On this occasion, Frantescu presented his observations of the latest trends in public affairs, such as: 

• Busier schedule of the PA professionals, due to overwhelming regulatory agenda; 

• Increasing demand for methods that allow more strategic planning and less fire-fighting; 

• Higher demand for structured information (hard data) that can allow to filter the noise and measure (and prove) progress; 

• Increased interest in the political side of EU decision-making (political networks across the institutions), rather than seeing it all from a bureaucratic angle; 

• Increased interest in the European Parliament; 

• Increased interest in knowing the big picture in the EP, beyond the visible MEPs, in order to diversify the portfoglio of political influencers and finding hidden allies in unexpected places; 

• Increased interest in understanding the “new parties” on the European political scene; 

All in all, Frantescu noted that the future is "smart public affairs", i.e. the PA professionals are increasingly relying on tech tools that provide the intelligence part of their work, so that they can have more time and energy to focus on communication and personal engagement. 

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