‘People power’ is probably an overused phrase but in this increasingly crowd sourced, community-led, two way street online world it’s one that’s at the very top of the PR agenda.

There’s seemingly a new example every month and this week it was the turn of 17-year-old Paris Brown to act as a case study on the shifting sands of modern news, PR and social media.

So now would seem as good a time as any to help push an excellent event taking place for communications professionals that will look to try and make sense of this rapidly changing environment.

I do need to declare an interest as a CIPR North East committee member (I’ve blogged about this here) but for me this event will tackle some of the fundamental issues facing the industry today.

The CIPR Northern Conference 2013 – Power to the people looks at a post-Leveson world where traditional media is in the spotlight and social media is everywhere and all seeing.

A great selection of speakers will talk about these challenges with one highlight sure to be Margaret Aspinall, Chair of the  Hillsborough Family Support Group. She will explain how people can bring about change, using the ‘Justice for the Hillsborough Families’ as a pertinent example.

Personally I’m really looking forward to the Share This Too social media panels that will be chaired by Rob Brown and Stephen Waddington – two really top, top names in the field.

These events are about more than just passively absorbing information and in keeping with the theme of the event the logo was chosen in an online vote from designs submitted by the North East’s brightest PR students.

It’s also about networking and having conversations with people about the key industry issues. I was a speaker at last year’s Northern Conference and blogged about the experience here.

Last year it was, at times, fairly controversial and there were certainly heated debates about the keynote speaker Max Clifford so it seems fitting that this year the conversation will be firmly based on the range of skills you need to communicate effectively with your customers and stakeholders now that it is the people who are taking control.

If you don’t know Newcastle or the North East then the Great North Museum will make a fantastic and unique backdrop to the conversation and is one of the defining local places.

You can see a full programme and book a ticket for the Northern Conference here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5167078872

There’s also a dedicated Linkedin group for the conference or you can follow Twiter updates @CIPR_NorthEast