Women in PR holds third annual summit

Women in Public Relations (PR) Ghana, a professional platform created for women in the communications and media sector, held its third annual summit over the weekend.

The event brought together senior professionals in the sector to share their experience and impart knowledge to upcoming professionals and students within the industry.

The summit, was held under the theme: "Collaborate, Inspire, Lead", and the interactive style of the deliberations, gave participants the opportunity to come up close to resource personnel as they went through various topics.

Amongst the topics discussed included: "The next generation of PR Woman", "Fostering strategic collaboration in the digital era", "Putting entrepreneurship into PR", "The relevance of social media and organisational context in PR management" and "Applying emotional intelligence to leadership".

Ms Faith Senam Ocloo, Founder of Women in PR (WiPR) Ghana, said that the summit was to create a platform for women in public relations to network, learn, mentor and share with each other to bring growth in their respective organisations.

She said the PR women in this digital era needed to employ new methods to enhance her productivity and growth in the industry.

Madam Adiki O. Ayitey, Vice President, Sustainability and external relations, Newmont Goldcorp Africa, said to be successful in this sector, there is the need for collaboration.

"You need to build a team to work together with the common purpose of reaching your goals", she said adding that in order for collaborations to be effective and successful there is the need to consider the following key concepts: support, teamwork, communication, trust, motivation, inspiration.

Mr Gabriel Opoku-Asare, Head of Society, Africa Region Diageo PLC, said the PR woman as the eye of the organization, should be able to analyse, predict and counsel management in its decision making processes.

Madam Sophia Lissa, Group Head, Communication, Jaspong Group of Companies, said there is the need for the PR woman to also demonstrate entrepreneurial skills to bridge the gap in this digital era.

She said entrepreneurs are mostly people whom have passion for their work, took risk, focused, solution driven, persons who challenged the status quo and did not take a no for an answer.

The panelled section of the event deliberated on ‘Emotional Intelligence and Leadership’ with resource persons such as; Cynthia Ofori-Dwumfou, PR Business Ogilvy Ghana; Emma Wenani, Chief Director Global Media Alliance; Mrs Baaba Cofie, Snr PR Consultant MahoganyConsult; and Dr Eric Rhiney, Chair, Management Department, Webster University.