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The final PR event of the year - Baltic Winter 2023 was held in Moscow

For the second year in a row, SPN Communications Agency gathers PR specialists to summarize the results of the year. Baltic Winter is a continuation of the 23–year-old St. Petersburg Baltic Weekend communications Forum, but already in Moscow and with completely new speakers and topics that were not included in the business program of the September forum.

The focus of the conference was the confrontation between Stanislav Apetyan, CEO of New Industry Media and Andrey Tsyper, Executive Director of Media at Rambler&Co, which began during the Baltic Weekend plenary session in September. The referee of the match was Sergey Skripnikov, Director of Public Relations, RUSAL. Stanislav is sure that the Internet media today are newspapers 10 years ago. "Traditional media are dying before our eyes and this process is irreversible. In 20 years, huge technological revolutions have taken place and today the two main aggregates of obtaining information are search engines and social networks," Stanislav believes. Andrey Tsyper, beat the arguments with traffic statistics of traditional media: "traditional media are still considered more reliable among the population, Telegram channels need to release information quickly, not qualitatively, which traditional information sources concerned about the correctness of the data provided cannot afford."

A friendly duel between young specialists and employers was also hotly held. Employers have identified literacy, creativity and education as criteria for selecting candidates, in addition, they expect to see that a young specialist is ready to work hard and solve complex tasks. Students, on the other hand, want to see a mentor from the employer who can help at the initial stage - Elizaveta Otgon, strategic planning manager at SPN Communications, refers to her own research.

In addition, a PR battle was held with the support of the Association of Managers between boomers and bloggers: we are old and understand nothing. Svetlana Baranova, Director of Communications, Association of Managers, shared that she prefers traditional communication and had a negative experience working with bloggers. To which Stanislav Pisarev, blogger of the project "Pronastavnichestvo" gave advice on how to find an effective blogger: look for reviews about the blogger's activities and content analytics, and also called the search for recurring advertisers an important point.

One of the memorable performances was CEO's STAND UP from Sergey Ivanov, co-owner and Executive Director of EFKO Group. A couple of years ago, Sergey claimed that communicators were quite useless, but in 2023 he publicly stated that he had completely changed his mind about the importance of PR and spoke publicly on this topic for the first time. The speaker called the ability to write texts the main skill of a PR man, then made the disappointing conclusion that there are incredibly few specialists who can write "ringing" materials.

In his speech, Roman Karmanov, CEO of PFKI, told how business and the state can jointly support creative communities. He highlighted the main mistakes in making an application to the Cultural initiatives fund: an insufficiently detailed and informative story about the company and sending applications at the last moment.


Among other equally interesting topics: a session on a new reading of the ESG topic - it seems that many people were disappointed in these letters, but as the discussion showed, the issue is still ambiguous. Moderator of the session Marina Mishunkina, First Deputy General Director of AiF, asked an important question: is it profitable for business to develop social responsibility? To which Elena Mironenko, coach, director of the Foundation for the Development of Creative Industries, teacher of Shaninka, previously Minister of Culture of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, shared her opinion: "anthropocentric policy remains relevant, but still all industrial, large companies are still aimed at making a profit." However, Maria Smyslova, Head of the Internal Corporate Communications Practice, SIBUR, spoke in opposition with a statement: "We believe that first of all it is important to work with the social environment. It is important for us to develop the social factor first of all, because each of our employees is a kind of brand ambassador." The speakers' opinions were divided on the need for each company to implement the sustainable development agenda, because there is still a fine line between altruism and the opportunity for a PR move

Within the framework of the conference, SPN Communications agency held a presentation of the communication project "Like Everything" with the support of ANO IRI. The project aims to tell the residents of Russia about the opportunities for people with disabilities, their psychological and social support. "We are not doing the project "for" people with disabilities, but "together" with them," is the main message in the speech of Irina Drozdenko, director of the Multicenter for Social and Labor Integration. Alexey Goreslavsky, General Director, ANO IRI, also spoke with words of support. And the importance of social projects was also emphasized by the Governor of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Drozdenko.
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