Board members of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) – Gulf Chapter.The International Public Relations Association (IPRA) – Gulf Chapter (IPRA-GC) opens Wednesday its annual conference, this year entitled “Reputation Management – Emerging Trends; Changing Dynamics”. The two-day event in Abu Dhabi is being held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al-Nahyan, Minister of Public Works and Chairman of the National Media Council, and will focus on the “challenges faced by public relations professionals in the Arabian Gulf”. It hopes, according to the IPRA-GC, to “set a roadmap for effective communication in the post-crisis world, which is today further entrenched in socio-economic crises of a scale never before witnessed by the Middle East region”. The conference, hosted by the Yas Hotel, will address reputational management issues and help the public and private sector to understand the “shifting dynamics and the intricacies in reputation management in today's fast-changing environment”. With a keynote speech from IRPA Global President Richard Linning, the conference will look at topics such as “Family Business in a Post-Crisis World”, “How can small and medium enterprises use Effective Communications to promote their Value Addition to the Economy”, “City Branding”, “Financial Communications”, “Social Media in a Post-Crisis World”, “PR & Journalism”, “The Public Affairs Challenge and Next Practices in PR”. The IPRA-GC is a local chapter of the International Public Relations Association and was formed in 2003 with the support of Saudi Aramco. It has its headquarters in Dhahran and over 350 members from GCC countries, and describes its aims as “to develop its members' public relations skills and expertise, broaden their experience in the international PR arena and establish stronger ties among PR professionals throughout the region”.
