Don’t Panic are now putting together our New Wave PR event and we thought a meme might be a fun way to create some buzz, identify potential speakers and find out who you feel the visionaries, mavericks and pioneers of PR really are.

The idea’s simple. We’re asking you to list the three communicators living or dead who have most influenced your way of thinking professionally and perhaps personally too. Who do you think the real innovators are? Who’s been most responsible for kicking the industry forward? And just who are the communication PRunks?

Here's my three dream speakers -

Malcolm McLaren - From The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle to his bid for London Mayor, McLaren is the undisputed king of scam and continues to talk the best bollocks in the world. Official website.

Bill Drummond - Bill's subversion of the music industry is legendary and his ability to generate cultural column inches is unsurpassed. Particular favourites of mine include the KLF's supposed burning of a million quid, the dead sheep dumped on The Brits red carpet and flogging over priced fractions of an out of favour Richard Long. Official website.

Banksy - Who cares if The Guardian doesn't think it's real art? Anonymous graffiti king Banksy continues to unofficially brighten up walls, art galleries and Disneyland California with his street statements on everything from consumerism to Guantanamo Bay. He also makes a lot of people smile. Official website.

UPDATE 16.8.08

Thanks to everyone so far who has responded to the meme and my good mate Stephen Davies who helped kickstart it into the wider world. There have been some great suggestions and I'll certainly be chancing my arm with a few of them as we're determined to make New Wave PR the sexiest comms event ever.

It's hard to keep track of these things but big thanks go out to the following - Stephen Waddington, Becky McMichael, Ged Carroll, Ben Matthews, Paul Stallard, Dan Leach, Giles Shorthouse, Matthew Watson, Tom Harle, Dom Whitehurst, Simon Wakeman, Chris Norton, James Barbour, Emma Mulqueeny, Mark O'Neil, David Brain, Charles Crawford and Tom Murphy.

I particularly liked Dom's attempt at defining a PRunk.

UPDATE 30.6.09

Since the recession bit deep it's probably not the best time to be chancing our arms with a new conference concept but we will definitely be holding this event at some point in the future...

Comments

New Wave PR is a forthcoming event from the people at Don’t Panic and will focus on the visionaries, mavericks and pioneers of the UK PR scene. The event will debut in London before heading to New York and will celebrate the innovation and creativity within the industry as well as providing inspiration for the next generation of comms & PR talent.

There’ll be a non-traditional venue for sure and alongside the presentations we’d love to do sessions on the best pitches clients never went for and a PR surgery for delegates to pick the brains of some of the UK’s PR greats.

Further information will be added to this blog as we confirm speakers and move things forward.

Comments