New Communications Forum

I will be deserting England's land of the Moonrakers and Stonehenge, I will be in Palo Alto on 1^st to 3^rd of March at the New Communications Forum which is a great excitement. It is a privilege to share a platform with with Elizabeth Albrycht, Research Chair at the Society for New Communications Research. I admire her work and her science.

We will be talking Rocket Science. I make no apology!

Rocket science produced some of thegreat spectacles of the 20^th century. It brought the firstsatellite with its iconic beep, beep beep, Uri Gagarin, the firstmen on the moon, the Hubbletelescope, the US/RussianSpace station, satellitetelevision and even inspired Google Earth.

The rocket science I am talking about is no less significant.

Elizabeth's research and some of my findings are based on some pretty profound work. It builds on aresource drawn from many disciplines including psychology, the social sciences, economics, communications and management theory. It is supported by empirical evidence and a growing number of people round the world from many

disciplines who are working in the same or closely allied fields.

This science is the science behind relationship management. It has evolved as we observed the digitally networked community emerging.

It emerged as we observed huge, often global, communities come together, work together, morph and changed.Some have massive influence in areas like politics, corporate survival and profitability. We saw the Internet influence events in Seattle, creation of global enterprises like Google and effects on cultures and especially, at present, how we regard religious faiths.

This means that all of our strategies and tactics need to be focused on building, extending
and nurturing the entire universe of connections possible for an organization. But how do we do this? Relationship management strategies will play a key role. As Richard Edelman put it this week we have to be an 'integral part of client communities within and outside of the company. We need to bring relationships from (the) broad stakeholder world.'

This is powerful stuff - it affectsour daily lives and it is about culture, power, values and wealth.

It can create. It can destroy. Some of us will be involved in the research, some will be involved at a technical level, some will but observe but it will change the framework against which communicatorswork.

I commend you see and hear Elizabeth's contribution. She will herald this new science. It is about our world and will be the one of the important signposts about the profound change we are witnessing.