Francis Ingham wins AMEC's highest individual Award

It was a great privilege and honour for me to select and present Francis Ingham with AMEC Measurement and Evaluation's highest accolade, the Don Bartholomew Award for services to the industry last night at the 2021 #AMECAwards.

Francis has been instrumental in promoting and supporting the work of AMEC for the 14 years that he has led the PRCA, the International Communications Consultancy Organisation, and more latterly LGcomms.

Francis knows that for #publicrelations to succeed, meaningful measurement of its effectiveness is critical if we're to demonstrate the value of our work.

My speech congratulating Francis is below. Congratulations again Francis and thank you from all of your friends in the communications evaluation industry for your leadership and support.

"Good evening. This award, previously called the chairman’s award, is AMEC's highest individual award.?We renamed it the Don Bartholomew award for outstanding services to the industry in memory, and honour, of our friend and colleague, Don Bartholomew.

"Don was a great thinker and generous sharer of his time and expertise with his friends at AMEC and with the wider international PR and evaluation communities.

"There could be no better person after whom to name this award. It is made to the individual who has made an outstanding contribution to AMEC, and to the broader communications evaluation sector.

"This year’s winner has done exactly this for many, many years. He has been instrumental in helping to establish AMEC at the heart of the global communications industry.

"How has he done this? Well, he’s an expert at PR and comms himself, and he also happens to run the world’s largest PR and communications professional association. This organisation has over 35,000 members across 71 countries – corporates, agencies and individuals all working in comms and PR.

"For 14 years he has worked tirelessly in partnership with AMEC to drive education of best practice in measurement and evaluation.

"He speaks at our events, co-creates literature with AMEC, shares opportunity with us and endorses and promotes generously our work and initiatives.

"He creates and hosts multiple events of his own around the world focussed on sharing our best practice – whether it be the Barcelona Principles, the Integrated Evaluation Framework, the Planning Guide or the measurement maturity mapper.

"He’s a tireless campaigner for the importance of meaningful measurement for his global membership.?Why? Because he knows that for the PR profession to attract and retain the talent it needs, it must be able to charge an appropriate amount. And it can’t charge appropriately if it can’t measure the value that it generates.

"Measurement and Evaluation are integral parts of good PR and communications practice. Our winner this year helps the industry to understand this.

"He’s helped the industry understand that if they want to know how to measure and evaluate in a meaningful manner, then they need to work with what he describes as his most important strategic global partners at AMEC.

"Our winner is of course the Director General of the PRCA, the Director of LGComms and the Chief Executive of ICCO, Francis Ingham.

"Please join me in congratulating Francis and raising a glass to him and his award... The 2021 winner of AMEC’s prestigious Don Bartholomew Award for services to our industry, Francis Ingham. Congratulations Francis."