Global Alliance celebrates “Student and Young Practitioner Month” this October
Online sessions to feature experts tackling issue on pervasiveness and future of AI in the PR industry
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for some time, but with the introduction of AI-enabled products in recent years (which has since transformed our lives both personally and professionally), more and more people are now saying that robots could soon be taking over our jobs.
The same observation can be said in the PR profession -- where tasks like writing press releases and pitch letters are now slowly being undertaken by generative AI apps like ChatGPT and the like. If you are a PR student or a communications practitioner, how do you prepare for this kind of change? Should you feel threatened or not at all? More importantly, what skills must you focus on to fully embrace AI?
These questions are the key topics that will be discussed by a panel of experts at this year’s “Student and Young Practitioner Month.”
The annual festivity is being organized by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) under its KNow Movement campaign. It aims to assist PR students and young practitioners in expanding their knowledge and networks, provide greater appreciation of the PR profession, and explain the vital role that the younger generation will play once they join the industry.
According to Ana Pista, president and CEO of ArdentComm and also the Organizing Committee Chair of Student and Young Practitioner Month, “This year’s celebration serves as a continuation of the successful Career World and Jobs World sessions conducted last year.”
“Unlike in 2022, however, our goal now is to provide an even bigger venue where the alliance can share timely and relevant information about the industry, and provide students and young professionals with a useful platform that can help advance their PR and communications practice,” she added.
The annual festivities aim to further stir the hearts and minds of students and young practitioners looking to join the ranks of PR professionals in the future. It gives young practitioners access to activities to help expand their knowledge while providing them with an avenue to develop a greater appreciation of PR and the professions related to it. The students, meanwhile, will be made to understand the vital role they’ll play once they join the industry.
Last year’s festivities featured live-streaming sessions on Career World wherein members of the academe and communications experts from all over the world such as Peter Mutie from Africa, Fiona Cassidy from New Zealand, Tomas Dardet from Puerto Rico, and Mandy Pearse from the UK gave the participants timely and useful tips when choosing a career. They also engaged the students in a friendly dialogue where everyone realized that despite regional differences, PR work shall remain a much-needed profession in whatever industry, especially post-pandemic.
The ensuing sessions on Jobs World, meanwhile, saw world-renowned PR industry practitioners like Jose Manuel Velasco from Spain, Irene Chipili from Zambia, Roksana Obuchowska from Poland, Hemant Gaule from India, and Peter Mutie from Africa, sharing their work experiences while serving as communicators in PR-related fields like investor relations, media relations, and marketing in their country.
Those who attended the session were also provided with an overview of the state of the PR industry on a global scale, with practically every speaker describing what it was like to be working as a PR practitioner in their respective countries. The sessions also gave participants an insight into how they can still get better into their chosen careers.
For this year’s event, Justin Green, president of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, has announced plans to make the celebration bigger in terms of the number of participating member organizations, the frequency of live-streaming sessions, and the depth of topics to be discussed.
After the sessions, participants will also be provided with a link where they can view job hiring posts and internship opportunities available at Global Alliance member organizations.
“I would like to say that for the benefit of our students and future generations of leaders of the PR industry, Global Alliance remains committed to continuing with this endeavor. That’s why we wanted to make this year’s celebration bigger and brighter. Our purpose, really, in coming up with this month’s celebration is to assure and ensure that the future of the PR industry worldwide will continue to be as bright and promising as before. We will continue to engage PR professionals in every part of the globe so they’ll learn how to exercise caution when making AI-driven decisions. We will also work with member organizations through training activities to ensure that their people will be better prepared for the future.”
For those who wish to participate in the live streaming sessions, which are scheduled per region and are set to take place around the fourth week of October – from October 24 to 26 – you can visit the Global Alliance website for the actual session schedule, registration links, and other important announcements.