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XIV International PR-Festival is Renowned for its Friendly Atmosphere and Unhackneyed Content
On 14 April, 2016, the Radisson Blu Hotel, Kyiv, hosted the XIV International PR-Festival «The Art of Dancing in the Rain». The biggest PR-forum of the country traditionally attracted the brightest speakers and the keenest experts working not only for communications. It is truly remarkable that the Organizing Committee of the Festival succeeded in doing the incredible – against the background of all the inner and outer contradictions of our reality – in creating the atmosphere that was favorable for effective work and at the same time was homely and warm. The atmosphere of unity.
For two years already politics has not been discussed at the International PR-Festival. Olena Derevianko, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Festival, explained the fact simply, «The aim of PR-industry is to reconcile contradictions existing in the country, not to aggravate them. We might bring it (politics – ed.) back to the agenda when such a discussion will cease being a menace to the public accord».
Yet, even excluding politics, the Festival did not lack critical and burning issues. Participants were debating on the level of state and public communications of Ukraine in the international arena, on the reforms quality influence on the internal and external image of the country, on business and legal PR, on combining business and public duties, on CSR and decency, on the criteria of PR-services procurement tender which would provide the customer with the expected result, on peculiarities of time management, cybertechnologies, and even on physiognomy in its relation to communications.
This year the Festival brought together an impressive pool of speakers. Among those were Eugene Chausovsky, an analyst for the private investigating and analytical center Stratfor (USA), James Connal, the director of Capital Public Relations Agency (UK), Dmytro Kuleba, an Ambassador-at-Large for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Tony Crabbe, a business psychologist and the author of «Busy» international bestseller (USA), Anton Usov, a Senior Adviser on Eastern Europe and Caucasus at EBRD, Giorgi Arveladze, the director general of the «Imedi» TV channel (Georgia), Oleksandr Martynenko, the director general of the «Interfax-Ukraine» News Agency, Olena Derevianko, the vice-president of Ukrainian PR-League and PR-Service Agency partner, Brian Bonner, the Kyiv Post Editor-In-Chief, Kateryna Zhuk, the director of «Charity Tuner» non-governmental organization, Nazar Shimone-Davida, a co-founder of Tesla Club Ukraine, Oleksandr Hrybov, the social media manager for the First Ukrainian International Bank, Natalia Netovkina, the founder of «Zarina Jewelry House» brand, heads of communications for Lenovo, Danone, Portmone and «Mriya» Agricultural Holding, representatives of the leading PR-agencies of the country («Golub and Shynkarenko», PR-Servise, NobletMedia CIS, Hoshva PR Agency) and of the corporate sector (Intel Ukraine, «Parallel-M Ltd», «Volia», Forward Bank), Arseniy Finberg, the founder of the «Interesting Kyiv» project, Hlib Baibayev, a media markets consultant, Leonid Zolin, the author of the «Integral Facereading» system.
The audience was greatly interested in the presentation by one of the founders of the British school of legal and litigation PR, the founder and the chairman of Byfield Consultancy board of directors, Richard Elsen. His advice was a real gift and in many respects a real revelation for representatives of Ukrainian legal PR.
The atmosphere at the Festival got charged with a special «offline» broadcast of «People. Hard Talk with Natalia Vlaschenko».
Finally, «by curtain fall» of the PR-forum, there was a presentation of the updated format of Olena Derevianko’s «Dance of Thought» Creative Laboratory and an award ceremony of winners of the Second National Quality Rating of reputation management «REPUTATION ACTIVists».
The Organizing Committee would like to express their warmest thanks to all those who became part of the Festival, who made it brighter by participating, who left a piece of their soul here, who shared their experience, creativity and optimism.
We are truly grateful to the Radisson Blu Hotel team for their hospitality, comfort and a high level of expertise.
Of course, our partners deserve much credit for making the International PR-Festival come true. This year the Festival was supported by:
- Information partners: «Business» magazine, Liga.net, Espresso, Observer, Reklamaster, Public People, Capital, Legal Practice, NewsOne, MIGnews.com.ua, LANDLORD, Treasury, ABCnews, Radio Kyiv 98 FM, hh.ua, VESNA, Ukrainian Building Community, Association of Retailers of Ukraine, etc.
- Partners: Galitsyna Art Group, UFL International Flowers Delivery, Danone, «5 Element» Healthy Pleasures Club, «Zarina» Jewelry House.
- Publishing partner: «Balance Business Books», the first Ukrainian publishing house that specializes in business literature.