Communications and PR is a broad discipline with many specialist areas — and most professionals learn it piecemeal, on the job. This two-day course provides a structured grounding across the full landscape: what the profession looks like, how the disciplines connect, and how to apply the essential tools of strategy, messaging, stakeholder management, media relations and creative campaigns.
The PR landscape and professional disciplines, core concepts and strategic principles, practical tools and tactics, creative campaign platforms.
Every session runs in a small, boardroom-format group — typically six to eight senior professionals. Your trainer tailors content to the specific industries, organisations and challenges each participant brings, so you work on real situations, not generic examples. The learning combines evidence-based best practice briefings with structured discussions, practical workshops and peer learning. This is training with a coaching and consulting flavour — focused on building skills and producing outputs you can apply in your work immediately.
- Explain and apply the specialised disciplines of PR and communications
- Develop messages, positioning and proof points for your organisation
- Map and prioritise stakeholder groups strategically
- Choose the right PR tool and channel for different objectives
- Apply creative PR platforms to generate practical results
- Plan and structure a communication campaign from objectives to execution
- Understand how the media are organised and how media relations works
- Connect the disciplines of communications into a coherent professional practice
- History and evolution of the communications industry
- Structure of the contemporary global PR landscape
- Strategic communications: how PR serves hard business goals
- PR job roles and career structures: in-house PR, agency PR
- The communications mix: PR, branding, communications, advertising
- The advisory role of communication and PR in shaping business strategy and decision making
- Universal PR principles: reputation management and influence in action
- Specialist PR disciplines (e.g. media relations, event management, crisis, internal, public affairs, financial PR)
- Online engagement: the mainstream role of the Web in modern PR
- Stakeholder mapping: identifying and prioritising the target groups
- Media segmentation: target groups through the most influential channels
- Message development and proof points
- Media relations and media engagement
- Online PR and communications
- Creative PR and communications platforms
- Role and importance of creativity in PR
- Sources and success factors for creativity
- Creativity showcase: lessons from the world's most creative PR campaigns
- Facilitating creativity: 10 practical techniques to unlock creativity
PR and communication professionals who are building their foundational skills, whether new to the profession or in an adjacent role that increasingly involves communications. Also valuable for anyone who wants a structured overview after learning on the job.
The following are some of the ISOC trainers who regularly lead this course, depending whether you join us in London, Dubai or live online.
The two days build progressively, with each module combining briefing, discussion and practical exercises. The small-group format ensures every participant gets individual attention.
Nothing specific is required. If you have a current project or challenge relevant to the course topic, bring it along — the practical exercises can incorporate real-world contexts.
The course is structured as a foundation, but experienced practitioners often find it valuable for filling gaps, refreshing principles and seeing how the disciplines connect. The small-group format allows the trainer to calibrate depth to the room.
The five-day programmes (COP, SCP) go deep across multiple specialist areas with intensive practice. This two-day course covers the essential landscape and tools at a foundational level — a strong starting point or a structured refresher.