year. On October 6, 2004 we hosted a well attended Webinar on Blogging, our publications, Strategist and Tactics both have upcoming (and past) issues which address blogging, our next Tech Section Conference in June 2005 will cover the subject thoroughly and blogging is included in one of the professional development workshops at the 2004 International Conference. In addition, this year we have extended media credentials to bloggers who cover our industry who wish to attend the conference.

Development of our 2004 Conference program began in January with a call for submissions. We received over 400 proposals which were rated and ranked on specific criteria pertaining to the theme of the conference, relevance to the industry, appropriateness for specific tracks and what our members said they wanted or needed. The conference co chairs developed the 2004 program based on this ranking in May. We did not receive one proposal specifically on the topic of blogging.

Two weeks ago PRSA was approached by a blogger who wished to hold a session at the International Conference on Saturday, October 23. We explained that the conference began on Sunday and that all of the sessions had been slotted months earlier. Further we offered that should one open up we would advise.

As of Thursday, October 14 we have received a cancellation of a workshop and we are exploring the feasibility of adding a blogging session in the 2004 program. Details will be provided as soon as they are available.

This all sounds peachy to me. If the PRSA adds a blogging session, I will suspend my planned supplemental activities. I also have been invited to blog the conference, which I plan to do at least in part.