#ICA22
It was an action-packed day. I was as nervous as the anchor on stage introducing all the guests and leading the chats and discussion around different themes related to communication and public relations. This was something I had been waiting for the longest time. What I had imagined was a conglomerate of industry experts in the field of communication. It was something close to it and maybe more.
The session began with a brief introduction by Satrajit Sen, Head- Product & Community, ETBrandEquity.com. It was followed by a short speech by Madan Behl, C-founder & MD, Adfactors PR. He spoke mainly about the lack of rigour in journalism which has not been a positive sign in the field of communication. Then Vikram Chopra, Founder & CEO, Cars24 laid emphasis on truth, authenticity and empathy being the cornerstones of effective communication.
The first panel discussion comprised a great number of speakers- Shree Das of Unacademy, Sitara Menon of OkCupid India, Rajnish Wahi, Snapdeal, Pranav Kumar, Allison+Partners and chaired by Devesh Gupta of ETBrandEquity.com. The discussion hovered around the new age PR mandate and how it is going to be for the future.
The second panel discussion had eminent speakers again- Sudeep Bhalla, Tata Motors, Nida Paloba, Colgate-Palmolive, Abbas Akhtar, Bharat Pteroleum, Dr. Sarvesh Tiwari of PR Professionals, Bharatendu Kabi, Hero MotoCorp; session being chaired by Nitin Thakur of OYO. They spoke about 'Simpson's Paradox' being a deterrent in good data and analysis which has apparently taken centrestage even in PR industry. Dr. Tiwari highlighted the challenges even in Big Data.
It was now lunch time when I had to check into the room in my hotel, Hyatt Regency as I had to spend the night in the same room after the conference got over. Lunch was followed by an inspiring discussion by paralympic athlete and medallist, Dr. Deepa Malik on her journey and her face-off with her physical health challenges.
Subsequent panel discussions and chats had eminent speakers like Arjun Mohan of upGrad, Sriram Haridass of UNFPA India, a session with all-women panelists who spoke on diversity and inclusion, Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee of Vedanta Group, Sarableen Kaur of Coca-Cola, Deepak Ajwani of EconomicTimes.com, Ratna Vishwanathan of Reach to Teach among others. Dr. Bhaskar Chatter spoke about how every form of efficient communication should have 3 Ps in that order- People, Planet, Profit with people-driven communication being at the heart of good communication.
There was an interesting discussion around leveraging social chatter to formulate good PR strategies and the role of storytelling being an important element of PR. They mainly emphasised the importance of an emotional connect with customers, character/individual is the hero, not the brand. We have a more complex audience and platforms land up promoting channels, therefore its crucial to understand customer-oriented experiences. Key takeaways from PR Storytelling were:
- CSR is an opportunity
- Who implements CSR- is it NGO, civil society, organisation or anybody else- is important to understand
- Trust deficit was still there. Deficit has narrowed
- CSR from backroom to boardroom is a reality
