PR top guns preside over seminar workshop

MANILA, Philippines - A unique seminar workshop meant to enable public relations practitioners to cope with new challenges born out of digital communications and social networking unfolds today ( Nov. 24) at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City.

Aptly called “New Media Strategies for Issues Management,” organizers of the one-day exercise described it as a “completely new package” aimed at retooling the mass communications industry through mastery of public issues, according to Vanessa Velasco, chief learning officer of the Continuing Education Division (CED) of the Makati-based public relations firm Creative Point International (CPI) which put together the seminar workshop featuring top-caliber lecturers representing various sectors of the industry.

Two of the resource persons hold a doctorate degree in Communications—Dr. Dante M. Velasco, former undersecretary and spokesman of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), and Dr. Jose Lacson Jr., a professor at the University of the Philippines (UP), College of Mass Communications.

An interesting feature is the lecture and hands-on session with veteran broadcast journalist Veronica Baluyut-Jimenez, who will share insights into interactions with the working press and with the online media.

Dr. Velasco said he will coach the participants through a simulated PR battleground of public issues, draw up an effective communication plan to build trust in a world of skeptics and cynics, and “neutralizing if not winning the opposition over to your side.”

“The bottom line is preventing, if not prevailing over a crisis of confidence, or a full-blown PR crisis,” he stressed.

On the other hand, Dr. Lacson will walk the participants through tried and tested communication models of theory and practice.The participants are expected to cull effective communication strategies from his lecture.

A fresh feature of the seminar workshop are Jay Jaboneta’s lecture and simulated sessions in tapping the full potentials of the internet for social networking, citing as example the huge success of his “Yellow Boat for Kids” project which harnessed the online media to muster funding support.

The participants can also avail themselves of post-seminar mentoring, courtesy of the CPI, the local affiliate of Hill & Knowlton, one of the world’s leading PR and counseling firms.