Malaysia's very own PR awards - a coming of age

I remember being a very young PR consultant who didn't know head or tail about the industry once; so I asked my boss, how do I join the industry association?

Ku brought me to one of those PR Consultant's Association of Malaysia (PRCAM) AGMs and instructed me how to cast the companies' corporate vote. Back in those days, the PRCAM itself was pretty small and we rarely heard from other fellow PR Agencies except when Ku attended meetings or there was an activity here and there (Speakeasy comes to mind).

Fast-forward three years and the landscape has changed. Several key things happened within the industry body (best as I know):

1. The accreditation process which now allows PRCAM members to opt for accreditation voluntarily. I remember following stories of the "official" PR Practitioners association (the IPRM)'s bid for enforced accreditation (2 years down the road and we don't hear about it anymore), and the PRCAM's resistance in offering an alternative in voluntary accreditation. Also, somewhere along the line, someone made a comment about "even karaoke singers can be PR consultants..."
2. Increased activities by PRCAM such as the Speakeasy series and the Straight Talk series. I think having talks and gatherings where practitioners in the industry meet is really an important activity. The strategy of focusing on younger practitioners was genius - and I personally think these activities have added vibrancy to the community.

And just today, in my inbox, comes point No. 3. - The Malaysia PR Awards.
Having a credible local awards programme is incredibly important in underscoring the credibility of a creative industry. The advertising industry has the Kancil and the Sledgehammer awards. Below the Line agencies have the DMAM awards. Media buyers have the Malaysia Media Awards. Now, the PR Industry has the Malaysia PR Awards.

Yes, we had the IPRM Crystal Awards earlier, but this newer award has to take the cake in terms of credibility. Endorsement (?? Need to clarify if it's just endorsement ??) from Media magazine which runs the annual Asia PR Awards lends the credibility of not just the Malaysian industry, but the Asia Pacific industry. It's like the region applauding the coming of age for the PR industry in Malaysia.

Kudos must go to the PRCAM leadership team for putting this together, but perhaps working out the mechanics of the entire awards programme was the easy part. The next big question is: "Who will the actual winners of this programme be?"

And: "What is the quality of the awarded campaigns?"

And perhaps even more importantly: "Who are the judges?"

A balance needs to be struck (and I'm not even sure what that balance is) in order for this next step in Malaysia's PR industry's growth to succeed. We need to find credible industry judges and award the most deserving campaigns. Because, there is no second chance. A poor example of a winner in the first year will surely extinguish the credibility of this awards and drive us a step back.

So here's crossing my fingers and waiting in anticipation of some really outstanding examples of the really great PR work being done in Malaysia. Let's move forward summore.