O’Conall Street

It is Irish News day on O’Conall Street. Topic de jour is the Olympics……

What a Games! $43 billion dollars and no disappointments.

China was never going to leave anything to chance and unlike the chaotic international torch run, the 16 days on Chinese soil were choreographed within an inch of their life.

It was more a case study in propaganda than public relations – text-book stuff. As one BBC journalist noted last night you simply could not organise a Games like these in a democracy. The electorate would not allow you to spend so much, nor would they accept such limitations on the personal freedoms.

Within hours of accepting the Olympic flag, London was already involved in a debate about the use of an image of Myra Hindley in a ‘Visit Britain’ video. It has been condemned by the PM and Boris Johnston. The accountability has started and will not abate until the Olympic flame goes out on August 12th, 2012.

Proper order too. There are many in my profession who will cite Beijing as a case study in public relations. I’m not sure this will stand up to scrutiny. It’s easy to manage your image when you control the media, the web, the blogs, the movement of your people, where and if they protest. These, in public relations terms were a closed Olympics. London can be nothing but the opposite.

I was really looking forward to reading Olympian’s blogs – as it happens there were only a few. The Chinese authorities blocked many of the hosting platforms making it impossible for athletes to upload their thoughts.

Then last week Channel 4 brought us the news of two septuagenarians sentenced to ‘re-education’ by the state for applying to protest about housing in the official protest zone. It made great TV but I wonder if these elderly ladies received another visit from the police after their interview was broadcast around the world.

For the Beijing ‘yin’ there will be the London ‘yang’. The 2012 games will be a true public relations challenge. In one of the most open cities in the world with one of the most vocal democracies - a tradition of protest and political debate and more nationalities then any other conurbation in Europe, the skills of those in my profession will be tested.

There will be little point in trying the Chinese top down approach. You cannot control a free press and a free people. Building the reputation for these games will have to be bottom up. In London, individuals looking for news, information and cues will rely less on institutions, or even the press and more on each other.

As individuals take control, they’re demanding more, which is why, in communications terms “pull” now overrules “push.” Amid information overload, pushing messages is not enough. London need to pull people toward the ideas it wants to convey in a true exchange. This requires engagement.

London will need to recruit advocates, forging emotional bonds and higher levels of involvement from supporters — active, vocal, proud, informed, experiential.

That is easier said then done in a democracy.

So the gauntlet has been thrown down again.

The Power Sharing Executive will be collapsed if the principal parties cannot agree on fundamental policy. Not surprising I hear you say. What with the economy in the state it’s in and so much to do in education, health as well as the real and present challenge of global warming. This is an executive with lots on its agenda. Understandable if regrettable that they might not be able to agree on one of the above and have to call an election.

Not so.

Sinn Fein are threatening to collapse Stormont if they don’t get devolution of policing and justice now. Important yes and the DUP should not delay what is the obvious missing piece in the devolution jigsaw, but the electorate want government not stand off and they need leadership not brinkmanship.

The Irish Times today reports that the Church of Ireland Gazette has also said it is too soon for devolution of policing. Canon Iain Ellis the paper’s editor said:

“What appears to happen is that decisions are very often taken on what effectively is a system of ‘trade-off of demands’ between the political parties, as opposed to focusing on the real merits in particular issues.”

SF will be monitoring nationalist response to this latest ’show of stregnth’.

Don’t be surprised if the electorate tell them to get back to their desks and do the job they are being paid to do.    

Sen Joe Biden a catholic from Delaware, born in Pennsylvania and strong on foreign policy is Barack Obama’s running mate in November. The text went out as promised at about 3am EST but CNN got the scoop (see below).  It is very difficult to beat the fourth estate to a big announcement.

Without even knowing we were in the running, O’Conall Street has made Iain Dale’s top ten Northern Ireland blogs.

Thank you to everyone who voted for the street!

The question of whether the Northern Irish soccer squad should change their anthem from God Save the Queen has reignited after the team’s fans were booed during last weekend’s  this weeks friendly in Glasgow. One UUP MLA, Basil McCrea, has called today for a debate on the issue.

At so many levels one would think the case for a local anthem is a no brainer. The IFA has spent the past five years genuinely trying to grow participation and support from across the community. Significant steps have been taken to remove single identity flags and songs from the terraces. Good work and deserving of support.

The anthem has always been the elephant in the room. It needs to go if the NI squad genuinely wish to attract support from the nationalist community. We live in a place with one of the richest musical heritages in the world. Finding an existing song, or creating a new one like the IRFU did, should be a relatively easy thing to do if the will exists to move on.

My text from Barack Obama on his chosen running mate will arrive later. From the very first day his campaign has been revolutionising political communications. It’s cutting edge stuff built around an advocacy model and has to date allowed the voice of the many to compete with the vested interest of the few. That is something in a country where no money means no voice for candidates for public office. 

My great friend in the Bar Library (Belfast) sent me this today.

If you can’t laugh at yourself…….

(click on image to read the message)

The Construction and Property Group which has been established to represent builders, developers, suppliers and those involved in the provision of professional services to the building industry is having a mass meeting in Cookstown tonight.  Over 300 people are expected to attend.

The scale of the crisis facing our construction sector cannot be underestimated. 1500 jobs have already gone and there are rumours of many more. None of these record the many thousands of self employed trades people who are also out of work.

Also concerning is the debt owed to banks by the development community. The financial institutions backed the purchase of development land at very high prices over the past decade.  The builders cannot now build out this land because the market has now fallen below the level at which it is financially possible to do so. This is why the banks and many in the development community are doing a lot of soul searching about how to get the market moving again. If this was an old fashioned western movie, we would be looking at the scene where everyone is pointing a loaded gun at each other. In simple terms the banks and the developers can be guaranteed mutually assured destruction if they don’t find a way out of this problem.  

20,000 new houses are needed here every year. The big developers have already down millions. Many will spend the next decade trying to claw back the losses they have made in the past twelve months and some may go out of business. There is the possibility a bank may also hit the buffers.

But that is not the real issue.

If liquidity is not restored into the market and building restarts then the outlook for our regional economy is bleak.

The utilities and emergency services have so far kept themselves afloat in communications terms. The crisis media relations strategies were clearly activated and the public infomation plans appear to have worked.

Having a well rehearsed crisis communications plan is critically important for public services and utilities. These bodies are in the front line at times of crisis and are judged primarily on their operational communications during the incident.

From a reputational point of views things are very different for government. Ministers need to be both on top of the crisis and capable of responding to the aftermath in a way that reassures tax payers that something is being done to mitigate the chances of history repeating itself.

In that regard the response to date of government North and South is quite different.

North of the Border the ministers for the Environment and Regional Development rolled up their sleeves and got stuck into the immediate handling of the crisis. However, in an interview yesterday Sammy Wilson avoided any discussion about the wider environmental causes of this unseasonal weather and defended his belief that climate change is not being accelerated by human actions. It was not clear at all whether he believed there were any lessons to be learned from an environmental policy point of view.

In contrast, John Gormley, the southern environment minister said he will be bringing forward publication of a climate change adaptation strategy. According to the Irish Times he said the severity of the weather and flooding of recent weeks had underlined the urgency of having the strategy in place as soon as possible.

“We are going to see more flash flooding and more storms. We need to plan accordingly,” he told The Irish Times.

“There will be a 20 per cent increase in precipitation in the future. There will be increases in wind speed and more storms. When it does rain it will be more heavily.”

Officials at the Department of the Environment have been working on the strategy since late last year. It will set out responses to the more severe and extreme weather patterns expected to occur in the future and their impact on drainage systems, flood plains and coastal defences.

The strategy will also propose substantial changes in forestry and agriculture practices.

Mr Gormley said climatic changes would involve droughts during the summer months. The torrential rainfall during August seemed to suggest the contrary but the evidence was also pointing to severe water shortages in future. Water conservation would become a major issue.

The survival of some species of deciduous tree native to Ireland could also be threatened, he said.

Mr Gormley also said he would publish new planning guidelines “within weeks” specifically designed to prevent flooding.

“Any future significant development will have to carry out a flood-risk assessment as part of the planning process. The guidelines will also oblige county and local development plans to include full flood-risk assessments. “It essentially means the end of any major construction on flood plains.”

Will the Executive bring forward a similar plan? Only time will tell.

One thing for sure, Mr Wilson is in the minority believing all this has nothing to do with man.

O’Conall Street has come up with the perfect way to get the Dub’s season off to a good start next year.

Preparing for a new business pitch last week I cam across a wonderful example of interactive marketing from Sydney, Australia. 

Arnotts take note.

This would at least lift the mood next May as we head into another long sorry summer.

Yahoo has an Irish connection though Dean Swift and Gulliver’s Travels. Now Cuil.com has arrived to bring some Celtic inspiration to cyberspace. The world’s latest search engine went live on July 28th. Are Google worried?

Not yet.

But with a name like that Cuil will surely go far.

Off to the sun today so posting will be sporadic over the next couple of weeks.

Heading to the south of Lanzarote where the diving is excellent. Hope to get out for a few days to rexplorer The Cathedral, The Blue Hole and La Pechuguera. All great dives within a stones through from the island’s volcanic shore (sorry about the music on the video!).