Reflections on CPRS National 2026: From data to decision table
St. Andrews by-the-Sea is the kind of place that makes you slow down, slurp an oyster, and take a breath of sea air. It was a fitting backdrop for this year’s CPRS National Conference: a moment for public relations professionals to reflect on where the field stands and where it’s headed.
I arrived playing two roles. One as an insider: a communications practitioner excited to attend my first major industry event. And the other as somewhat of an outsider: someone who started my professional journey in data and analytics, and who has spent the last couple of years learning to speak the language of PR while helping build new data-driven solutions for our clients at ChangeMakers.
What I found was a profession actively wrestling with a question that has driven our own work: how do you turn information into influence? Communications is ready to own a seat at the decision-making table, to speak to business objectives with clarity and confidence. My takeaway: data is the common language that can get us there.
Facing the main stage
The question of impact showed up across the programming. Senior leaders spoke candidly on how communications teams can earn real credibility in an organization: executives don’t want a rundown of tactics. They want to understand what moved the needle, and how we know.
Taylor Owen’s keynote on AI struck a similar chord, with welcome nuance. There was an honest reckoning with what AI disruption means at a time when public trust in our institutions is strained. But there was also a recognition of opportunity: new technology allows us to do things that simply weren’t possible before. One example that stuck with me was the use of AI to analyze podcast content at scale, tracing how ideas – both helpful and harmful – can take hold across the media ecosystem.
It’s the same spirit we bring to ChangeMakers RepScore™: pulling signals from disparate sources and using AI tools to view them in context, building reputation narratives that resonate in the boardroom just as much as among communicators.
Around the table
Some of the most valuable moments happened away from the main stage. On the first evening, our team hosted a dinner with a brilliant group of communications leaders. Two themes kept surfacing: the need for data that tells a clear story, and the value of diverse professional backgrounds (business, engineering, analytics) in the field. That second point hit close to home. My path into communications hasn’t been traditional, and hearing leaders frame that as an asset was genuinely motivating.
Similar threads ran through conversations at our booth. My colleagues and I spoke with practitioners who were candid about the gaps in how they’re currently measuring reputation, curious about where this work is heading, and energized by the chance to think it through together.
Looking ahead
The CPRS National Conference made clear that communications is at an inflection point. The leaders who will shape what this field looks like in five years are the ones who can connect what they do to why it matters – with the evidence to back it up. I left New Brunswick feeling proud to be part of this shift, and more committed than ever to putting our tools, skills, and perspectives to work for the people driving it.
