BledCom is an annual gathering of scholars and practitioners in public relations and related disciplines to discuss contemporary communication and management problems. Organized annually since 1994, it is the oldest conference in our field that is not affiliated with a professional or academic association.

So far, eight books and nine special issues or sections of peer-reviewed journals have been published based on previous symposia (www.bledcom.com.). We attribute this success to the hundreds of colleagues who have participated over these years and of course our sponsors. We thank you all for sustaining this boutique conference for a quarter of a century.

Conference Dates and Venue:

The 30^th International Public Relations Research Symposium (BledCom 2023) will be held on June 30 and July 1, 2023, in Rikli Balance Hotel, Lake Bled, Slovenia.

Theme: Public Relations and Sustainability

The main purpose of public relations is the synchronization of organizations with their environments – natural, social, cultural, political and technological. Crises and change are the driving forces behind the profession, and as the first become more frequent and the second accelerates the role of public relations in making organizations and societies sustainable increases.

Sustainability is the ability of a system (an individual, a group, an organization, society, the planet) to maintain continuity over time. According to the Brundtland Commission (the World Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations), sustainability means ”meeting the needs of the preset without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

On one hand, it appears as though sustainability has become the holy grail of the continuity of capitalism: ”We focus on sustainability not because we’re environmentalists, but because we are capitalists,” wrote Larry Fink, Chairman and Chief Executive Office of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, in the 2022 annual letter to CEOs. On the other hand, as a normative concept, sustainability calls for a creative destruction of the current organization of production to alleviate global poverty. The political goal of sustainability, the ”2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as formulated by the UN: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda). The business community has translated sustainability into Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria to screen potential investments.

Meanwhile, we are witnessing an accelerated digitalization that is profoundly changing humanity, along with disruptors such as the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the end of the End of History (F. Fukuyama).

Al the above prompt us  to assess the role of public relations in making organizations and society sustainable. While we are on the brink of catastrophe, how can public relations contribute to the survival and development of communities and organizations, the human species, and the planet?

The following are some questions that can be addressed under this theme:

- What is the role of public relations in making the world more sustainable?

- Has public relations played any role in sustainable development? If so, what is it?

- What are some potential ways by which public relations can contribute to sustainability?

- What is the relationship between sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility?

Obviously these are just a few questions that can be posed but there are many other dimensions to this theme that we invite authors to explore as well.

Call for Abstracts and Panels:

We invite abstracts that are between 500 and 800 words (including title and keywords) with up to 5 references. Please note that as has been the norm in the past, BledCom welcomes ALL papers that are relevant to public relations and communication management and not just papers that discuss the conference theme. We also welcome panel proposals.

Please use the following guidelines to present your abstract and kindly supply the word count at the end of the submission.

Format for the Abstract:

Please note that the chances of your abstract being accepted are enhanced if you observe the following format in preparing it:

Introduction and purpose of the study (and research question if there is one) – helps summarize the purpose and rationale of your study. Literature review – Helps place your work in context with the existing body of knowledge. Methodology – Define the main method used for gathering data including sample size, and state the rationale for using this method. Results and conclusions – Helps summarize the answers to the research questions while also outlining the implications of the results. Also summarize the limitations of the study and offer suggestions for future research. Practical and social implications – Offer the potential implications both for practice and society. Also provide us with 3 to 5 keywords that highlight your study. Abstracts should come as blind copies without author names and affiliations, who are to be identified on on a separate cover page. Please use the suggested headings to structure the abstract. A list of literature is not necessary, but if it is provided it is included into the word count.

Panel proposal are also welcome. The proposal should describe the title and focus of the panel, name of the chair of the panel, and names of every member of the panel and title or focus of each presentation.

Deadline:

Paper abstracts and panel proposals should be submitted via email to bledcom@fdv.uni-lj.si no later than February 1, 2023. Decisions will be made by March 4, 2023 after peer review. Full papers not exceeding 6.000 words will be due by September 16, 2023 for inclusion in the conference proceedings.

Finally, we hope we all will be able to meet in person in beautiful Bled in 2023 to celebrate 30 years of BledCom!

Program Committee:

·      Dejan Verčič, University of Ljubljana and Herman & partners, Slovenia

·      Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, University of Colorado Boulder, USA

·      Ana Tkalac Verčič, University of Zagreb, Croatia