Expert Urges Women To Imbibe Trust, Integrity, Consistency At The Experiencing PR Conference
The bedrock of effectively and efficiently managing quiet wars or crisis management is to imbibe the tripartite values of trust, integrity and consistency.
These were the views of Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, the Founder of LEAP Africa & African Food Changemakers, who was the keynote speaker at the third edition of the recently held Experiencing PR Conference, organised by the Nigerian Women in PR at the Civic Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Nwuneli, while discussing the conference theme, “Quiet Wars: Leveraging Public Relations for Conflict Management”, explained that building quality relationships is vital for PR professionals in crisis management. Using the acronym REST (Relationship, Excellence, Service and Tenacity), she spoke extensively on requirements for fighting what she described as “quiet wars”, while leveraging PR in conflict management. “We cannot fight any war without relationships, to build quality relationships we need to imbibe trust, integrity, loyalty and consistency,” she said.
“As a PR professional, build and leverage quality relationships with everybody. You need to build relationships with multiple stakeholders because the most powerful PR, workers and leaders are people who can call anyone and they will respond positively.”
Also speaking on mentoring young women in PR, Osayi Alile, CEO of Aspire Coronation Trust Foundation, advised the upcoming PR ladies to shun the give me mentality, she said,
“Relationship should be a two-way thing, don’t only think about how to take from your mentors but how you can add value to them. You must find out what is important to that person and how you can do it. You must bring value for someone to give you value.”
The conference had two panel sessions with the following topics, an experiencing panel from the Generals: Stakeholder Management Strategies that Works and Industry panel, ‘PR Strategies to Win Quite Wars in Business and Government’ and a breakout session on ‘Open Mentorship’.
The sessions were handled by distinguished speakers, which include Lucy Pearson, Country Director, British Council Nigeria and Director West Africa; Nene Bejide, Founder of Blanche Aigle Communications, Debbie Larry-Izamojie, COO Brila Media Limited; Bolaji Abimbola, MD/CEO, Integrated Indigo; Eloine Barry, Founder & CEO, African Media Agency and Edemekong Uyoh, Regional Head of Marketing & Communications, Cultural Engagement, Sub Saharan Africa, British Council
The panel discussions provided insights, real-world expertise and case studies on conflict navigation by distinguished speakers, renowned thought leaders and business professionals from the private and public sectors.
Also at the conference, two publications were launched, a Book Experiencing Public Relations: Nine Women, Nine Perspectives and a Magazine – ExperiencingPR Issue 002.
Earlier, during her welcome address, the convener Tolulope Olorundero, Public Relations Consultant and Founder of Nigerian Women in PR (NWIPR) said “ Experiencing PR, which started as a vision, has become a movement, a legacy both for me and every Nigerian woman who is practising public relations in any part of the world. It has been my privilege and honour to lead this movement, to have gotten the vision and to have done it”.
Speaking on what is in the pipeline for the event in the coming years, she said, “Experiencing PR 2025 conference will be different. We are going to open the opportunity from 2025 to deliver our events and initiatives with a committee of volunteers.
“Part of the reason I joined certain organisations is to learn what they are doing so that I can implement it in mine. In 2023, I volunteered for WIMBIZ as one of the conference planning committee, I worked but also learnt what I went there to learn and you will see the evidence of that in 2025.”