18 Mar 2014

#WCFDavos – 5th Jubilee Edition: a review of an intense & memorable event

Dear readers, for those of you that have been following
my last few posts where I have explicitily mentioned the values 
& purpose of the World Communication Forum - event that takes 
place annually in the stunning location of Davos, Switzerland, and 
intends to boost the development of global communications - 
now I write you the review of the #WCFDavos 2014. 


Come with me to an incredible journey to the city of Davos in the Swiss Alps
This year's edition was absolutely brilliant - keynote speakers of high calibre, interesting discussions and a priceless network opportunity were some of the features of the Forum. Although it is impossible to describe how two days can be of such great value - yes, two days but that are filled with so much information and networking at all times with such intelligent people from all around the world that it seems more that we spent a whole week together.


Stunning city of Davos, Switzerland
As many participants and speakers have been posting on their after show publications - there is no other event within the communications and PR industry so diverse and international as the World Communication Forum in Davos, that was said by well-known industry players such as Gianni Catalfamo (http://sonofgeektalk.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/davos-5-wrap-up/) and Stuart Bruce (http://stuartbruce.biz/2014/03/davos-world-communication-forum-highlights.html) - both veterans of Digital Communications, that have published positive critiques about the #WCFDavos 2014 on their blogs. 

I will do my best to review the most important points of this year edition of one of the most prominent events of the communications' industry worldwide - the World Communication Forum - #WCFDavos.

Day 0, March 10, 2014 - the pre-event welcoming cocktail took place at Morosani Posthotel,  Promenade 42, main street of Davos, where many participants and speakers who had already arrived met in a informal environment to have their first encounter - or re encounter with people met before in previous #WCFDavos editions or other industry events around the globe. After this (re) uniting moment, I went to rest on the top of a hill where I spent my first two nights at HI Davos - a curiosity: it was used in the past as a sanatorium – the sign at the door states the location provided an optimum place for mental recovery due to the peaceful and idyllic landscapes of the Swiss Alps.

Day 1, March 11, 2014 – I was up early in the morning and running to get to the Davos Congress Centrum before 9 am as the World Communication Forum would start at 9:30am with opening speech of Yanina Dubeyovskaya, General Director of Top Communications GmbH (Austria), Coordination Committee co-Chair & Content Director of the #WCFDavos.

Keynote speech by Paul Holmes, PR guru, Founder & CEO of The Holmes Report
After the grand opening, we dove directly into very relevant discussions, which started with an intriguing panel on whether or not “PR was dead”, “how would its essence change?”, and “what could come in place of Public Relations”. The panel was moderated by Stuart Bruce, Digital Corporate Communications, Online Blogger, Trainer and Consultant (UK), with a 30-minute presentation by Paul Holmes, PR guru, Founder and CEO of The Holmes Report and the SABRE Awards; followed presentations and discussions with Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe (WeSchool, University of Mumbai – India), Zsuzsanna Beke (Gedeon Richter Plc. – Hungary) and Galina Panina (Leroy Merlin – Russia).

Brazilian delegates with the PR guru:
Adriana Vieira, Flávio Oliveira, Paul Holmes and Ariane Feijó
This session was broadcasted live and people from all around the world were able to follow the interesting conclusions which are worth being heard by the whole industry. In the wise words of Paul Holmes during his presentations, some of the many quotes that are worth mentioning, I include some of the quotes I tweeted from the Forum (@FlaviOliveiraBR):
“PR is more relevant today than has ever been”; “People invent, PR people discover… PR people discover stories and the best form to tell them”; “We have to develop advocates that will defend the company’s products, services and positions”.

From this few quotes, it is possible to draw the outcomes of this panel: PR is definitely not dead, it is more important that has ever been to organisations all around the world and the terminology remains the same. Moreover, we – as PR professionals – need to develop relationships so efficiently that our stakeholders such as employees and consumers will become our organisation’s advocates.

#WCFDavos always brings the most up-front trends and practices on communication but also bring us with hot news such as that the region of Yorkshire (UK) will be hosting the "Tour de France - Grand Départ" in 2014 as shown by their successful candidature PR case presentation (very interesting, by the way). 

Smiling together with Dr. Scott E. Fahlman, the father of the very first smiley emoticon :-)

#WCFDavos brought a very special gift to participants at the 5th Jubilee Edition which was the presence of Professor Dr. Scott E. Fahlman, the inventor of the worldwide used “smiley emoticon :-)”, who gave a lecture about how his idea became a global brand. I had the chance to have a 40 minutes conversation with Dr. Scott during a lovely lunch we had together during the #WCFDavos break at Davos Congress Centre, on March 12, 2014. 


Flávio Oliveira, Matt Frost (Director at Shilling/UK) and Dr. Scott E. Fahlman
During our interesting conversation which topic was artificial intelligence, we have discussed the logics and metaphors behind this incredible thematic under studies by Dr. Scott for more than 40 years. A lunch to remember!


Yogesh Joshi and Flávio Oliveira - interesting conversations
Yogesh Joshi, President of the Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI), a good friend and very experienced professional of the ABCI, probably the oldest running association for communication and public relations in the world. Yogesh is deeply involved with Indo-Brazil relations and have signed last year a knowledge-sharing agreement with Paulo Nassar and Luiz Fernando Brandão, representatives of the Brazilian Association of Business Communication (ABERJE) last year during ABCI's annual convention in Mumbai, India.

Among the many discussions that happened in Davos, a very relevant one was the communication within politics, where Maria Ashiquin presented the Malaysia experience with further speeches of Gábor Hegyi and Maria Schimidt.

Gábor Hegyi (Hungary), Maria Schimidt (Polony) and
Maria Ashiquin (Malaysia) on the Political Comms panel

Maria Ashiquin, CEO of Lubrioil (Malaysia) and Flávio Oliveira (Brazil)
- good friends since we first met at #WCFDavos 2012 - 

Pharma panel

I had the pleasure and responsibility to moderate a panel entitled: Pharmacy - from business communications to market leadership - http://www.forumdavos.com/people/135/Flavio+Oliveira. With bright speechs from Zsuzsanna Beke, Head of Public Relations and Public Affairs at Gedeon Richter Plc. (Hungary) and Saurabh Uboweja, CEO and Brand Strategy Director at Brands of Desire (India).

Pharma panel - trust and credibility cannot be bought but built


End of first day – Gala Dinner 

Davos by Night

Yogesh Joshi (India) and Maria Ashiquin (Malaysia)
presenting the C4F Davos Awards

Flávio Oliveira and Daniela Gyurkova - #WCFDavos and its special cherish people

Flávio Oliveira and Olga Bereslavskaya - a friend from Russia
Olga's Amazing Hong Kong has +225,000 likes on Facebook and is no. 2 in the World for HK!

The Brazilian delegates with Yanina Dubeykovskaya - Content Director at
and the mind behind the World Communication Forum

Flávio Oliveira and Maxim Behar, CEO of Hill+Knowlton Strategies (Tchec Republic) 
and of M3 Communications (Bulgaria)

Flávio Oliveira with Yogesh Joshi (India) and Alex Mitev (Bulgaria)
Good friends... Alex is responsible for most of these amazing photos!

Brazilian delegates: Adriana Vieira (Intermidia), Flávio Oliveira (WCF)
and Ariane Feijó (TodoMundoPrecisadeumRP)

– C4F Davos Awards –


- C4F Davos Awards -
Celebrating outstanding contributions within global communications
  • "Image of the Future" was redeemed to Maria Schicht, Marketing Director at Warsaw Municipality.
  • "Media of the Future" prize was delivered to world-known PR expert Maxim Behar for his project Novinite.com. 
  • "Idea of the Future" went to Isaac Mao for his Sharism philosophy.
  • "Relations of the Future" was rendered to Sudhanshu Sarronwala from World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature for his notable accomplishments.
  • "Titan of the Future" went to Sergey Zverev, Founder and President of CROS PR & Public Affairs for developing the Russian Public Relations industry.
  • "Grand Davos Award", the most important prize of the night, was given to Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, the Dean of the Indian Business University.


Day 2 – March 12, 2014 –

The Forum had 16 hours of discussions that means 57,000 seconds were spent together directly discussing up-front trends and practices on public relations and communications with point-of-views from all around the world.

Gianni Catalfamo giving a great speech on digital privacy and copyright


Besides the hours spent together on the conference room you may add some extra 10 hours spent in transfers, meals and on hall discussions – no minute was wasted, networking happened at all times, literally. The Forum definitely was a memorable and enriching experience where many lessons were learned – and which I am ready to share.

TO SUM UP in FIVE POINTS
I was reading a post published by Samantha Healey from Shillings (UK) - https://www.shilling.co.uk/26/324#.UyiCA_ldVqV - and think she succeeded in doing a great synthesis of the most important trends pointed during the #WCFDavos discussions last week in Switzerland. She stated that five points are the order of the day to consider, which I totally agree and include them paraphrasing Samantha, below:

1) Data is everything - we need more people that understand data - this was reinforced many times during the discussions from the very first speech of Paul Holmes throughtout the whole event - metrics and analytics.
2) People Power - although data is very important and more available than ever, it is imperative to consider the power of people in the public opinion context and also as of creating advocates of your company, products/services and positions as proposed by Paul Holmes.
3) New Media - it is growing at rates never seen before with any  other communication vehicle/channel in human history - it is needed to get in the same pace and be able to connect with stakeholders using speeches in accordance to the media - it is all about content.
4) Drawing attention to "your" message is tougher than ever - the quantity of information nowadays is simply overwhelming, in order to get the attention of your targets, it is needed to be more creative than ever before.
5) Authenticity & Trust - credibility cannot be bought but built through real CSR programmes and by establishing concrete long-term relationships with your stakeholders.


Old friends and new friends altogether in a great atmosphere - that is the real resume of #WCFDavos. The bright minds we meet there, usually become good friends that we do not only exchange professisonal ideas but also happen to become friends and meet again in different parts of the world.

#WCFDavos family

I <3 Davos
Davos and the Swiss mountains all around the way to get there are such inspiring landscapes that boosts our creativity levels as high as or even higher than their own heights.


Soon I will be posting about Intercultural Public Relations – an area I am defending to be created – where I will be presenting the foundation stone of such theory I have among opinions from bright communications’ minds from around the world. Keep an eye on this blog and follow me on Twitter “@FlaviOliveiraBR”.


~ and keep on smiling :-)



9 Mar 2014

#WCFDavos 5th Jubillee Edition - Live Broadcasting

#WCFDavos Live Broadcasting

In the coming days, precisely on 11-12 March 2014, the World Communication Forum will celebrate its 5th Jubilee Edition in the Davos Congress Centre, Davos, Switzerland. Once again, the annual meeting will gather top-level executives, partners & owners of PR consultancies, PR associations’ representatives and creative minds coming from all corners of the world.

Davos Congress Centre

There is still time to register, book a flight & hotel and become an active part of the elite discussions to take place there – www.forumdavos.com/registration. However, if you cannot be there this year, you may still follow the latest trends on communication through #WCFDavos social media channels.

#WCFDavos hashtag will be used in all social media channels of the Forum as well by its media partners spread across the globe. Join the intriguing discussions that will take place in Davos and be part of the development of global communications.

#WCFDavos
 #WCFDavos on Social Media

Three of the exceptional discussions will be broadcasted live from the venue – but a heads up: it is needed to register! Choose the session(s) you want to watch and register for free.

You may register for one or more of the free sessions at http://www.e-since.com/en/dawos0930; http://www.e-since.com/en/dawos1030 and http://www.e-since.com/en/dawos1430details on each of the sessions below.

Use the hashtag #WCFDavos, interact with the discussions and be part of a historical moment. Join the global alliance for the development of communications – save the date 11-12 March!


Details on registration are as follows

1.      PR is dead vs Long Live All-Channels PR! -  March 11, 2014, 9.30 - 10.30 (CET time)
#WCFDavos launches a discussion on drastic changes and reshaping of Public Relations.

Register for free at http://www.e-since.com/en/dawos0930 for online broadcast.
Reveal the future of communications, comment and ask questions to speakers during live webcast.
Panel Leader: Stuart Bruce, Digital Corporate Communications, Online PR blogger, Trainer and Consultant (UK)
Speakers:
Andre Manning, Global VP Corporate Communications, Philips
Paul Holmes, Founder and CEO, The Holmes Report
Colin Byrne, CEO, Weber Shandwick UK and Europe
Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, University of Mumbay
Zsuzsanna Beke, Head of Public Relations and Public Affairs, Richter Gedeon Plc., Hungary


2.      To Follow & Share! New Communications World: Sharism Philosophy a special keynote online broadcast at #WCFDavos - March 11, 2014, 10.30 - 11.00 (CET time)

Register for free at http://www.e-since.com/en/dawos1030 
Comment and ask questions during live broadcast to Isaac Mao, sharism philosophy evangelist, co-founder and director of the Social Brain Foundation, venture capitalist, software architect, social media researcher.


3.      Win-Win-Win Strategy in the Public Relations Field, Three key players - PR Consultancies, In-house PR & Corporate Communications, Associations for PR & Comms will divide / share the market and define a prosperous future. - March 11, 2014, 14.30 - 16.30 (CET time)



Register for free at http://www.e-since.com/en/dawos1430
Comment, ask questions to world leading professionals and vote to support their positions during live webcast.

Panel leaders: 
Maxim Behar, WCFDavos Committee co-Chair, Chairman of Hill+Knowlton Strategies (CZ) and CEO & Board Chairman of M3 Communications (BG).
Prof. Dr. Marc Langendorf, Deputy Head of Corporate Communications at Siemens AG.
Lorena Carreño, Vice President of the Mexican Communication & Marketing Industry Confederation - CICOM (Mexico), 
Francis Ingham, Director General of the Public Relations Consultants Association in UK (PRCA), Executive Director of the International Communications Consultancy Association (ICCO) and Official Representative of The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC). 



WCFDavos is a global event that aims to bridge the gap and connect key markets worldwide. Initiated in 2010 by an international committee, it has gained the support of numerous partner organisations and associations worldwide: IAB Europe, The Holmes Report, International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), International Association of Business Communicators in EMENA (IABC-EMENA), Public Relations Consultants Association in UK (PRCA), Association of PR Agencies in Switzerland (BPRA), Trans-Arabian Creative Communications (TRACCS), Mexican Association of Public Relations, Russian Public Relations Association (RPRA), Armenian Public Relations Association (APRA), Bulgarian Association of PR Agencies (BAPRA), Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI), Brazilian Association of Communication Agencies (ABRACOM), Italian Association of Public Relations Agencies (ASSOREL), and more.


Stay tuned on my social media profiles for real-time information from the venue in Davos where I will be posting, tweeting and sharing loads of interesting things about the world of communications and public relations. Come with us toward the development of the industry!!!

My Social Media Profiles


~ and keep on smiling :-)

4 Mar 2014

World Communication Forum @ Davos, 11-12 March 2014 - 5th Jubillee Edition

The World Communication Forum (#WCFDavos) - www.forumdavos.com - which is celebrating its 5th Jubillee Edition is coming with all engines on to discuss the most innovative ideas, strategies and best practices of the global communications' industry.
The beautiful city of Davos, Switzerland
#WCFDavos 2014 will have an incredible agenda with experiences being shared by owners & partners of PR consultancies, top-level executives, associations' representatives and creative minds coming from all the corners of the world. 

For instance, will be present at the Forum, the father of the first smiley emoticon, the living legend Scott Elliott Fahlman, computer science expert from Carngie Mellon University, who will give a special keynote speech.

For the first time, PR Consultancies, Corporate Communications Officers and Presidents of Professionals Associations will openly discuss their expectations and requirements related to their own and each of the other two groups’ market niche.

A global media research made by Public.ru with the assistance of RIA Novosti will be presented as well. The research provides data on the frequency of media-mentions of 160 countries. 

A sneak preview of the media research results
that will presented during the #WCFDavos 2014
The complete results will be displayed at the forum where each participant will be able to locate their country on the global communication map.



Paul Holmes, PR guru, CEO & Founder of The Holmes Report and the SABRE Awards - www.holmesreport.com - one of the first supporters of the #WCFDavos will be present in the Jubillee edition and will participate in panel discussions about the future of the Public Relations.



Isaac Mao, Co-Founder and Director of the Social Brain Foundation, one of the notable voices in the online freedom of speech in China. He will share valuable insights about the new doutrine that is fastly gaining recognition as an influent theory in the new communication world - the Sharism Philosophy.



Andre Manning, Global VP of Corportare Communications at Royal Philips Electronics will share his successful professional story in a strictly closed session with a stay-SM-silent warning.



In the end of the first day of the Forum, the C4F Davos Awards will celebrate the most innovative and outstanding communicators for their creative approach and up-front vision of communications - during the Annual Gala Dinner at Morosani Restaurant, Davos Platz, where the Annual Excellence Awards takes place presented in six categories. C4F Davos Awards: www.forumdavos.com/awards.

C4F Davos Awards - celebrating the outstanding minds
within the global communications' industry
Speakers' lineup of WCFDavos 2014 includes communications' experts from top organisations, such as: Philips, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Ogylvy, Weber Shandwick, Siemens AG, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), CERN, International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), Public Relations Institute of Australia, Mexican Communication & Marketing Industry Confederation, Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa and many more.


#WCFDavos Social Media Profiles 




#WCFDavos is not only one of the best places to learn the most advanced and contemporain strategies & practices in the world of public relations but also a place to meet good friends that is becoming a tradition to be reunited once per year in the astonishing landscapes of the Swiss Alps.

Good friends reunion in the stunning Swiss Alps

I am proudly part of the #WCFDavos staff as PR/Media Relations Manager & Regional Representative for Brazil. I will also be moderating the Pharma Panel supported by Gedeon Ritcher Plc. - www.richter.hu/EN - on the 12th March 2014, second day of the event - please check the programme for more information about it - http://www.forumdavos.com/people/135/Flavio+Oliveira.



#WCFDavos will be celebrating its Jubillee 5th Edition and promises to be a memorable event. It will take place on Davos Congress Centre, the world renowed spot where the World Economic Forum takes place annually only a few weeks before the WCF. We are looking forward to welcoming the global communications' elite and share knowledge that will certainly boost the development of the industry worldwide.



If you cannot join us this year but is interested in following the amazing discussions that will take place in one week time, you may watch the #WCFDavos from anywhere in the world with a reasonable good internet connection through the live streaming. Keep an eye on #WCFDavos social media channels and on mine's listed below.



My Social Media Profiles



For detailed information on the forum’s agenda, please visit www.forumdavos.com/programme.

#WCFDavos 2014 partners: www.forumdavos.com/partners/2014

For details on registration: http://www.forumdavos.com/registration

You may also contact me through my social media profiles for any information or query about the #WCFDavos. It will be my pleasure to help you! 

~and keep on smiling :-)