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| Home > Seminar & Conferences > 2005 PR Conference | |||
| Seminars
& Conferences Our 4th Annual Conference was held on Thur 30 June 05 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports and Second Minister for Trade and Industry was the Guest-of-Honour. Bringing together several experts to discuss the importance of stakeholder engagement and the importance of public consultation, the one-day conference featured topics such as "The Benefits Of Two-Way Communication Between The Government And The People", "Stakeholder Engagement - A New Model", and three case studies on the Streamwatch Programme in Australia, Public Engagement: Hong Kong 2030 Study, and Integrating Stakeholders: The South Outer Bangkok Ring Road Project. One common thread ran through all the presentations - the challenge of managing public expectations. As Dr Roberta Ryan, Associate Director, Elton Consulting, and an expert on public facilitation put it, “There are universal challenges we all face in consultation. Not least is the management of public expectations of what they can, and cannot influence; as well as developing good defensible processes which provide well informed input to assist decision makers make good policy decisions. It is also difficult to make sure we get to talk to the right people. We sometimes refer to these people as the 'silent majority'. We do not only want to speak with those noisy 'squeaky wheels' of the minority - those people who will come to meetings and be willing to have their say. We need to be prepared to go and find others and hear from them. After all, public consultation is a process for the purposes of good decision making and policy - it is not an end in itself.” Agreeing, Ms Sulosana Karthigasu, Managing Director of the PR Academy said, “Consultation provides an opportunity not only to identify concerns but also seek views and ideas. Sometimes a misunderstanding or misreading of each other’s intentions can derail a consultation programme, even when both the government and the public are working towards the same objectives. This is one of the main reasons why it is important for the policy makers to hear not only from the vocal minority – but the silent majority. The lessons shared by our experts today show clearly that though conducting public consultation is a very challenging and onerous task, the results are well worth the effort.” About 200 policy makers, senior civil servants, government communicators, PR consultancy representatives, including four overseas delegates from Brunei, Indonesia and Hong Kong. Click here to read what participants had to say
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