Narrative PR Summit 2016, which was held in Cairo on September 28, 2016 and powered by CC Plus the multi-disciplinary communications consulting firm issued a number of recommendations to activate the role of public relations in the coming period.
CC Plus Managing Director, Lamia Kamel stressed that a number of international and local corporates, experts, public figures, journalists, editors in chief, and representatives of major international organizations and the civil society have participated in the Summit. In the recommendations, Kamel highlighted the vital role played by public relations practitioners companies, governments and nations.
Narrative PR Summit 2016 has featured success stories of local and international speakers in various political and economic fields and more, Kamel added. The recommendations pointed to boosting the strategic PR role and be connected with the latest studies and research in this field.
The recommendations stated the following:
1- Initiate and implement a National PR strategy with high caliber practitioners to activate the role of PR in Egypt and bridge the gap between institutions and public opinion.
2- The need to utilize research, studies and statistics that support the advancement and development of the PR industry while emphasizing the PR strategic role through plans, projects and key departments.
3- Building positive “Nation Branding” is part of the government’s economic policy, and in order to do so, we need to introduce and shed light on a seamless culture of excellence, hammering on focus and work ethics.
4- The necessity of having clear social media plans and policies, along with paying special attention to trends set by digital media influencers. The goal should be to utilize the abilities and skills of influential social media pioneers and develop an all-encompassing plan addressing this technologically advanced sector to dictate the communication between national institutions in both Arabic and English. Furthermore, it is also deemed relevant to understand the impacts of social media on different societal segments, as it is one of the most influential tools in Egyptian public relations and certainly must not be neglected in the coming periods.
5- The importance of seeking the help of successful Egyptian experts and calibers in the digital media domain, who may brand Egypt as a nation distinctively well, both domestically and abroad, in order to create good investment opportunities, along with an objective content to be positively promoted with joined efforts from all parties.
6- Develop a communication mechanism between officials and employees, within companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and to work on the integration between the manager and the employee to establish teamwork culture. Utilize the social media as a communication tool for official and non-official work related topics.
7- Create an international affiliation of a PR chapter in Egypt which would include: members from all PR agencies, official speakers from the larger companies, and representatives from the private, public, and government sectors.
8- Establishing a training academy for the public sector, comprised of members of qualified trainers. Initiative should be supported and subsidized by leading companies in the private sector.
9- Identifying crises and risks addressing mechanisms and identifying all failure probabilities, their causes, and the chances of their recurrence, in order to develop an action plan to expect and predict the problems and prevent their occurrence. Have a crises management manual for all possible crises; one in case of success and another in case of failure, both address differently but equally deserving of measurable ways to solving any potential crises.
10- Government needs to identify a small qualified team to handle crises and must appoint one coordinator, who can liaise with the members and lead the problem analysis process and the market sensitivity analysis and solutions, as well as the communications and messaging. This team must be well trained by professionals on crises management experts. This team needs to assess the ongoing potential risks periodically through the risk assessment known techniques and be ready with contingency plans and alternative in case risk occurs. Private sector professionals on crises management are so ready to provide assistance and training to government personnel if requested.
11- People who are leading crises management should have high level of risk management ability and should be equipped with the required techniques to identify, assess, understand and react swiftly to serious crises from the moment of occurrence till resolution.
12- Private Sector should be fully prepared to work with the Government community development program, to enable efforts coordination among organizations, which can help in achieving the community development agenda.
13- Necessity of collaboration between civil society organizations and private sector regarding social responsibility ,since NGOs have an ability to detect the neediest sectors for help and provide databases of funding entities.
14- Education is integral to crafting the branding of a Nation. Level of funding public universities should be sustained, and universities should compete globally and shift toward being research-based institutions rather than being degree factories.
15- Forming a committee from the Business Administration school at the American University in Cairo and several other Egyptian universities specialized in developing primary and secondary education suggested curricula. Further, revising curricula and involving specialists who can prepare better equipped graduates for the labor market, as well as focusing on the importance of research and investment in technology.
Read and download the recommendations in Arabic here
