As the PR profession continues to bemoan the difficulties in finding and retaining great talent, so it hinders its own progress by not focusing more attention on the organization's existing stars, and making it clear that their exceptional qualities are recognized.

My brother, Grantland, who is a teacher and studied animal behavior in college, told me a story about a study that looked at the ability of animals to learn new things as they get older.

Daniel Edelman, founder and chairman of Edelman, celebrated his 87th birthday this week. In a conversation with Julia Hood, Edelman talks about what he thinks are the significant changes in the industry during the more-than 50 years he has been in the business.

Chandler Chicco Agency has finally been snapped up, which was likely inevitable, but few had any idea who would be the lucky new parent.

PRWeek was media partner with Edelman for a recent education summit on new media. The program focused on digital innovations and problems, and was designed to arm professors and department chairs with tools and information to integrate into their classrooms and curricula.

Customer experience immersion was the topic of a keynote David McQuillen, VP of customer experience and "Voice of the Customer" for Credit Suisse in Zurich, Switzerland, gave at a recent conference on catalog and Internet marketing.

At the heart of PRWeek's Agency Excellence Survey, every year since its inception in 2004, are the performance attributes that collectively form a picture of what clients are looking for from their agencies, as well as individually show which firms are thought by their clients to be meeting them.

When PRWeek's parent company, Haymarket Media, acquired DM News a few months ago, we all started to pay a lot more attention to the direct marketing universe. Particularly me, as I have taken on editorial duties with the new publication, in addition to my role at PRWeek.

Business confidence was abundant in the PR industry in 2006, dovetailing as it has over the past few years with the fundamental changes in marketing taking place in every sector. All in all, this seems to be a great time to be in public relations.

Roger Maris' 1961 home-run record was marked with an asterisk in the record books, a salvo to Babe Ruth fans indignant that Maris had surpassed the Bronx Bomber's record in a longer season.