A joint initiative by the webzine The Thumb Print and Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), Guwahati Chapter brought together the front ranking Public Relations practitioners of the city in conversation with representatives of various professions on Wednesday at Café Coffee Day, Anil Plaza on GS Road in Guwahati. The topic for the Thumb print conversation of the evening was ‘How good is your PR?’
The ‘ice-breaker’ speaker was Madhuchanda A Choudhury, Chairperson of PRSI, who dealt with the evolution of PR over the years, and said, “PR is no more a small ball room act. It has undergone transformation, any yet the age old values of PR such as honesty, truth, helpfulness, etc cannot be done away with even today.” Taking a cue from her, the moderator of the Conversation, Indrani Raimedhi, well known author and columnist presented a glimpse into the history of modern PR and set the ball rolling.
Senior members of PRSI, Amal Kumar Das, RN Borah, Munwara Sultana Mazumdar, BK Barua, Ghulam Kibriya, Jumita Saikia and Nurul Islam Laskar dealt with different aspects of PR that made things easier for the rest of the crowd who had so long very little exposure to PR practitioners who happen to be very few in Guwahati.
While Angira Mimani (Royal Group of Institutions) highlighted the human relations aspect in PR, Miguel Das Queah (Utsah Child Rights NGO) expressed his dislike for ‘unethical’ PR practices, which he termed as avoidable. Col (retd) SS Lelani, Territorial Head, DS Group desired that there should be a yardstick for measuring the affect of PR. Anjuli Chittaranjan (Bharti Airtel) shared her experience of seeing more and more women vying for positions in PR activities and doing their work quite efficiently. Anisul Hoque (Resonance Communication) deliberated on perception and crisis management that play a big role in PR.
Namrata Sarma (USTM) focussed attention on tools of PR while Amit Jain (FINER) gave his viewpoints on why a businessman would need PR. Others who took part in the deliberations were Imran Hussain (author), Karishma Hasnat (media person), and BK Sarma. A large number of students from CMCJ Cotton College, Gauhati University and University of Science & Technology Meghalaya (USTM) also took part in the conversation.
Indrani Raimedhi lauded the efforts of Teresa Rehman in starting the online magazine Thumb Print which projected North East positively to the world and thus she said, “Teresa is the Queen of PR for the North East.” Juhie Saboo Singh summed up the conversation candidly thus, “There is no question whether one needs PR or not, the topic of the conversation makes it clear – one needs PR and it has to be good!”