Mr. Olusegun McMedal, Chairman, Lagos State Chapter, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) has reiterated its commitment in helping its members acquire the right digital skill sets that will enable them operate in the PR space.
He stated this at the Third edition of Lagos Digital PR summit with the theme: ‘The future of the communication professional: Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Machine Learning and Data Driven Contents’ held recently in Lagos.
McMedal explained that the aim of the summit is to help their colleagues, especially senior practitioners in the industry to identify that digital media blossoming and the need for them to operate in the space.
According to him, “This summit is the third in the series and the idea behind this is for us to identify that digital media is blossoming and most of our colleagues’ especially senior practitioners are not actually using that space.
“We are also looking at the possibility of getting the younger people interested in using this medium for their practice.
“So we birthed the idea to have this annual digital PR summit where we will aggregate some knowledge from veterans in the digital space to sharpen the skill sets of practitioners, especially to be able to operate in that space.
He noted that PR practitioners are losing their businesses to non-professionals because of lack of adequate digital skill set.
He added that with this type of summit they hope to stem the tide and ensure that professional get back their businesses.
McMedal further revealed that most of their practitioners have started to sharpen their skill sets by going into digital space.
He said that the choice of this year’s theme is important because Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and machine learning have become the trend for most companies hence the need to let practitioner to know that Artificial Intelligence is not a bad thing but good for the practice.
Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, MD/CEO, CMC Connect, speaking at the event, said that digital skill is a tool in public relations, adding that it’s a platform that practitioners should embrace in achieving their goals.
He noted that we should reappraise the way conduct our traditional services so that we can engage digital.
He added that any vibrant organization that does not have a significant budget for digital will become irrelevant in the next few years.
Badejo-Okusanya also called on PR practitioners to start selling their services in sachets so that they will remain in business, adding that organizations do no longer call for pinch any longer.
He advised practitioners to focus on areas where they have core competence and give services in that area, instead of going for a full pinch.
He reeled out 10 plus 1 big things that will shape the future of public relations in the country as Technology and consumerism, Activism and Advocacy, Media Consumption Habit, Global business, Creativity and Innovation.
Others are Governance and nation state, Influencers and Culture Re-orientation, Value Determination, Business of Public Relations and Talent and Story Telling.