Presence and Future of Belarusian PR - Representatives

The first PR-Club meeting of 2007-2008 business year was held in Minsk. This traditional PR-club meeting was arranged by Institute of PR (IPR Belarus) and Belarusian Association of Public Relations together with closed joint stock company ‘Second National Channel’ (ONT) and partners: TUT.BY-internet–portal, Alfa-Radio.

Previous PR-Club meetings took place in different locations and only concrete narrow PR topics were discussed. This time the event took place in a Second National Channel’s Studio (ONT) in a talk show format. The ‘present-day PR’ reality of Belarusian PR in persons were represented by more then 30 popular PR specialists and consultants of Belarus. ‘Future of PR’ was represented by students of Belarusian State University major in PR. Press-managers and PR specialists, marketing, strategic and investment communication specialists, PR agencies’ representatives, PR teachers of Belarusian State University were experts in this dialog.

It was the first time when students got the opportunity not only to become participants of a professional PR-Club meeting but to become opponents to real PR-specialists. Tatiana Kovalevich (PR department of Mobile TeleSystems), Ilyia Prochorov (CEO’s Associate of international automobile holding Atlant-M, Irina Kiptikova (PR manager of IBA Group), Svetlana Suschkevich (PR manager of PRIORBANK, PR department), Igor Sokolov (Head of IPR Belarus founders’ group), Alexey Fedorinchik (Head or PR department of Beltelecom) were answering questions during an hour.

What was of the utmost interest for future successful PR managers, Belarusian PR students? The main topics of that meeting were PR education and practice of modern PR specialists.

- Is only PR education is enough for a successful professional growth?
- Whether it is necessary to make PR education a unique one that is separated from common spheres or not?
- How did you find your present job?
- What were the very first steps at your work?
- How much PR specialist can get for his work done?

These are the main answers on some of such questions.

PR education in our country is based on other spheres such as journalism, sociology. What to you think about the necessity to separate PR from other domains?

- PR is a standard profession and it has to be a separated one that is not conjoint with other professions, - Ilya Prochorov said.

- A special PR education is a must for a successful specialist. In any other case he will not be able to realize what he is really doing and work in the dark, - Irina Kiptikova claimed.

- The main point of PR is that any single blue collar and white collar worker is constantly broadcasting his company’s corporate image and views. So any company’s worker has to have PR skills under the belt, - Yuri Ziser pointed out.

- Now PR and Internet needs everyone! - Igor Sokolov noticed.

PR specialist nowadays is primarily a freelancer or a hired person?

- Freelancer is not the best variant for Belarus. It is hard to find enough resources working alone which is much easier being a company’s employee. A lot of possibilities are at hand, -Alexey Fedorinchik said.

Is the necessity of having PR strategy for an organization is hard to explain for members of its Head Department? Is that idea hard to point out?

- Marketing is at the edge of extinction nowadays as well as direct mail and direct sales. Powerful two-way communication is taking its place. You can utter a word in response and be heard. I admit that PR specialists are not such good sellers as marketers are. They are too cultured for that. So maybe new generation, a new wave of PR specialists will be more persistent in getting more profit from PR activity, - Igor Sokolov said.

- We have to learn to how to sell our work and professional skills, - Irina Kiptikova stated.

Imagine the situation. You are the very first one PR manager at an organization. What are the first steps to take in that case?

The first thing here is that any PR activity will succeed if conjoint work with CEO of organization is possible. All information provided for mass media has to be centralized within PR department only. PR professional has to be aware of current situation in the company.

The main goal of this PR-Club meeting was not right or wrong answers search but in giving a chance for everybody to clear out the point of PR techniques, in asking questions and providing the opportunity to listen to diverse opinions on the topics.

‘The idea of making this PR-Club meeting in talk-show format appeared when our PR partners got birth to nice twins and we claimed once that these kids are going to become future of PR”.

Then the ratio of the most frequently asked questions to PR specialists was made. The hottest question here was ‘Is there a classical PR nowadays?’ So ‘present day’ and ‘future’ PR specialists were gathered under one roof in order to find that out. The only fact that such a meeting really was held proved presence or PR in Belarus. But what kind of PR will really be in our country is among other hot PR topics for PR-Club meetings’ discussions’, -Natalya Gromadskich, IPR Belarus Director.

Questionnaire specially prepared by Anastasya Yudchiz and Olga Kapachenya, PR students, will help in making a portrait or ‘Modern Belarusian PR specialist’. PR-Club video will be ready for watching after October 24th and placed on the Internet.

For more detailed information about PR-Club feel free to contact Natalya Gromadskikh,
+375 296 643 55 28, E-mail: ng@ipr.by
Vera Leonik,
+375 296 36 16 15, E-mail:vl@ipr.by

News about global PR can be traced at www.ipr.by
You can also get IPR news signing at their receipt at news@ipr.by

ABOUT INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS (IPR BELARUS):

Founded in 1993, The Institute of Public Relations Belarus (IPR Belarus) is the leading public relations company in this East European nation. Now, after 14 years of successful work for local and international clients, IPR Belarus provides the highest level of professional care across a broad spectrum of expert services, for a diverse range of clients, both large and small.

We have a deep understanding of the Belarussian market and have extensive experience of collaboration with international companies. Here is a short list of services we focus on:

- communications strategy development
- media relations (incl. press events)
- corporate communications
- consultations in the field of communications
- public affairs
- special events
- media monitoring and clipping
- press release distribution
- seminars, presentations
- human resources development
- international marketing services (consulting, partner search, market entry).

At IPR Belarus we strive to achieve the most cost effective solutions whilst delivering a quality of service that guarantees a successful partnership with all our clients.
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This release was published on openPR.