THE recently relaunched Public Relations Society of Jamaica will on March 30 elect its new board at its annual general meeting, where country branding specialist, David Lightle will be a guest speaker.

Lightle — now employed to Jamaica Trade and Invest — developed successful strategies for rebranding the Taiwanese manufacturing industry; the New Zealand expansion into Asian markets and more recently exposing Colombia’s merits as a creative crucible, investment-friendly environment and engaging tourism destination.

At the society’s general meeting on February 15, Past President Janneth Mornan-Green recalled the invaluable contribution that the Society made to business and government over the past 29 years and charged the members with the work to be done now.

“PR practitioners must be at the forefront of change, helping our clients to effectively reach greater numbers in further markets; confronting and outsmarting the competition and reshaping their business to meet the demands of a changing world,” she said.

“Today, corporate Jamaica is far more aware of public relations, its purpose and role…Jamaica too is far more aware of PR and its importance,” Mornan-Green went on to say. “I am sure you, like me, have heard the frequent calls for a public education campaign when anything goes wrong or seems to go wrong in the wider society.”

She also listed the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) and the former Jamaica Institute of Management (JIM) and the Institute of Management and Production (IMP, now University of the Caribbean) whose communications curricula were designed with great input from practising professionals who also taught the courses.

PRSJ’s former role was to educate the Jamaican society about the impact and possibilities that lay in the Public Relations field. The benefits of this effort are visible today as every successful organisation now makes communication a valuable component of its core functions.

The group’s mandate will be to represent the interests of a growing community of professionals who handle commodity and social marketing, advertising, event planning, the business of sports and entertainment and corporate strategic decision making.

Mornan-Green used the last United States Presidential Elections to highlight the impact that non-traditional forms of communication have on a society. She has called all communicators to be innovators and trendsetters by understanding the changes that exist in the international market place.

The new goal for the PRSJ is to harness the power of its collective membership to re-scope the communication practices and norms in the Jamaican society.