Increasing Business Relevance through PR Expertise
By Svetlana Stavreva
Last month Baku, the beautiful capital city of Azerbaijan, became the PR capital of five more countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The event, hosted by the Azerbaijan Public Relations Specialists Association (APRA) was the 1st Baku Forum of PR specialists from Turkic-speaking countries. It gathered over 200 PR ambassadors from the region and served as an interactive forum to share best practices, to build personal networks, and to discuss practical ways to tap new opportunities. I believe all participants will have found this forum, like I did, to be both insightful and valuable.
Increasing PR relevance
In a region where paid advertising is significantly larger than PR budgets, the PR industry is flourishing. Moreover it is successfully navigating through the challenges of a changing world such as digitalization, fake news, and artificial intelligence.
“APRA works consistently towards increasing the relevance of PR in Azerbaijan and in the region,” says APRA chairman Ilham Mammadov. “One of the ways to achieve this is through our cooperation with IPRA. Its Global World Award’s programme, for example, is a great opportunity for the PR talent of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to be recognised at the international level.”
The GWA is coming
The annual IPRA Golden World Awards, established in 1990, recognizes excellence in public relations practice worldwide in a variety of categories. This year’s competition opens on 26 February. We will be looking forward to campaigns from all over the world and especially from Azerbaijan and the region. Find out how to enter at www.info.org
Finally…there is no final
During the Baku Forum participants were listening, discussing, learning and having fun. It is my true belief that an event such as this has not come to an end, but is the beginning of a new PR journey. Such a journey will help to integrate the best global PR practices into the region thus creating a PR culture imbued with purpose, trust and transparency.
Svetlana Stavreva
IPRA President
2019
