Abbie Fink and Adrian McIntyre reflect on their recent visit to Nairobi, Kenya, for the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) conference, a gathering that brought together PR and communications professionals from across the globe. They share stories of connection and discovery, from the warmth and hospitality of the Kenyan people to the vibrant cultural pride that infused every interaction. What stood out most wasn’t just the professional insights, but the personal connections that made the experience unforgettable.

The conversations in Nairobi underscored how universal many of today’s challenges are. Topics like the rise of AI, shifting trade dynamics, and the persistence of misinformation affect communicators everywhere, regardless of geography. Hearing from African business leaders and international executives alike offered fresh, nuanced perspectives on how different regions are adapting to change while staying rooted in shared values of transparency and trust.

The episode also explores how emerging tools like AI and podcasting are reshaping the future of global PR. As Adrian and Abbie note, these technologies open new doors for storytelling, connection, and creativity, but they also demand continuous learning and adaptability.

Ultimately, the trip to Nairobi was a reminder that global collaboration is as much about people as it is about progress, and that meaningful growth happens through shared experiences, empathy, and genuine human connection.

Read the transcript and notes for this episode on our website.

Key Takeaways

• PR professionals around the world are grappling with similar challenges, from misinformation to the rapid evolution of AI and global trade shifts.
• The PRGN conference in Nairobi demonstrated how authentic human connection and cultural exchange can strengthen global collaboration.
• Insights from African business leaders and international peers revealed fresh approaches to common industry challenges.
• Discussions focused on how emerging technologies like AI and podcasting are transforming the way communicators tell stories and engage audiences.
• Genuine relationships and shared experiences remain at the heart of effective communication and lifelong professional growth.

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Credits

Copper State of Mind, hosted by Abbie Fink and Dr. Adrian McIntyre, is brought to you by HMA Public Relations, a full-service public relations firm in Phoenix, AZ.

The show is recorded and produced by the team at Speed of Story, a strategic communications consultancy for PR agencies and marketing firms, and distributed by PHX.fm, the leading independent B2B podcast network in Arizona.

If you like this podcast, you might also enjoy PRGN Presents: PR News & Views from the Public Relations Global Network, featuring conversations about strategic communications, marketing, and PR from PRGN, "the world’s local public relations agency.”

Abbie Fink and I are looking at each other on screens through cameras, as we have done for every episode of this podcast since COVID. But not a week ago, Abbie and I were in the same room on a different continent. We’ve just returned from a trip to Nairobi, Kenya. Abbie, what’s on your mind?

So much is on my mind as I contemplate the fact that, yeah, a week ago, maybe at this time, who knows, it’s a 10 hour time difference from Arizona to Nairobi, but we were in a conference room at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Nairobi with members of the Public Relations Global Network, meeting and talking about public relations and marketing and new technologies and the impact of the global economy on the businesses that we do, and had this incredible opportunity to interact with each other.

Super smart people around the world that I’m proud to be associated with on another continent. It really, really puts into perspective how it really is a small world after all. But I’m just fascinated by the experience and the warmth and hospitality of the Kenyan people and their willingness to share their culture, their heritage, and so generous with their time and with their spirit to introduce us in a very small way to their lifestyle and the way that they live and what their history is.

And I just feel so honored to have had the opportunity to go and do that. And on a side note, the fact that you and I are 30 minutes apart in town and we had to fly halfway around the world to see each other in the same space also explains to you how crazy our lives can be. But it really was an amazing experience. And personally it was something that I was a little nervous about doing, quite honestly, not because it was Africa, but that’s a big flight and a lot of stuff to get ready for it. You know, there’s vaccinations and travel permission and pills and whatnot.

And being away from the office in itself isn’t that difficult, but to be in a whole other day ahead of my team here back at home, but it really gave me a sense that this is possible and I will do these things again when the opportunity presents itself. So from a personal perspective, that was an amazing learning and a discovery about myself. And then of course, professionally, just having the chance to learn from and talk with other professionals in my field that are learning new things and struggling with the same things and experiencing the same things. There’s really nothing like what we just went through. And I’m so pleased to have had the opportunity to do it.

We’ve talked about the Public Relations Global Network before on this podcast, but it’s been years. This is one of a relatively small number of international networks of independent PR and communications firms. HMA Public Relations was one of the founding members of this network. They meet twice every year in different places around the world. This one felt different and I’ve only been to one of these before. It’s when we launched this podcast in Scottsdale. I’m not a member of the network, I’m just PR adjacent, as I like to say.

For me personally, it was a wonderful return to a country that I know and love. I hadn’t been in Kenya for 20 years. I spent most of my 20s and 30s kicking around the Middle east and Africa doing a variety of things in media, communications, journalism, academic research. And I’d spent a fair amount of time in Nairobi. It was fascinating to see how much had changed and how much it stayed the same. I mean, $50 billion of Chinese direct foreign investment has created a lot of infrastructure. Hotels. The expressway to the airport.

I cannot even tell you how nice it was to be riding on a multi-lane, controlled toll road to the airport instead of the one lane each direction, traffic for days, “potholes you could fall into” road that used to be there. But what is the same is something that I’ve always really loved and appreciated, which is just the spirit of humanity that is present everywhere. I had some of the best conversations with just random people on the street.

I walked down to the mall to get some coffee to bring home. Kenyan coffee is amazing. And Uber—Uber wasn’t there 20 years ago, obviously. Uber wasn’t anywhere. But I was able to sneak in some late night visits to friends and colleagues I used to work with. And so 3 30 one morning, I’m in an Uber with, you know, a 20-something kid, basically, driving me back from this outlying suburb where one of my friends lives.

We just had the greatest conversation and I asked him, “Hey man, how are things going?” And he said the most poignant thing. He said, “It’s never easy, but we must never stop trying.” I thought what a perfect way to encapsulate the human condition for all of us in different ways. Some of us with far more privilege than others. And it’s never easy and we must never stop trying. That really spoke to me.

The fact that you had a conversation like that with your Uber driver, right, tells you the culture of the community there. I mean, we experienced the same thing from the airport. I had arranged for transportation through the hotel and we got off the plane and through security and customs and all the things you have to do and standing there with a big smile and a big sign welcoming us to the country. “Jambo!” right? Saying hello in Swahili and nonstop conversation from the airport to the hotel, telling us about their community, teaching us some few phrases so that we could, you know, say hello and goodbye and thank you. When we were, you know, interacting with the folks that live there, talking to us about the toll road was a big deal like that or that expressway, we heard about that a lot. So clearly that was an important advancement.

And I’ve traveled a bit. I’ve, you know, been all over the United States. I’ve had the chance to travel internationally. And it’s not that I haven’t experienced warm, hospitable people in past. It’s just that, at least for me, this was a different kind of experience. And the pride and the willingness and desire to share their culture was what was so evident to me from everyone we interacted with and that I really enjoyed. And honestly wish I would have had more opportunity to experience some of that because obviously I was there for, you know, a business conference and I had to sit in the ballroom and listen to the presentations and they were all amazing. And we’ll talk about the learnings at another time.

But I couldn’t help but think that there was so much more out there that I would have liked to have had a chance to experience. Right outside of our hotel, you know, we’re building, you know, lots of construction was going on, lots of things right next to an apartment complex and you know, what’s happening over here, had a chance to, you know, leave Nairobi and go out about four hours or so on a safari. So we experienced a lot of different things as we were driving along.

Very resourceful individuals with little stands on the streets and little shops along the way and of course, selling of the local wares and the local fruits and vegetables. I mean, all these enterprises that were presenting themselves and certainly the safari was a mind boggling experience and life changing experience. But as you’re sitting there bumping along in the jeep, you see a mama elephant and her babies 10ft from our jeep, mama doing exactly what mamas do, stopping in the middle of the road so her babies could cross the street, you know, the street and not really a street, cross the path safely.

Lions over here, giraffes over there. It’s just hard not to be in awe of what nature is and how beautiful it is and how we coexist in this place. And our driver was explaining to us, you know, the hierarchy, who the lowest species is, you know, and then who? The king of the jungle. And yet if everybody stays in their place and, you know, kind of minds, their manners, you know, they can coexist. And not unlike what we try to teach our kids, you know, to be kind and respectful. And it’s hard to put into words all that that was. I look at the pictures now, and they’re gorgeous and they’re beautiful, but they nowhere come close to what was actually the sunrise over Mount Kilimanjaro and the Maasai dance at the, you know, the fire pit on our first night. I mean, it’s just the gorgeous pictures, but nowhere captures really what was real life right there in front of us. An amazing experience, for sure.

The word I’ve always used to describe Africa to people who haven’t been there is “vivid.” It’s just a vivid place. Vivid humanity, so much passion, so much joy. In some parts of the continent, violence. But the truth of Africa, and we talked about this in the meeting, the truth of Africa is not the handful of stories that have been told about Africa in the West. I mean, yes, it is true that there are wars and have been wars in Africa.

Yes, it is true that a scramble for control of resources has defined the continent since colonial days. Yes, it’s true that HIV and AIDS epidemic hit particularly hard and continues—where it is a very different disease than we were encountering here in the United States. Primarily heterosexual, primarily something that affects everyday people. Children are born with it. People die young from it. Real tragedy there.

And of course, corruption has defined many governmental modes and has continued to keep some folks down in some places. But who are we now to talk about those things as if they were also not true here? They’ve always been true everywhere, particularly now in the United States. We have an especially stark reminder that corruption and street violence and oppressive governmental intrusion into communities and things of that nature. Listen, whatever you think about it, it’s actually something we have in common for better, and I think mostly for worse.

But what we also have in common is a desire to raise our families, create the best opportunities for our kids and our communities, our ability to interact with each other, to support each other. It’s just a reminder, really, of the humanity that we all share. And this diversity was also present in the meeting. So maybe we can talk a little bit about that. There were a number of guest presentations from African business leaders, former government officials.

We heard some very interesting discussions around the airline industry and tourism, some of the challenges there. Fascinating presentations from representatives of Microsoft and IBM in the region, talking about agentic AI and its impact. And then a really powerful discussion around trade tensions and the impact of tariffs on the brands that these firms all represent or have as clients. What were some of your general thoughts, Abbie, about the content of the discussion? Of course, there was also PRGN members talking to themselves about themselves. That’s an important part of the meeting, doing some internal business. But on the topical stuff, what are your takeaways?

First and foremost, I think the idea of those topics as universal topics, right? We here in the United States have an understanding and expectation based on what we know about tariffs and the political culture and these types of things. But other places around the world are experiencing similar things or are being impacted by what’s happening here as we are what’s happening elsewhere on our country.

So the idea that we were sitting, you know, again in a ballroom in Nairobi listening to C-suite executives from international brands that we all know talking about things that are impacting the way that they do their business, we could have been having those conversations anywhere in the world about the same thing. And so how lucky are we that we had this opportunity to hear specifically from the leadership that are entrenched in the community there, that are living there and working there in Nairobi or the surrounding community. And AI, it’s here now. It’s part of what we’re doing. It’s commonplace now, I think at least amongst communications professionals.

Now we have to talk about it as a tool and what other guardrails we’re going to put around it and what resources can we use and how do we use it. I had not really done much in the realm of, you know, agentic AI because it hadn’t mattered. Now I’m thinking about it. It has to matter. GEO, Generative Engine Optimization, which has been this new, well, newfangled way of doing SEO. It’s not newfangled, but now that’s, you know, it’s not only a tool that we need to be considering, it’s a byproduct of the work that we’re doing.

How public relations practitioners and some of the things that we do from an earned media perspective is really leading the charge on that and food for thought on how we’re going to start implementing that with our clients that are, you know, we are doing that service. Earned media is one of the offerings, but as a separate service offering. You spoke about podcasting, this kind of formatting as a new approach to that long form conversation what that means in terms of talking to our clients about how to do this, not the technological part of it, but how to have a conversation when you’re on a podcast. Because for so many, we teach 20-second sound bite types of interviews and now you have to be able to carry on a conversation and do so in a way that you still stick with messaging and you stay on point and you don’t ramble off into an area you have to pedal backwards from.

You and I have talked about before, specifically as it relates to the podcast that we do for the network, is that this platform is pretty well accepted in the United States. Our members from the US have been very comfortable in the format. Our colleagues from around the world, a little more hesitant. It hasn’t broken through there as a tool yet. They may listen to podcasts for their own professional development, but they haven’t yet experienced them as their own marketing efforts and certainly not in a way to introduce this to their clients. But you could watch in the room, heads were nodding as they were thinking about it as an extension of the work we’re already doing.

If we’re doing earned media, media relations and we’re pitching television or we’re pitching newspaper or pitching magazine, pitching podcast is just another opportunity and it provides from those of us that want to a new business line if we’re interested in doing it. So we have had that talk with them before and I think seeing it in person, if you will, and having it right there in front of them as a conversation really, I hope changed the dynamic of how they’re looking at doing that.

The content in general, from a public relations perspective, I think we all walked away with pages of notes we need to sort through now and figure out if they’re, you know, how we apply the information that we learned. We passed the torch to new executive leadership and AI is going to be certainly part of the strategic plan for the network. We’re going to be hearing a lot about and continuing to hear about misinformation, disinformation.

We in the United States are heading into an election cycle, but all around the world elections are happening and the impact of these things. So the commonalities amongst all of us were evident in the conversations. The unique challenges that some of us are facing was comforting to know we had others that would understand and could be resources for us. And at the end of each business day, when our host from Newmark Group would come up and thank us for attending and sharing his thoughts about the day, sending us on a safe journey to our evening function.

It was palpable in the room, the connections that people were making and I challenge any other professional association to have that same feeling because it is unique and very special to not only have, you know, these smart people to work with and call colleagues, but more importantly to call them friends and to realize that I have these amazing resources now from a business perspective. But I have a friend a phone call away, really, anywhere in the world. And that is something I will treasure and am so fortunate to have that experience and will look forward to other opportunities. And who knows, Adrian, maybe you’ll be in the next place that we go, and we’ll get to see each other again in six or eight months in person somewhere else in the world.

Istanbul, Türkiye, 2026. See you there.

Yeah.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Copper State of Mind. If you enjoyed the conversation, please share it with a colleague who might also find this podcast valuable. It’s easy to do, just click the “Share” button in the app you’re listening to now to pass it along. You can also follow Copper State of Mind in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app. We publish new episodes every other Friday. Copper State of Mind is brought to you by HMA Public Relations, the oldest continuously operating PR firm in Arizona. The show is recorded and produced by the team at Speed of Story, a B2B communications firm in Phoenix, and distributed by PHX.FM, the leading independent B2B podcast network in Arizona. For all of us here at Speed of Story and PHX.FM, I’m Adrian McIntyre. Thanks for listening and for sharing the show with others if you choose to do so. We hope you’ll join us again for another episode of Copper State of Mind.