At the end of the public conference held at the Institut Catholique de Kabgayi on March 1, 2019 on Dynamics in Corporate Communications, participants urged Managers to be more aware of what Public Relations is really about so as their Public Relations Officers can work more effectively.
Though Public Relations is a Management function, participants to the conference deplored that its leading effectiveness in business is still underestimated by a considerable number of managers as most of them are not yet fully aware of how PR works, its role and impact on the smooth running of businesses.
The conference dealt with topics such as ethical Public Relations practices in East Africa: from truth to facts in corporate communications; building effective media relations: cases and tactics as well as changing trends in political communication environment: challenges and opportunities.
The speakers at the conference were Dr. Caroline Nabuzale, lecturer at Institut Catholique de Kabgayi; Prof Ton Veen, lecturer at Addis-Ababa University and Dr. Marcel Catsburg, lecturer at CHE University of Applied Sciences in Netherlands.
At the end of the conference, participants recommended among other things the need for setting up a professional forum of PR practitioners and PR academicians in Rwanda as soon as possible; the consideration of Corporate Social Responsibility as a new model for the company’s business prosperity; the adaptation of PR profession to the world’s trends and the promotion of PR values, ethics and principles as PR is a young career in the country.
