Sights and Sounds
Gallery

PR Academy’s 5th Annual Conference -

NEW MEDIA: THE NEW FRONTIER IN COMMUNICATIONS AND PR
A gathering of experts from the US , UK and Singapore who will share insights on how to maximise the potential of the new media.

Popular Singapore bloggers, Mr Miyagi and mr brown are among a distinguished panel of speakers who will gather on 31 st May at the PR Academy’s 5 th Annual Conference to discuss and debate about the opportunities and challenges that the new media poses to communicators the world over. The two bloggers, who are household names to many young Singaporeans, will share their views on why blogs have taken the world by storm and also explore whether blogs are likely to be the next advocacy tool for many a man-in-the-street.

The other conference speakers include Mr Basskaran Nair (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy), Mr Jonathan Halls (BBC’s Production Training Department), Dr Cherian George (Nanyang Technological University), Mr Felix Soh (The Straits Times), Mr Zheng Wei (Lianhe Zaobao) and Ms Margaret Thomas (MediaCorp Singapore).

The annual conference, now in its 5 th year, entitled “New Media: The New Frontier in Communications and PR”, aims to explore the challenges that the new media poses to traditional concepts of news and journalism and the how, why and when to integrate the Internet and online media into an organisation’s overall public relations, marketing and communications strategy.

Dr Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, will deliver the keynote address. Further details of the conference can be found here.

Commenting on the choice of “new media” as the theme for this year’s conference, Ms Sulosana Karthigasu, Managing Director of the PR Academy explained: “New media technologies like SMS, MMS, blogging etc, have changed the way people, especially the young, communicate with each other. While this new and borderless medium has empowered individuals to champion pet causes, which may be seen as mundane by the traditional media, it poses a great challenge to traditional concepts of journalism, PR and communications, in general. No longer can communicators rely on traditional communication modes like radio, TV and newspapers, to reach out to their target audiences.

“And as more and more public organisations and corporations migrate their services on-line, it is important for communicators and policy makers to understand what communicating and engaging stakeholders on-line mean to them and how best to successfully leverage the new medium to deliver even better services.

“By bringing these industry experts together, we hope to help demystify some of the myths surrounding new media, and help everyone to better understand, for instance, how to enhance user experience on-line.”

The conference, targeted at policy makers, senior managers and corporate communications directors in the public and private sectors, expects to attract about 200 delegates from Singapore and the region.

= = = = =

Date: 19 April 2006