Four Firms join Worldcom Public Relations Group

The Worldcom Public Relations Group, one of the world’s largest network of independently owned public relations counseling firms, confirmed the addition of four new agency partners and a new chairperson at its 2007 annual global meeting held recently at the Peninsula Hotel in Bangkok.

Tom Van Blarcom of TQPR in Bangkok, Thailand, hosted the meeting and was elected new global chairman. He will serve through 2009, when the new chair-elect, Diego Biasi, president and general manager of Business Press in Milan, Italy will take over.

“This was one of our most successful group meetings,” said Van Blarcom. “With more than 90 senior-level professionals from 53 firms worldwide on hand to share expertise and best practices, create new strategies to better serve clients, and work together to develop new business opportunities, an amazing amount was accomplished in three days.”

“Worldcom admits new partners only twice annually following a due-diligence process involving on-site agency visits and client recommendations,” said group membership chair Matt Kucharski of Padilla Speer Beardsley in Minneapolis, U.S.A.

Two new partners selected to join the group from the Asia Pacific region help strengthen Worldcom’s sports marketing, consumer and lifestyle, healthcare and technology practices.

PR Plus Ltd., Hong Kong, specializes in consumer, lifestyle and sports marketing serving clients such as ING Manchester United Cup, Macau Grand Prix, Formula 1, ESPN STAR Sports, TaylorMade Adidas Golf, Subaru and Michelin.

TOCS, Tokyo, established in 1989 specializes in information technology working with semiconductor/chip manufacturers, enterprise solutions software providers and security appliance and software makers. Clients include Cirrus Logix, Oracle and KPMG. TOCS also specializes in healthcare with clients such as Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo Smith Klein and Pfizer.

Two new partners from Scandinavian countries add to Worldcom’s reach in Northern Europe, and serve clients with pan-European as well as broader international communications needs.

PrimeTime Kommunikation, Copenhagen, provides public relations services to a broad range of international and Danish companies from various industries including information technology, healthcare, real estate, clothing, finance and politics. This agency serves clients such as Vaillant, Bayer, Canon and Fiat, as well as famous Danish companies such as Bang & Olufsen and LEGO.

Time PR, Stockholm, delivers public relations services to business-to-business and consumer companies with a particular focus on the information technology, telecom and home electronics industries. The staff at Time PR brings valuable experience as journalists with outstanding knowledge of the Nordic press. Time PR’s clients include 3Com, Plextor, Pinnacle Systems, Sharp and Nortel.

“Worldcom’s bi-annual meetings allow our partners to work and network together,” Van Blarcom said. “They build trust -- something you can’t develop over the internet.”

In addition to individual practice group sessions, participants at the conference this year continued Worldcom’s peer reviews, an assessment that measures each firm’s adherence to rigorous firm management standards. Partners also shared expertise in using Web 2.0 in client programs, hiring and keeping the best employees, managing firm growth and promotion, and pitching international accounts

 Key speakers included Marina Maher of Marina Maher Communications in New York, Lynn Casey of Padilla Speer Beardsley in Minneapolis, Laura Hall of Off Madison Ave in Phoenix, Alexander Guettler of komm.passion in Dusseldorf, Crispin Manners of Kaizo in London, Biasi and Kucharski. Partners also heard a presentation on emerging consumer trends in Asian markets by a leading regional market research organization.

See other recent news regarding: Public Relations