On Thursday 17 July, 12–1pm, PRINZ is partnering with Belong Aotearoa for a member webinar exploring one of the most important questions facing communications professionals right now: how do we help ethnically diverse communities get heard? Belong Aotearoa is a national organisation working to strengthen belonging and social cohesion across Aotearoa New Zealand. Their flagship storytelling initiative, PassTheMic, amplifies the voices of migrant and refugee-background communities — and they need our help to shape its next chapter. At a time when anti-migrant sentiment is becoming more visible in our public discourse, this is a chance to put your communications expertise to work on something that matters.

Led by professional director and PRINZ Life Member Tracey Bridges, this short course answers all your questions about how to work well with Boards, and – for those who are interested – how to move into a governance career. It will touch on key aspects of Governance practice. It will comprise a presentation and plenty of time for questions, answers and discussion.

A successful speech can change the world, but it starts with a blank page.

This workshop empowers speechwriters to assemble their ideas, find their voice, and earn their audience’s attention. It demystifies the speechwriting process, including the crucial planning phase when writing speeches for others, and encourages purposeful, effective storytelling.

This workshop has been designed for professionals from all sectors who seek to be more effective communicators and storytellers, and incorporates writing and editing exercises.

In a world where everyone’s clamouring for “data-driven” insights, this course goes beyond the numbers. It’s about learning to think critically, interpret evidence wisely, and make sound, ethical decisions in your PR practice.

You’ll explore how to balance data with judgement, recognise cognitive bias (in yourself and others), and turn information from multiple sources into meaningful, defensible insights. We’ll cover practical tools for interpreting results, testing assumptions, and reporting outcomes (without losing sight of people, context, or purpose).

Done well, internal comms is one of the most strategic levers an organisation has. It connects people to purpose, shapes culture, and helps employees connect to each other and understand how their work fits into the wider business. But too often it’s treated as a postal service – the person (or team, if you’re lucky) people call when they realise “we need to wrap some comms around that”! This course is designed for practitioners at any level who want to move beyond distribution and into a more strategic, people-centred practice.

If you are new to public relations, get ready to enter a profession undergoing a seismic shift.

The purpose of public relations remains the same - building and sustaining the relationships that organisations need to maintain their licence to operate. What has changed are the methods of practice. Artificial intelligence, new communication challenges and stakeholder expectations of transparency and accountability mean practitioners now need broader capabilities and stronger judgement than ever before.

This seminar explores why critical thinking is far more difficult than most people assume and why even experienced professionals often fall into hidden cognitive traps that affect judgement, strategy, and decision-making.

Drawing on more than 30 years of social science research and insights industry experience, Carl will reveal how people are naturally wired to defend their views rather than test them, how organisational cultures can unintentionally suppress questioning, and how cognitive biases quietly shape the way we interpret information.