There are conferences you attend because you have to. There are conferences you attend because you want to. And then there is PRAXIS.
I have attended every edition of PRAXIS India Weekend so far. This year, I am heading to Kochi for the 13th edition, and I still get that familiar sense of anticipation.
So, why do I keep going back?
- Where friendships begin
Over the years, I have made some of my closest friends at PRAXIS. Some were people I already knew professionally. Others were complete strangers who happened to share a table, a session or a conversation. A cuppa of chai, a few stories and the conversations at the after party works much more for a relationship than a hundred LinkedIn connections.
Personally for me, some of those first PRAXIS meetings and the selfies, have grown into friendships that have lasted for years.
That is one of the things I value most about PRAXIS. You may arrive for the programme, but you often leave with people who become part of your journey.
- Beyond communication
The 13th edition brings together people from very different worlds: corporate affairs, journalism, healthcare, entertainment, mediation, consulting, AI, geopolitics and storytelling.
From Corey duBrowa of Burson and Joyce Lorigan of Springer Nature to Dia Mirza, Kabir Bedi, Zakka Jacob, Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, Sanjay Nair of BCG and Meenakshi Nevatia of Pfizer India, the conversations stretch well beyond the traditional boundaries of PR.
That is exactly how it should be.
The world we communicate in does not come neatly divided into PR, media, technology, business and society. Neither should our learning.
- AI has changed the game. Trust still matters.
Artificial intelligence has changed the way we create, consume and distribute information. In fact, I have used AI to help write this piece.
But there is one thing AI cannot replace: human bonding. A machine can help put words together. It cannot replicate the warmth of meeting someone in person, sharing a cuppa of tea, exchanging a story or discovering that you have more in common than you thought.
Perhaps that is the real PRAXIS lesson in the age of AI. Technology can accelerate communication, but trust still grows between people.
- Because being there still matters
We have become very good at being present without actually being there. Zoom, Teams, webinars and social platforms have made professional interaction incredibly convenient. But convenience is not always connection.
At PRAXIS, you meet people face to face. You hear the question after the session. You continue the conversation during a break. You discover a new idea over lunch or over a cuppa of tea. You meet someone you have not seen for years.
Some conversations simply work better when there is a person sitting across the table.
- The conversations around the programme
PRAXIS is not just about the sessions. It is also about everything that happens around them. The conversations during breaks, the debates after a session, the awards, the celebrations and, of course, the parties and the inevitable after parties.
That is where professional relationships often become personal ones.
You may start by discussing a panel and end up talking about life, travel, old colleagues or the industry itself. There is no agenda, no moderator and usually no presentation.
Just people talking.
- The punctuality lesson
There is another lesson PRAXIS teaches particularly well.
Be on time.
This is one of the few events of this scale where sessions actually start on time and the entire programme runs with remarkable precision.
That does not happen by accident. It requires planning, coordination and an almost obsessive attention to detail.
For communication professionals, it is a useful reminder that good execution is often invisible. When everything works smoothly, nobody notices the planning behind it.
- Details matter
A good conference is not simply a collection of speakers.
It is an experience created through hundreds of small decisions: the sequencing of sessions, transitions, timing, speakers, networking, meals, awards and everything in between.
PRAXIS has always been a masterclass in that invisible craft.
We spend our professional lives advising organisations about reputation and experience. Occasionally, it is useful to watch someone else create one.
- A bigger classroom
The 13th edition moves from mediation and journalism to healthcare, geopolitics, corporate affairs, AI, storytelling and social impact.
Aloysius Goh brings mediation into the PR conversation. Simon Whitehead brings geopolitics. Agnes Estes brings corporate affairs and business development. Kerman Kasad brings the perspective of marketing and communications.
Different disciplines. Different experiences. Different ways of looking at the same world.
That is what makes a professional gathering valuable.
- Storytelling still matters
Having Kabir Bedi and Dia Mirza on the programme is a reminder that storytelling is not owned by the communications profession.
Actors, journalists, activists, business leaders and communicators all work with the same raw material: human attention.
The difference is what they do with it.
- PR and journalism need each other
With Zakka Jacob and other media voices on the programme, PRAXIS creates space for conversations between those who create stories and those who help organisations tell them.
The relationship between journalism and PR has never been simple. That is precisely why the conversation matters.
- The profession keeps changing
PRAXIS has evolved with the industry.
The conversations that dominate the profession today would have sounded very different a decade ago. AI, creator ecosystems, misinformation, geopolitics, reputation, purpose and stakeholder engagement have changed the communications landscape.
The ability to keep evolving is perhaps the most important professional skill of all.
- Kochi
This time, PRAXIS comes to Kochi.
And perhaps there is something fitting about taking a gathering built around relationships, stories and ideas to Kerala, where culture, history and modern enterprise coexist so naturally.
The location is part of the experience. As anyone who has attended PRAXIS knows, the memories are rarely restricted to the conference venue.
- Still curious
This is ultimately the simplest reason.
After more than 25 years in the communication business, there is always a temptation to think you have seen it all. PRAXIS reminds me that you haven’t.
There is always another person to meet, another idea to question, another story to hear and something unexpected to take back.
That is why I am going to Kochi.
Not simply to attend another industry conference, but to spend a few days with people who understand the profession, challenge its assumptions and occasionally remind me why I chose it in the first place.
13 editions. 12 attended. And I am still curious.
See you in Kochi.
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