Fay Shapiro

And this is a wonderful group to celebrate (left to right).

Communication has never been more important, but our profession is still having the same conversation about earning a seat at the leadership table. That’s one of the reasons I’m excited to launch The Trusted Advisor Initiative on CommPRO. Over the next six months, we’ll be sharing ideas and insights from Helio Fred Garcia, James E. Lukaszewski and Katie Garcia about leadership, trust, influence and what it really means to become a trusted strategic advisor.

There are moments in every profession when change arrives so quickly that it becomes difficult to separate genuine transformation from the excitement that inevitably surrounds it. Communications is living through one of those moments. Artificial intelligence is changing the way agencies work. Clients are asking different questions than they did only a year ago. Global agency networks continue to consolidate while independent firms are finding new opportunities to compete.