Dear Friends,

Today is a very special day for me as I have the honour to write you as the President of the International Public Relations Association for 2013. Having been elected by my peers is a great achievement in my professional life and I take this challenge very seriously.

For those of you who do not know me, let me tell you a little bit about myself.

I have always worked in PR from the day that I incorporated an agency in France, back in 1988. I was only 24 years old (yes, I will turn 50 in September 2013) and my purpose was to help technology companies find their audience by promoting their brands and products to the relevant stakeholders. I was anticipating that something big would come out of the personal computer revolution and I just wanted to be part of it.

I grew my business and it became on of the top 5 agencies in France in the early 2000s.

Thrilled by the digital promises, I became a specialist in digital PR, started to post on my own blog in 2004 and became a published author of an essay about the ways Internet usage was changing the Society globally.

I left my agency in the first half of 2011 and joined Edelman as European Digital/Technology Evangelist. I am now again ready for a new challenge as I decided to leave Edelman just a month ago.

As far as IPRA is concerned, I joined this organization after having met Alasdair Sutherland in the mid 90s. I was attracted by the fact that it was an organization made up of individuals (not agencies) and that you were all working on the ways to improve the education around Public Relations at every stage and within an infinite cultural diversity.

I served as a council member then twice as a board member and I have always tried to clear my agenda to participate to the numerous IPRA's events worldwide as an enthusiast and active member/speaker.

The reason why I am spending some time talking about me first is not to try to self promote myself towards you but to let you have a better idea on how my passion and skills can serve IPRA today.

What do I want to bring to IPRA and what are my intentions for the coming year?

First I would like to thank the numerous past presidents that did the job before me. Johanna Mc Dowell of course as she is just stepping down while I am writing this note to you. She has had an impressive year working to ensure the Association's financial security and we all must thank her for that.

I am thinking also of the nearly 20 presidents that I have met and for whom I am full of respect far beyond their differences.
I believe that presidents of IPRA should set themselves an achievable agenda that plays to their strengths
When I look at the coming year, I want to do two things for IPRA.
The first thing I want to work on is to contribute to "digitalize" IPRA even further. We are a worldwide organization with members all around the planet who are hungry for more connections, meetings, services, learning, sharing,.. Social media and social networks are made for us and we should take advantage of them much more than we do today.

This is vital for the future of our organisation. I know how to do that, I will do it for IPRA.

The second thing I want to focus on is to make the IPRA's voice heard, commented and respected. We are all living in PR world where content is king and we must grow our share of voice globally, even by not beeing scared to bring controversy to the table.

I must confess something to you: I am not a constitution maniac nor an administrative addict. I do not see that I can add value there and Jim and Nigel have done an outstanding job for years in that matter.

I deeply believe that the elected President - together with all the available members - must make his or her voice heard talking mainly about... PR!

So this year, in addition to developing social media services for all of us, I will focus on content creation on behalf of IPRA and start conversations with your participation.

Yes, I will need your participation and support. Express yourself, demonstrate you are a proud member of IPRA, someone who knows about PR and let's turn the volume up
On January 11th, I will open and kick-off the ReputationWar conference (http://www.reputation-war.fr) in Paris that I have designed as a symbol of my early presidency. This is how I see IPRA being at the forefront of the hottest converstions around PR.

This is the journey I am inviting to be part of. I hope you will accept it. PR has never been so exciting - I love what PR is becoming - so let's demonstrate that IPRA members are at the heart of it.

Write me anytime at [email protected] with breakthrough ideas and projects and I will try to give echo to your creativity and become your ambassador.

By working on these two angles, I want to achieve two goals: grow the membership and bring value to the membership. Being an IPRA member needs to become an everyday rewarding experience.

Let me finish this by wishing you and your families a happy new year from the bottom of my heart. May peace preveal in your hearts.

Hoping we will have the chance to meet in real life anytime this year,

Warmest regards.
Christophe