Dubai Chamber workshop focuses on strategic communication to create right partnerships

Monday 21 December 2015

Dubai - MENA Herald: Based on the success of their first workshop on social media held in June, Dubai Chamber Centre for Responsible Business’s ENGAGE Dubai programme in partnership with du organised their second workshop of the year on ‘‘Strategic Communication and Public Relations in the Community Sector” recently at the Chamber head office. Attended by members of the community organisations working in communications and public relations, the workshop helped participants understand the nuances of strategic communication and how to adopt a structured approach and effectively communicate and raise awareness of the community cause while getting to know the ways to participate in the various programmes and initiatives. The exercise was led by Maryam Al Balooshi and Saugat Chatterjee from du’s corporate communications department. Alex Malouf, Corporate Communications Manager, Arabian Peninsula, Procter & Gamble (P&G) shared his expertise with the participants by informing them about numerous available platforms and channels of communications and how to make the right choice to forge partnerships with like-minded organisations in the community. They also highlighted the right ways to develop strategic relations with corporates and the public alike to meet their organisational goals. Dr. Belaid Rettab, Senior Director, Economic Research and Sustainable Business Development Sector, Dubai Chamber, stated that community organisations generally have limited resources to promote their causes. However, in today’s fast-paced business and community services scenario strategic communication and Public Relations play an important role for organisations to create awareness of their companies’ profile and the causes they promote. A rightly charted communications strategy can help organisations to forge partnerships with existing as well as new volunteers, supporters and other interested parties, he said. Hala Badri, Executive Vice President, Brand and Communications, du, said: ”As a credible communications tool, public relations lies at the heart of every organisation, and is very pertinent for community organisations - as their primary objective is to deeply connect and communicate with key stakeholders for a common cause. We are delighted to continue our engagement with Dubai Chamber to share our expertise and exchange thoughts with leading communications experts from community organisations.” The ENGAGE Dubai programme, which has 94 corporate members and 35 community partners, connects businesses to community partners to get their support on different community projects. The main objective of ENGAGE Dubai programme is to stimulate corporate involvement in community development through employee volunteering. ENGAGE Dubai organises annual Give & Gain Day for last five years, this year 600 volunteers from 25 companies participated in community projects organised by 22 community partners supporting more than 800 beneficiaries all across UAE. Launched in 2008 by the Centre for Responsible Business, ENGAGE Dubai is part of an international network of businesses and community organisations that collaborate to support the development of healthy and sustainable communities through increasing the quality and quantity of employee involvement and volunteering in their local communities. The international ENGAGE Program, managed by Business in the Community (BITC) in the UK, operates in major cities including Paris, Frankfurt, Istanbul, and Hong Kong.  

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