The 17th National Public Relations Congress will be held on September 23 and 24, 2010 at the Grand Ballroom, InterContinental Manila, Makati City, Philippines with the theme “PR2.0 Build. Engage. Deliver.” and I absolutely want to attend! I may have been in the public relations/media/marketing/advertising/events industry for several years now and I may own a small public relations agency in the Philippines but I have yet to attend a national conference led by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines. Methinks attending this PR congress will help me as a Filipino publicist and I have a couple of reasons why:
1. I am one who actively incorporates blogging and other forms of social and new media in my work. While I still practise public relations the “traditional” way, I have started to learn and implement online PR strategies. Online public relations takes more time and technical skills and I’m hoping I can learn more through Weber Shandwick – Asia Pacific Chairman Tim Sutton, whose talk will be about the role of the PR/Communications practitioner in the new media.
2. Several of my existing clients are now rapidly embracing new media. Therefore, in order to keep up, I also must learn how to develop PR strategies for new media. I’m pretty sure I can learn a lot from Kevin Lim, Fleishman Hillard Malaysia’s digital strategist. Additionally, my existing clients also want me to provide metrics based on the performance of their efforts in terms of social media. While I know some ways on how to do this, I bet MediaBank Group Chief Marketing Officer Cyril Ng can teach me more.
3. I am one of those typical hard core-journalists-turned-publicists-slash-active-contributors and I take pride of this fact. Journalists who become publicists have that certain edge – they know how journalists think and they know what journalists need so they can easily figure out what to pitch, what to say, when to do what and how to do what. Still, I know that there are other strategies that I must embrace and implement.
4. It would be interesting to hear what the local broadcasting giants have to say about the rapid changes in the practice of communications especially given the recent happenings in the country. I’m particularly interested with crisis PR management. Is the local media really ready to “self-assess” and “self-police”? What are the factors that should be taken into consideration before classifying something or someone worthy enough of publication or airtime? I’m hoping the answers will come from the speeches of Charie Villa (Head, abs-cbnnews.com), Jessica Soho (VP-News Programs, GMA Network), DJ Sta. Ana (News gathering chief of TV5), Joanne Maglipon (YES!, pep.ph Editor-in-Chief) and Sandy Prieto (President of Philippine Daily Inquirer). There will be an open forum after these media outlets’ representatives’ turn, by the way, and that will be moderated by DigitalFilipino.com‘s Janette Toral.
5. I’m a passionate advocate of blogging and the use of new media/social media. Proofs of this are my involvement in several blogging communities, my several upcoming blogging workshops in Mindanao (one of them is this), my involvement in several groups as a communications group volunteer and my several community blogs that aim to provide public service. What I would love to learn more about is how to effectively gain that trust from readers/customers and for them to continue trusting the “brands”/advocacies I promote. I’m pretty sure I can learn a lot from Ogilvy PR Worldwide Managing and SEA Director Andrew Thomas (who will talk about building integrated communications – PR in brand building), GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications, Inc.’s Brad Geiser (who will talk about the power of word of mouth) and McDonald’s VP for Marketing Margot Torres (who will talk about brand trust). Additionally, listening to RockEd Philippines Founder Gang Badoy, Globe Telecoms Digital Marketing Head Paul John Pena and EON Managing Director Junie del Mundo will also be interesting. These people have first hand knowledge about social media and the power it has and it would be great to hear them speak about their experiences.
6. I would love to network! As someone who wants to make a mark in the PR industry, it would be my natural high to meet the bigwigs of regional, national and local PR and media. The two-day PR Congress will be a fabulous time to meet the right people at the most opportune time.
These are just some of the reasons why I absolutely want to attend the 17th National Public Relations Congress. And did I tell you that YOU CAN HELP ME in my quest to attend this event? All you have to do is “Like” this entry 🙂 See that Facebook “Like” button below? Just click on it 🙂 It would be swell, too, if you could share this with your friends so that they can “Like” this entry, too! Thanks everyone 🙂
And for those of you who also want to attend this PR congress, just visit the official website. Registration fee is P8,000.00, with early bird discounts. For details and registration call 638-0010 and 638-0012 or email to [email protected]
For more details about this event, you can visit the official PR2.0 – 17th National Public Relations Congress website or you can follow PR2.0 – 17th National Public Relations Congress through Facebook.
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Mindanaoan is a multi-awarded blogger, content creator, seasoned social media strategist and publicist with undeniably successful track record. 2012 International Visitor Leadership Program (for global leaders) alumnus and O visa grantee (for people with extraordinary skills and who have risen to the top of their field). Avid traveler and a proud relief operations volunteer. Regular resource person for social media, blogging and content creation. Available for work and travel – [email protected]
oh i would love to join, pero wala pa ako pera eh 😀 next year nalang ako, ikaw nalang muna 🙂
@Jong – hehehe ok 😛