History of Festival

The Organizing Committee of the country’s main PR event named "PRNext International Forum" has released the program with a list of speakers and topics for discussion. The forum will take place on March 31, 2023. As previously reported, PRNext is the new name of the International PR Festival, a project with a 20-year history that was rebranded this year.

The program consists of performances by star speakers and is divided into thematic blocks. The forum will begin and end with inspiring speeches by special guests of PRNext, whose life path has been dramatically changed by the war – the well-known actor and TV presenter Andrii Bedniakov and the frontman of the band “Antytila” Taras Topolia, respectively.

The stars of the media block are the director of Rating Sociological Group Liubomyr Mysiv; heads of leading Ukrainian mass media – Olena Arkhipova (UNN), Yurii Husev (Delo.ua), Anastasiia Zazuliak (24 channel), Anastasiia Ravva (Espresso), Svitlana Sheremetieva-Turchyn (RBK); founder of the mega-popular TG-channel Trukha Maksym Lavrynenko; international expert and owner of the Polish company Iris Consulting Group, known in Europe, Oleh Kozerod, and photojournalist, winner of the Knight International Journalism Awards, Ievhen Malolietka.

Modern cases from the practice of reputation management of the most potent Ukrainian companies will be presented by the star PR professionals of the corporate sector Natalia Lekhka (Head of PR HarvEast), Olena Plakhova (Director of reputation management of the Nova Poshta group of companies), Iryna Shynkarenko (Deputy Head of Epicenter K LLC on advertising, marketing, public relations, and mass media), Vira Shcherbakova (Head of communication at Ajax System – a security systems manufacturer that has made its way from local to global business).

A star team from various business fields and countries will talk about technologies and creative trends. Ievhen Kudriavchenko (owner of the most titled domestic web production studio Vintage Web Production), Clive Roach (international SMM expert on work in the B2B sector), and Ihor Blystiv (marketing director and innovation director of Kormotekh company) have already confirmed their topics of speech about the deep immersion of essentially non-digital business into the digital environment). The organizers are still waiting to confirm the personalities of the speakers who will talk about AI and social media trends.

And the culmination of the forum will traditionally be the solemn honoring ceremony of the winners of the Corporate Reputation Management Quality Rating Reputation ACTIVISTS. We will discover which companies can boast the most effective reputation management systems and the best PR teams, even in wartime.

The head of the PRNext Organizing Committee Olena Derevianko, partner of the PR Service Agency and a vice-president of the Ukrainian PR League, commented on this year’s program, "We have formulated the slogan of our project as a Turning point. The speakers have been asked to choose life and professional cases, trends, and analytical statements to illustrate this thesis. Therefore, I am sure that all our business and non-business stars will be interesting both for the professional community and the general public – for everyone interested in PR, reputation, communications, media, creative and digital tools, etc."