The next CIPR TV show on Tuesday 16 October will see the CIPR presidential candidates debate their priorities for the Institute, as they apply for the position of President-Elect in 2013. Broadcasting live at 5pm, the show's host and former CIPR President Kevin Taylor FCIPR will speak to Miti Ampoma FCIPR and Lionel Zetter FCIPR.

Each candidate will have a two-minute slot to pitch, with both viewers and their fellow candidates being able to ask them questions. If you'd like to put a question to the panellists, you can tweet in your question using the hashtag #ciprtv.

View the President-Elect candidate statements.

CIPR TV is brought to you by markettiers4dc and the CIPR's Social Media Panel.

A: Kevin Taylor – CIPR President 2009

B: Miti Ampoma – Independent Communications Specialist

C: Lionel Zetter – Senior Council, APCO Worldwide

Hello, I’m Kevin Taylor and welcome to CIPRTV, brought to you by Markettiers4dc. The CIPR is a democratically let body. Its president is a member and is directly elected by the fellow members as a figure head and a spokesman not just for the 10,000 members of the CIPR but for the wider profession on issues such as ethics, standards and the value of reputation to the British economy. This year two outstanding candidates are contesting for the position of president in 2014. The CIPR likes to keep one president up its sleeve and we have already got 2013’s president in Sue Wolstenholme. Tonight we get to meet the contenders for 2014 and most importantly you the viewer can ask them questions live by using the Twitter hash tag #CIPRTV or the live question box on the CIPR website. Joining me are the two candidates Miti Ampoma an independent communications specialist and Lionel Zetter, senior council APCO Worldwide. Each candidate will have a chance to make their pitch for roughly 3 minutes. Followed by some questions and I’ll do my best to guide what I hope will be a high level debate on the future of the CIPR and the public relations profession. Before we start a quick reminder, polling started next week and will close at noon on Wednesday 24th October full members and fellows eligible to vote then you should have received your ballot by email directly from the electoral reform service. If you haven’t, check your spam inbox otherwise email the address on the screen which is customerservices@electoralreform.co.uk. So, in the great traditions of alphabetical order Lionel you must be used to going last, Miti, I wonder if I could invite you to give your pitch.

B: Thank you Kevin. Hello everybody. In the world in which we now operate public relations it has changed beyond recognition in the last 10 years and we need at the CIPR to change with it if we are to survive, set the agenda and lead the profession. The experienced leadership that was always the guarantee is now no longer a guarantee in the world that we live in. We are seeing at once, iconic institutions falling around our ears based on experienced leadership alone. What we need to do is reinvent and innovate our public relations service offering. We need to be able to build and produce a sustainable business model which gives people a compelling reason to want to be with us whatever the business climate. We need to inspire, we need to connect and we need to motivate. In this new business era that is the new strategy. We need to do this with our staff, we need to do this with our members and we need to do this with everyone we know will benefit in public relations. There are 6 key areas that I think we need to focus on. We need to build deep and lasting relationships, we need to nurture them and these relationships need to be based on honesty, integrity and trust. We need to also build partnerships. As a chartered body we need to look to our trade bodies to build appropriate partnerships. We also need to look beyond and think outside the box and look at alliances that will bring back an extra special something to our table and visa versa. Diversity; we need to stop taking about diversity and start doing it. We are a broad church and we reflect a wide range of people in the institute. Let’s do it! Digital communication; by the time that Lionel and I are 2014 president digital communication, the digitisation of our society will completely drive public relations. It’s more than just social media. It’s about online community engagement, it’s about relationship marketing. We need to get into this space. Membership; we need to grow our membership and we need to do it fast. We know that there are about 36,000 people out there who are in public relations but don’t belong to a membership organisation. Let’s go and find them, let’s attract them with a compelling proposition and finally as a chartered body we need to offer excellent qualifications which raise standards so that every practitioner worth their fees and salary will look to us and want to join us. I myself will be applying for chartered status because I believe that any potential leader or any president to be or might be needs to have this qualification and needs to set and lead by example. If I am elected I will do my upmost to ensure that the CIPR leads and inspires the public relations profession. Let’s put the soul and heart back into public relations to give people a compelling reason to join us. Thank you.

A: Thank you Miti. Lionel, your turn.

C: Thank you Kevin. Good afternoon everybody. I’m Lionel Zetter, I’m a fellow of the CIPR I’ve been a member for over 20 years. I was president in 2007 and during my year I set up the finance committee, I barred junkets, I vetoed first class travel, we got to grips with expenses and we delivered a healthy profit. I’ve also served on the council and the board, I’ve judged Excellence Awards, I’ve been chairman of the CIPR current affairs group and I’ve given evidence to 3 select committees behalf of the CIPR and of the industry in general. But I’m not standing on my past record rather on the basis of what I hope to do in the future going forward. I believe that the divisions within the industry have gone on for far too long. Our disunity damages our reputation, lowers our credibility in the eyes of government, our employers, our clients and let’s face it our members. It also leads to damaging duplication of our premises, our back office functions and our commercial activities. Now, since I joined APCO Worldwide I automatically became a member of the PRCA and the APPC and of course I retained membership of the CIPR but my membership with those other two bodies has bought me into closer contact with them and we have worked together very closely, presented a united front to government to represent the industry over the lobbying reforms which are coming forward. So all of this activity, this joint membership, this triple membership has convinced me that within the industry, within the senior people within the industry and people coming into it there is a real appetite for reunification because let’s not forget up ‘till 1969 there was one body representing PR in this country as there is in so many countries abroad. If you vote for me I can promise I will provide the energy and the experience to make sure that the CIPR is run effectively and I will use that energy and that experience to try and make sure that reunification of the industry because a very real possibility. Thank you.

A: Thank you very much Lionel. I had a whole bunch of questions that we prepared but we did ask for questions from the audience and I’m pleased to say we have lots of them. So I’m going to throw away my questions virtually and go straight to one from Eileen Thompson which follows on exactly from what Lionel was saying and from Eileen to Miti it was, what are your views around the possible consolidation of the various trade associations and bodies in the public relations industry? Should they remain separate? Or should they come together in some way? So that links back into where Lionel just was, so Miti.

B: Yes, I think it’s a really important question and it’s one for all of us in the industry. My view is that given that we are the chartered practitioners set body this question of merger has on the table for a very, very long time and it’s a small part of a much wider mix of issues of a debate for the chartered institute of public relations so my answer to that is yes, there are whole areas that we can incorporate for example, we have training courses, we can speak with one voice on that. We have events we could look at doing that. We could even have a shared services model and for looking at office spaces but certainly we have distinct purposes well within the industry and rather than reunification I think we could all sit around the table and actually unite on a whole range of issues where it means that when we present to anybody, government or otherwise we are speaking with one voice without having to break us up.

A: I think we know your (Lionel) answer to that question so why don’t I come to you and say, what are your thoughts about how the CIPR can increase awareness of its benefits and of the benefits of membership amongst PR professionals who are not currently engaged with the institute? This question came in from Louise Jaggs, it was put to all three of us actually but I think you are the guys they want to hear from. What would you do?

C: Can I rewind a little bit. There was a study about 5 years ago which you will be aware of which showed there are about 45,000 people in the communications in the UK and ever since that report came out we had been working on the assumption that we can gather a substantial proportion of those people into the CIPR. We’ve had membership drives, we’ve had member get members we have advertising campaigns, we’ve done PR and yet we are bumped up against continuously, this 10,000 membership ceiling and I think if we kid ourselves, especially in the middle of a recession, that we’re going to break through that ceiling then I don’t think we are doing ourselves or the membership any favours what so ever. So my model I’m afraid is we’ve been trying to do that for years, lets accept that a substantial proportion of people who work in PR do not want to become members of the CIPR and let’s work with the other bodies to make sure our overheads can be covered, we can have firm finances and we can speak with one voice.

A: Miti?

B: I think Lionel and I are both agreed probably that we a new sustainable model. I think where we disagree is how we do that and I disagree with what Lionel’s just said. I think great leadership is a balance between belief and vision and the reality and rationality and you’ve got to keep balancing the two. If we keep saying its all doom and gloom simply because we’ve done what we’ve always done in the way we recruit more members then we are going to get what we’ve always got. If I’m given the chance we will have energy to make the difference. We can bring people in, there are people out there. If we give them a compelling reason enough and a proposition which they can’t refuse they will come in and I will make sure that we will really have a drive is different and fresh thinking to that before so that we get at least 1,000 new members would make a huge difference to us and let’s start with that.

C: I would love to know what that compelling new reason is because we have been looking for it for many years.

A: Ok. I have a question from Eva McClain. The PRCA has been wooing individual members, who would you work to benefit the CIPR and its members and chartered status is one of our selling points but in what other ways would you differentiate the CIPR offer from the PRCA offer. That was a question for you Miti but I’ll give you a chance as well Lionel.

B: Right, I think that we need to be at the cutting edge of our qualifications under the chartered status. Its internationally, chartered status is something that is revered around the world and so that in itself differentiates us. The other thing that I really think we need to look at this cutting digital communication. I was actually speaking to somebody incredibly senior the other day who actually advises the government and they’ve set up the most extraordinary little youth academy because they recognised that young people are a generation who are born digital, it’s not something they have to learn it’s something that they do and I’ve met some of them, its extraordinary. They are desperate on the other hand, to acquire the sort of business skills, the sort of public relations skills that we offer. We need to look innovatively to bring us together so that they can teach us things that we need to know and help us drive our business to the future. That’s the sorts of alliance we need to start looking at to differentiate our offer. The other thing is we actually need to make diversity the norm. An institution like this should have diversity as the norm and we should stop talking, it shouldn’t actually be something that should be on the subject agenda because it actually just so normal. I think that would differentiate our offer and within this I think it would make our members out there are natural ambassadors and then it’s a cog wheel, it just keeps turning. Success breeds success.

A: Now Lionel obviously differentiation if you’re talking about coming together how would you work around the charter in terms of organisations coming together?

C: About the charter, the charter is a great thing it gives us credibility both here and internationally it also means that our governance is very strict and me move very slowly so it is a straightjacket as well as a platform. Now the current problems that have got worse over the last three years particularly between the CIPR and PRCA and I won’t put this in chronological order because it will be taking one side or the other. The fact is the PRCA used to represent companies, agencies and the CIPR used to represent individual members that line has been blurred. The CIPR now actively recruits agencies and the PRCA actively recruits individual members. That’s what I mean by damaging competition. Nobody knows where they stand, everyone is fighting for market share and we are on a hiding to nothing if we carry on down that road.

A: Thanks a lot. I’m going to move away merger, PRCA and all of those. A question from Kevin Ruck and do we believe that internal communication is a PR discipline? Let’s start with you Lionel.

C: Very much so. The best ambassadors for any company, any organisation are the employees and if they’re not happy, they’re not informed they can’t very well for fill that role so it is absolutely essential that people who work in any organisation, large or small know what’s going on, know what the vision is, knows what the objectives are and internal communications is a vital part of the mix in my judgment.

A: I think we are going to have unanimous agreement aren’t we Miti?

B: We are. Lionel and I are in complete agreement because actually what I do for a living is I run a specific change and transformation communication programs of really complex integration programs internally so I am passionate about internal communications it’s my thing. Absolutely it is a PR discipline and I think that in addition one of the things that it’s really good at is homing in on the new way of messages and audiences rather than the straight channel stuff because people who work in internal communications are very aware as Lionel said, that without happy staff you don’t get happy customers and it’s one of my mantras, happy staff, happy customers and more profits and we are responsible for that in internal communications.

A: I wonder if we are going to have unanimity on the next question as well which is Jenny Beattie, who says, what’s our view cheque book journalism, do we think PR people should broker stories for cash for their clients? Let’s start with you Miti.

B: Well, I think it’s a really interesting question and I would challenge who is a PR person in this area and who isn’t. There are people who organise a cheque book journalism whom I’m sure lots of my PR colleagues would perhaps term as publicists rather than PR. It is the Max Clifford question and I would say that this is one of the reasons it is so fundamental for us to set ourselves apart in terms of the qualifications and all that so the practitioners are very clear, it is very, very clear in our industry and beyond that actually you have to be part of a rigorous discipline in order to be called a PR person. So I would actually say I’m uncomfortable with it but I wouldn’t bring that publicist stuff into the PR forum.

A: No chartered publicists

B: No, absolutely.

A: Lionel

C: Well let’s differentiate here. First of all nobody who has committed any criminal offence is allowed benefit from that act so if anybody has committed a crime they are not allowed to sell their story, that is illegal. If it’s not illegal, as far as I’m concerned as a libertarian, then it should be allowed, but check book journalism is not something is not something that I would engage in myself, it’s not something I would recommend, it is not laudable and holding up Max Clifford as an example of our industry is something we would all condemn I think within the CIPR.

A: I’m now going to take a question from Iulia-mihaela Matres, apologies Iulia if I’ve pronounced the name wrong. How do you plan to increase the engagement of international CIPR members during your time in office. So we’ll start with you this time Lionel.

C: Ok well the firm I work for Apco Worldwide has thirty seven owned offices globally and operates in fifty five different countries, I spend a fair amount of time travelling and working with those clients. I also do a lot of training internationally so I engage with practitioners from many different countries. I think that during those travels I would have the opportunity perhaps to promote the CIPR and the standards for which we are internationally known for.

A: Miti

B: Well I’m a product of an international upbringing so I think that it would be great for us to increase the international representation within the CIPR. What I would do, call me a simpleton but I will start knocking on doors, you know having face to face conversations so that the various heads of international bodies know who we are, can put a face to the figurehead who is the president, that’s the way you start to get people really really engaged, having those conversations. I also think that one of the innovative things we could do is start getting sponsors, who are really engaged in that international arena, to help us get together conferences, influencers, lunches, all those sorts of events which means we are regularly in touch and that will build the momentum. Let’s do it.

A: Let’s do it indeed. But no junkets, I heard that before

C: Definitely no junkets. So a question from Ray Ulgar and we’ll start with you Miti because you’ve spoken about qualifications, and Ray asks should the CIPR make CPD compulsory for its members to improve the reputation of the industry and set practitioners who are members apart from non-members? Compulsory CPD?

B: Yes, I think the time has come, I mean I double up, believe it or not, as a clinical massage therapist in another world and when I started massaging in hospitals that didn’t have CPD, but they are very very strict. We have to do CPD every year and I think that now it really does set people apart. If we are going to set ourselves apart as real lead practitioners, we need to do everything including CPD to make our members really really realise their potential. So I think the time has come and the answer is yes.

A: Lionel

C: First of all confession time, I am signed up to CPD, but I’m not very good at keeping it up to date. Yes I think we need to make it compulsory. It’s like time sheets, we all hate them but if we know they have to be done, if we know the forms have to be filled in, then we will find the time to do it.

A: I’ve now got a question from Steve Faller, for you particularly Lionel, which is: you’ve already been president once, do you have unfinished business? If not, what’s motivating you to stand again?

C: Very much unfinished business, every time we seem to get out of the mire financially, we seem to plough back into the next wave if I can mix my metaphors. We have a couple of years when we make a prophet and then we plunge back into debt, we need to be put on a really firm footing, and my recipe for that as I have gone on about many times before is a merger or closed cooperation, I think that’s what will enable us to going forwards, make profits and lift up reserves year after year after year and that’s my objective.

A: I’m going to come now with a question that is really for you Miti, I’ve got a question from Julio Roma and then one from Stewart Bruce, the questions are flying in. From Julio, I’ll put to you Miti: what will you do to make businesses see the need for credited PR professionals? Because you’ve been talking about the need for that, so what would you do to make businesses see that need?

B: The first thing I will do myself is to set that example. So I will be working very hard in my own application for chartered status, I wouldn’t ask anybody to do something or see the benefits of something if I haven’t gone out and done it myself. So that’s the first thing, once I have applied and I’m in the drill, I am able to then promote that to businesses. Again I will be knocking on doors, having conversations about the benefits that the people and businesses will receive. And given my pitch, if we’re going to go through those six key focus points and do that well, that already differentiates our offer. They are clear benefits, businesses have made it very very clear that actually what they want is good training and teaching and qualified people who come into the business and we can offer that. If they want it, it’s an open door. If we can deliver it, it’s a win win situation.

A: Excellent, now it’s really a bit of a follow up and it’s for you both. What would you personally do to improve the reputation of the public relations profession? And what would you do to help ensure the CIPR as a whole works for that goal? So let’s start with you Lionel.

C: OK, it’s a very good question. I think we’re already doing most of the right things. On the other hand I don’t think we’re necessarily very good at communicating that we’re already doing most of the right things. So I think we need to advertise a little bit more strongly, if I can use that word, the fact that we are a chartered body, the fact that we do have a range of qualifications which are the gold standard in our field, the fact that we publish books and pamphlets which are best practice on everything, from social media to lobbying, I think we’re already doing it, we just need to make it a little bit more obvious and a little bit more apparent to the world at large that we are doing these things and that we are the gold standard.

A: Miti

B: I think that we need to show rather than tell people at this point. You know if we are representative and are doing it and we are the gold standard, people can see that we’re giving real value to others in businesses, they will follow. The other thing is that in my pitch I said that it’s really important as a new strategy to inspire, connect and motivate. If we are doing that at levels with our own members and our own staff, they are ambassadors to go and do that for us and the more we spread the movement so to speak, the more businesses will have us because they know it makes a difference to them. What they want is emotional benefit and experience when they’re bleeding and we can sort out those problems by our service offering, so let’s go out there and tell them.

A: I’ve got a question from Rachel Miller just literally come in on Twitter, and she’s obviously been listening into the broadcast and has picked up on internal communications and says: do we see any opportunities to work alongside the institute of internal communications for the benefit of internal comms professionals? So quick question for both of you.

C: There are about half a dozen organisations we should be having talks with, they are certainly one of them.

B: Without a doubt, without a doubt. Internal communications is so fundamental, not just to organisations and businesses but actually to the economy because it’s a case of happy staff happy customers, more profit. So we must absolutely engage in conversation and make sure that we’re really really cooperating in every aspect to put the discipline right out there.

A: OK, apologies to anybody on Twitter who we didn’t get to, it is getting time to wrap up and asking you both to say something again, what I thought I’d do is actually go back to one of my questions and that’s to say: you’ll be president in 2014, you’ll be president elect in 2013, what do you plan to do during 2013 to prepare the ground and who are the key stake holders you think you need to meet with during your year as President elect? So your last chance, we’ll reverse the alphabetical order, Lionel will go first, then Miti, then I’ll wrap us up .

C: W have so many key stake holders, we have our trade media, who we are pretty reliant upon, we have the government, we have a new minister in charge of lobbying, we have the Leverson inquiry, we have our colleagues in other trade and professional bodies, who we need to engage with and of course we have our members. We have no more key stakeholder than our members. We can’t see them all, but we can get around the country as I did when I was President, and I visited every nation, nearly every region I intend to revisit that and certainly check out those regions I failed to get to last time.

A: During your president elect year.

C: During my president elect year, you heard it here first.

A: Miti.

B: Well the first thing I would do is work very closely with the president, the CEO, the council, our wonderful standing committees, our members and the staff to really get under the skin and understand the CIPR because unlike Lionel I haven’t been president before so I need to walk before I can jump. That would be the first thing but within the same year I think certainly where I can contribute any contacts of which I have many I would be helping to look to that sustainable business model that we’re all working towards and I would certainly travel to all the regions because I believe we need to give them a lot of support to make sure that their events and their local networking is as good as it possibly can be and so that they get to know me.

A: Thanks a lot Miti and thank you Lionel and we look forward to the road show whichever one of you does it, during 2013 and on that note thank you both for taking part in the debate today.

B & C: Thank you.

A: Thank you for all the questions we’ve received from members. Polling as I say will close at noon on Wednesday 24th October. Again if you haven’t received your ballot by email directly from the electoral reform service please check your spam inbox otherwise that email address is on the bottom of the screen now, customerservices@electoralreform.co.uk. Don’t forget you can actually download and watch that again, won’t that be lovely. Download this episode of CIPRTV and the whole back catalogue via the iTunes store or at CIPR.TV. Thank you very much for watching and goodbye.