By Siti Zulaikha Shawaludin
GOMBAK, 20 APRIL 2015: The first event ever called Mini ChaLK 1.0 was held in IIUM campus last week organised by the Institute of Public Relations Malaysia Student Association (IPRMSA)-IIUM Chapter in conjunction with Media and Communication Week 2015 from 14 to 17 April.
ChaLK, which derived from the concept of networking, sharing and building of knowledge (chat, listen and gain knowledge) has been widely promoted by the parent organisation, the Institute of Public Relations Malaysia (IPRM). Its main objective is for the practitioners to have the opportunity to meet and share experience and knowledge among themselves to update on latest situation about the profession and the industry, as well as an occasion for networking and to get together with the academics and university students in communication.
Along similar objective, the event conducted by the student chapter at IIUM was intended to invite professionals to the campus for an interactive session and build networking. It was also an opportunity for students to gain useful knowledge and tips about the industry from the public relations practitioners present.
Among the speakers who attended the mini ChaLK was the Managing Director of Russ Consulting, Rasila Hamzah, Vice President (Corporate Communication), Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB), Dato Nurul Hidayah Ahmad Zahid, and Shobana Kamalanathan of the National Kidney Foundation.
It was held at Seminar Room, HS building and attended by around 100 communication students., including those whose specialisation was public relations. The event took place from 2.30 p.m until 4.30 p.m.
Rasilah Hamzah spoke on the importance of networking and building networking skills. She quoted a saying, œNetworking is with a purpose and the most important tool in networking is smile. It also requires a lot of planning.
The event became lively when Dato Nurul Hidayah shared her views on personality grooming. She emphasised pleasant personality as one of the criteria before entering the industry.
In addition, Datuk Nurul Hidayah said, “One must act professionally, be friendly and knowledgeable.”
To her, personality is a process. “A person may develop his or her personality as we proceed in our life and gain experiences,” she said.
The National Kidney Foundations public relations executive, Shobana Kamalanathan spoke on the roles of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in raising public awareness and shared her views particularly on the effort by the Foundation to raise funds to help kidney patients.
Shobana further elaborated how public relations could be applied to undertake their task at persuasion and influencing for companies to participate in their projects as part of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) task. Companies and individuals would feel satisfied if they could contribute towards helping those in need of their support.
According to public relations lecturer, Aznan Mat Piah, the session was successful and students had gained much exposure to the experience and knowledge shared by the practitioners. This is something extra which they didn’t get from reading books, besides learning in class.***
Photo Naim Fadil