In the US everything is bigger – the coffee comes in milkshake-sized containers, meal servings are twice what we expect and the shopping malls are immense.  

These are just the tangible reminders of the size and scale of the US and its major companies.  Many of the Fortune 500 have turnovers which put the GDP of even G20 countries to shame.  

So my recent visit to the IABC World Conference in San Diego reminded me of the challenges that we as PR professionals in New Zealand face.  

This was illustrated at an inspiring presentation from Shannon Frederick, the Director of Global Associate Communications at Wal-Mart.

The company’s MySustainabilityPlan is a great example of a global initiative to engage staff (“associates” in Wal-Mart lexicon) in making a commitment to personal, social or environmental sustainability.  The target?  To have more than one million of their two millionstaff participating.  And now they are providing all the Intellectual Property for the global business community to share as part of the Clinton Global Initiative.   

So from a professional service perspective, we need to look at the resources available and cut our cloth accordingly.  The fact that we can develop and implement campaigns that can compete on the world stage is testament to our Number 8 wire heritage, but we also need to be realistic.  Take a look internationally and see what works and then adapt it to our situation.

The benefit of awards such as the Gold Quills and conferences and networks provided by the likes of the IABC is that we have the opportunity to learn from that international experience, build our networks internationally, and celebrate success and innovation.   

I represented Ideas Shop at the IABC World Conference to collect an IABC Gold Quill award for the Simple House project we delivered – the only New Zealand project to receive a Gold Quill this year.