Guest blog post by David Gallagher, ICCO President & CEO EMEA, Ketchum

- To rise, you have to shine – and vice versa. The first thing that has struck me about these professionals? Their willingness to rise up to a challenge, risk disappointment, and show what they can do. To stand out, you have step up. These guys are fearless.
- We are defined by what we bring. Today. Experience is priceless, but often we use it as an excuse (‘tried it – won’t work’) to avoid new ideas or big thinking, rather than as a guide to keep innovation on track. In these competitions, with just a few hours to propose solutions, the teams are unfettered by decades of experience; they just let the biggest ideas break through. In the real world of course, experience can be a great filter, but it should never drown out creativity.
- Social is the new traditional media. Strange how often I hear experienced PR advisors still talking about social versus traditional media. Not one young lion draws such an artificial distinction; they are much more likely to discuss content or channels in term of earned, owned, shared or paid.
- Problems are solved with changes in attitude or behaviour. Not with ‘coverage.’ One of my happiest discoveries: how many of their programs / campaigns focused on what would change minds in order to deliver objectives, rather than what would generate ‘media interest.’

David Gallagher oversees Ketchum's nine European agencies and their specialist services, which include consumer public relations, healthcare communications, corporate affairs and social responsibility, public affairs, change management, and clinical trial recruitment.
He is president of the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO), the global umbrella network of 30 national PR agency trade associations, and a fellow and past chairman of the UK Public Relations Consultants Association. He chairs the World Economic Forum’s global agenda council on the future of media, and was the 2014 PR jury president for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.