economy revival. In this edition, we will be addressing the changing role of marketing and communication. Eminent leaders from the public relations and corporate communication industry will mark their present at the event where keynote sessions will be delivered by Mr. Jagdish Mitra, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Growth, Teck Mahindra, Mr. Maxim Bahir, CEO and Chairman of the board, M3 Communication Inc. Dr. Meena Nizari, Executive Board Member, PRN Communication Researcher, WCFA. Ms. Marwa Kapoor, Group Head of Marketing and Communication, AI, MSL. Mr. Ashwani Singla, Founding Managing Partner, Astrum. And Mr. Asim Sood, CEO, Impact Research and Measurement, Private Limited and Chairman, AMEC. Later in the evening, we will be celebrating, acknowledging and felicitating the contributions and achievement of various agencies, brands and individuals from communication industry at IPRCA 2022. So ladies and gentlemen, let's get started with our day with new learnings, excitements and knowledge sharing. Once again, extending a very warm heart and welcome to each and every one of you to the 13th edition of Exchange for Media, India PR Incorporate, PW, India Group, Teamwork Communications Archetype, PR Pandit and ATDB Communications, Lifestyle Partner, Acti Media PR and Digital Associate Partner, Brand Communications, Pochina PR, Analytics Partner, Concept BIU, Social Change Partner, On Purpose, Co-Partners, Gray Cell PR, Gray Matters, Mavericks, VSPIC, Samillations PR, ComVisor, Distribution Partner, Business Wire, India Measurement Partner, Impact Research and Measurement, Private Limited, Strategic Communication Partner, Critical Edge, Influencer, Marketing Partner, Chachi and News Partner, News X. Well on that note, our social media contest today is live in order to participate and win exciting hampers every hour. All you have to do is follow us on LinkedIn. As you can see, we have a QR code on your table. Simply take out your mobile phone, scan the QR code and follow us on LinkedIn. Also share your experience using the hashtag E4M IPRCCC. I repeat hashtag E4M IPRCCC. And post it across your social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and please do not forget to tag us. Also I've been told that there are extra points for posting pictures and videos. So let's get cracking. And now, ladies and gentlemen, to deliver the opening remarks and to officially welcome you all, it is time to invite the man of the hour. Please welcome Dr. Anurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief BW Business World and Exchange for Media. Thank you, sir. Good morning. It's my honor and privilege to be here. First of all, I'd like to acknowledge the presence of many people who have helped us get here. Of course, Karan has put it together for the last few years. So Karan, Sherbasti, Ruchika, the complete E4M team, thank you for putting it together. Mr. Ashwini Singhla is in the room. I don't know where he is at. I remember, I have said this story many years, many times that we started Exchange for Media 22 years back. You don't know we wanted to be a marketplace for the media industry. We're buying and selling of media time and space happened. I think in 2023 and 2024, we'll attempt it again. We believe the time is right now. We were ahead of time. And we started a newsletter in 2001 to kind of evangelize what we are doing. It became popular and we started breaking stories and we became what we are today. About 19 years back, one day I called Mr. Ashwini Singhla and I said, I want to do a PR and COPCOM tab on the site. I want to start a section on PR and COPCOM and then I want to start an award in the conference for the PR and communication domain. And really, Ashwini was very kind. He met us. I used to have hair then and we were very young. We were very small in our impact. He helped us put together. He was the chair of our first year's jury. You were very much there and really my gratitude to him as I'm growing older. I believe gratitude is the most important thing. Health is the most important thing. Relationships are the most important thing. Money, business, fame, all that. It's secondary. So really, Ashwini, my gratitude for starting this revolution and being among the top leaders in this country. Ashwini continued to reinvent himself in the business. Faisal, I forgot to take your name. That's the problem with taking names somewhere. But I see you so I remember. Faisal is a lot of my colleagues are there. Some have directly contributed. Some have indirectly contributed. Chetan is walking in again, a friend of mine for almost two decades. I had a good pleasure of meeting him last week at a get together briefly. So thank you, Ashwini. Shaileshji, I remember I called you 12, 15 years back. I can't be sure and said we want to do more regional content. At that time, I used to run E4M. I don't run, Naval runs E4M. I'm here because Karan's event is here and it's a community that is very important. So really, we've come a long way. I just want to say that contextualizing what is being discussed today. A lot of people in the editorial domain asked me, so what's happening to your business? What will happen to editorial businesses will chat GPT take away our lunch, so to say. And last week, I met a very senior professional from the communication domain and she asked me, what is the impact of technology on PR and communication businesses? And I said when I'm coming here today, I must address that. I see a lot of friends. I can take everyone's name. Chetan, thank you for being here. I made some new acquaintances today. Now, I must say that the year 2022 was one of the reckoning for business across the world from tackling the fallout of geopolitical conflicts to inflation and adopting emerging technologies. A lot has changed in the last 12 to 15 months. Most companies cautiously rolled out numerous marketing campaigns and pure play digital marketing emerged as the leading tool for market years. And really, if you looked at India, the digital spends grew by almost 50% and it's a large base now. It's not a small base. Whether you look at the pitch Madison advertising outlook, which we've done for last 18 years, or you look at the e4m densuages network digital outlook digital is growing leaps and bounds. It will like in next three years, it's likely to be between 35 to 40% of overall spends for marketing communication and marketing. So parallel to this growth in digital marketing was the growth of online journalistic landscape. I mean, many, many journalists who left mainstream started their own platforms either on YouTube and every week seasoned editorial leader launches something which is of some impact in the domain. Now, this has set tone for the PR narratives and for communication professionals. Market peers began focusing on a PR a lot more in 2021 and 22 because they also economize on their marketing budgets and PR became an even more important tool from an ROI standpoint for market care. The trend has continued. Also, the last six months have been tough in terms of some categories. Let me take education. It is coming back and it is given, but education dumbed down its own expense. Real estate is coming back again because of RERA and many other things over the last two, three years. Real estate industry saw seismic shift. But the positive thing that happened in the real estate sector was the fact that today the real estate demand is much more than it ever was before COVID and it is demand from users. So the real estate advertising real estate marketing spends are coming back. Third is the startups. In the last three years, four years, most of the communication budgets apart from mainstream large FMCG companies and large Indian corporate startups were bullish about the future. They understood digital. Some of them were digital only businesses. So clearly their focus on digital was big. But as they grew, they realized that if they want to build mainstream brands, they need to focus on communication PR in a holistic way. So clearly in the last three years, especially marketers have become focusing on PR a lot more than they ever did. And clearly there are many reasons, but the top six reasons are the credibility in the organic reach PR brings, the cost effectiveness as compared to non-organic spends, the ability to control your message, the ability to be able to multi-platform your message. Fifth is the ability to be able to create a two-way communication in some cases of communication, which may not be traditional PR, but initiatives where all these stakeholders engage. And sixth, very importantly, when the marketing budgets became lesser, PR was called in to keep the communication going with all the stakeholders. Also, one big shift that happened in 2022 and it continues in 2023 is a shift from quantity to quality. I think quality matters even more than it ever did. And really, let me now address the question of what will happen to the PR industry because of the rise of AI, chat, GPT, technology. I must say, even in journalism, when Buzzfeed let go 12% of its workforce, its stock price went up by 15, 18%. But eventually the copyright issues and the nature of AI, and AI is evolving too. It's not that AI static, they are trying to figure out everything, they haven't perfected. So it's growing, so it's a dynamic thing. But the fact is, most editorial platforms have realized that the content that chat GPT gives you is by definition from past. There's nothing new. There are copyright issues and the beauty of writing a story. So journalism is not under danger and technology is a collaborative tool. AI and chat GPT are collaborative tool. Similarly, in the PR and communication domain, the ability of human beings to interact with each other to strategize on what is needed for the brand and the business to be able to bring a qualitative dimension to the discussion and as the output is not going to go away. There is in PR, if I may divide in communication, there is regular PR, which can be done through digital journalism and disseminating press releases, then there is crisis management. And third, I would say strategic PR, which is about long term brand building the role of professionals in strategizing and in disseminating information is likely to undergo a change, but the core of it is not going to change. The role of PR is going to grow. In fact, I'm part of many communities, legal community, hospitality community, and there is always this question, when will the CXO from these domains have board positions? I think the time is coming where more and more corporate communication professionals will sit on the board of companies because if reputation of brand is not important, then what is more important than that? So really the Indian PR domain is growing. It is more vibrant than ever and I must say the next 10 years of India are going to be glorious and that is with or without the government. Of course, government can play a positive role. It is playing a positive role, but India's own trajectory is such because of large domestic consumption that we will continue to grow at a pace and brands and businesses will need communication in a very competitive landscape for the three things that businesses need, talent, capital and customers. So the role of PR professionals will only get nuanced, even more specialized and even more important. So I think we are doing the IPR CCA at a time when the role of the communication professional is much more important than it ever was. You will see more and more communication professionals in the boardroom and being involved in strategic launches, in acquisitions and more importantly, not just being there in a reactive mode, but working proactively with all stakeholders and the board to be able to achieve the strategic communication objectives. I want to end by saying that PR as an industry in the last two decades has come of age. I think the next decade will grow this industry to a level that we haven't imagined. There are large PR firms that are doing turnovers which are more than media companies. Their profits are more than media companies. So I just want to say that you're in the right industry, add more skills to yourselves. A lot of PR professionals can grow by adding the role of marketing to themselves, the role of media planning buying to themselves. Sometimes people who are in marketing CMOs, they come to me for advice and they ask me how do we, and I said to them, take a PNL role. And they have taken PNL roles and I know of three instances where my very close friends and mentees are younger than me, have become CEOs taking, I mean it was their destiny. But the idea of taking a, they were CMOs of they are taking a role which is PNL was possibly came from me and they did take the PNL roles in a small way initially and eventually we can the CEO. I think more and more PR professionals and communication professionals should have this ambition of being CEOs of companies. Just being this head of communication, head of PR, head of marketing is not good enough. So I think that's the ambition I'd like to seed. I believe in the power of conscious and subconscious thoughts. Whatever I've imagined, mostly I've got closer to that. So I tend to think right and big these days. So think big for yourselves, think big for your clients, think big for your industry. Look forward to seeing you at the award that will be a full house. There were 300 plus people at the awards today. So look forward to celebrating all of you and your industry and God bless you keep doing great work. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Bhattra. And with this ladies and gentlemen, we kickstart the conference with the first panel discussion of the day. The session will deliberate on the topic of new era of AI in PR. How it is challenging conventional PR methods and reshaping modern ones. I must request you to all to offer a very enthusiastic chair as I welcome our panelists. Joining us ladies and gentlemen is Mr. Sudeer Paul, executive vice president or a funder. Please welcome Ms. Bhavna Singh, vice president corporate communications, Bharat sirums and vaccines limited. Please give it up for Ms. Ravpreet Ganesh, chief integration officer, the Mavericks. One hand this way, the other one this way. It's super easy to clap this way. Super easy. Come on everyone. Let's welcome Mr. Pradeep Vatva, founder and principal critical edge. Please give it up for Mr. Shailesh Goyal, director simulations public affairs management services, private limited. And now completing the panel. Let's welcome the moderator for this particular panel. Please give it up for Ms. Rishika Jha from exchange for media. Allow me a moment before we begin. Thank you. Good afternoon to everybody present here. Good afternoon to all my panelists. So, to begin with the session, I'll start with the very basic question that is how does AI affect PR strategies and I would like a one minute remark from all of you. Mr. Paul. Morning. Delighted to be here. Yes, the judge EP and likes are helping the industry communication industry to bring in acceleration. They're bringing to accuracy. They're bringing to a lot of efficiency probably in the routine and mundane work we do and also the intelligent. But what is missing is the emotions and ethics, which I feel will not be able to know what you will be able to do. And that's where the major challenge will lie. So effect. Yes, it is affecting largely what is bringing in efficiency. It is bringing in, you know, the primary compilation of the, what we call as content generation and also into the data. And it's the media monitoring the, the populating the, what we call as the target media and universal. But yes, the human interface and human interaction one until it is able to read the human emotions. It won't, it won't be a major challenge for us. Mr. Wadba, your words. So I think all of the PR professionals are either using or at least reading about AI. So my sense is that the impact will be transform, transformative and imagine life before mobile phones. I think a majority of the people here have were born after the mobile phone came so they may not be able to imagine it. But imagine your life without or before mobile phones and now. So AI has this ability to change our life. And I'm not talking only about PR industry, obviously PR industry is going to change across the board. So today we are at a cusp. It is going to completely change. And as Shalichi was saying that it can help us reach to more audiences because obviously it helps generate a lot of content at a very fast pace and also currently cheap. It is cheap, but we don't know how the costs are going to evolve over a period of time, but it will help us reach out to more audiences. Get more personalization because personalization is something is extremely extremely important both from marketing and public relations perspective. The more you can personalize the more you can connect and you can you are able to receive a better response. So response could be anything you know response could be you want to like make them like something you want to make them purchase something you want to change their mindset. So all of that will be better if we have better personalization. Then PR industry hasn't gone through that, but a lot of industries have gone through automation. Automation of you know, the ability to product processes. I think AI will help us also automate a lot of the processes. And there are several things I think you had given me one minute if I'm above you can stop me and I'll pass on. You can complete a sentence.  All of those can be, you know, the positive impacts of AI. There is a, I think there is at least two, three minutes or five minutes. I can speak on the negative impacts also, but I think I'll give it to the next panelist and in the next round I'll talk about that as well. Thank you, Mr. Wadhwa, Ms. Ganesh. Good afternoon, everyone. I think first and foremost, couple of changes. It's here to stay. So we might as well become friends with it. I think there's a lot of fear and anxiety. No technology is going to replace any human being. I'm a firm believer of that. It's a technology developed by us. So fundamentally, what it will definitely do to any professional, not just PR professional. It is going to force us to upskill ourselves. We need to understand how to use this technology in a more collaborative fashion. It's here to make our lives, I believe easier, more efficient, take out the inefficiencies from a lot of our processes, be it research, be it simple fact finding conversations. What I love about chat GPT is that the void itself, it calls out, it says that please do not take these facts at base value. These are facts which have been, as Dr. Bhattara said, it's the past, it's not the present or the future. And as professionals, our job is to impact the present and look out at the future. And that's where we and the AI can work together. I believe that with AI, you're only going to become better at what we do. Definitely more credible, definitely more helpful in adding values to our partners. So I'm actually looking forward to what AI is going to bring next. From November to now, all we've seen is every new day there are new news, whether it is the biggest creators of AI is being called out to White House today as we talk probably to figure out what the legislation around the development is going to be, or how we generate the work using the current avatars. So yeah, I'm looking forward to what AI is going to bring to all our lives. Thank you, Ms. Minesh. Missing. Good morning. I think the disadvantage of sitting away from the moderators that I have nothing new to offer, other than the fact that I think this room more than anyone else. We are strong believers that I think PR can work with the three hours. And for me, the three hours are one is reputation. One is responsiveness and the other is relationships. And that's what, you know, we were taught when we started off in PR, more than more than two decades back, that you know relationships are important with your stakeholders. And we talk of AI and of course technology only challenges us to to be a better version of ourselves in our jobs as well. And I think that's what it's going to do. But AI after all is artificial intelligence and humans have what's called emotional intelligence also with us. And especially in an industry that I belong to, you know, it's highly emotional we are into health. And I guess there are only two industries where people are very emotional about their decisions one is health and the other is finance. So when it comes to health, while AI has positively impacted many areas, which includes is management, which includes understanding more about research, of course, will it replace communication skills which are basic, which is what all of us have. I don't think it'll replace but it'll definitely augment and make us do our things better. Thank you, Missing. Mr. Paul, you're in my. Yeah, good morning and thanks for having me over here. I just like to contextualize a little bit of this conversation. AI MLN LP all been around for very long. 2023 was touted as a year for AI because you know chat GPT brought content generation right into the hands of all of us. Right. Last I checked there were about 4500 AI tools that you could use, which was just not on content generation, but across productivity design email personal assistants you can go on. But to contextualize it a little more for you how AI is going to change with the way we operate.  I told one of my young, you know, executives in the firm said why you go look up as to what my talk point should be. My young executive spent maybe four to five hours, putting together a small piece of paper with some top points and proof points to substantiate the conversation and I looked at it and I said, I don't think this is something that I can take to this conversation today. Guess what I did. I went and asked AI. So I asked AI in less than three seconds I got my top points for disclosure. That's what I'm going to use today. And guess what further questions in terms of asking about ethical use about measurement in PR and communication substantiated with hard data. So for me what I think AI is going to do is really kind of help us become smarter. I've always maintained that knowledge ever since the search and smartphone advent has become a flat world. Everybody has access to it. I have always defined what makes good to great is our ability to connect those dots of large amounts of information and start making sense of it and apply it to the work that Guess what, here's now a natural program algorithm that's out there that's collecting those large amounts of vast amounts of information, connecting those dots and giving you even more pertinent insights. So if the knowledge economy has become a flat world, I just made it just that much more flat. And I'll open it up, you know, to you to take the conversation forward. Thank you, Mr Paul. So my next question would be for you only actually with the introduction of charge epity like we discussed right now in what ways do you think the PR professionals will, sorry, the operations will evolve for the PR professions. So yeah, when you just like I was alluding to earlier when you're researching a topic when you are. Okay, I'll try to put it a little better. When I came into this profession, I wasn't a qualified communicator. But I joined this profession, and I was dependent on people either above me to kind of show me or guide me in terms of how I should be, whether it's writing a press release or researching a particular topic or looking at a particular company understanding what it needs to what what it does and how it needs to be communicated. Certainly there were no templates or all of that that was kind of readily available. You know, a lot. We used to look to for people around, or perhaps somebody else who's done it before. Look at something on online see if you can make sense of that. Today, what is going to do for you is it's no longer a blank sheet of paper. It's going to give you thought starters. It's going to give you points that you probably would not have thought of. It's going to give you structure to large amounts of information again that you perhaps would not think of. So certainly for people like us who are knowledge economy workers. This is going to be a change. Again, it's about adapting to it's really early to say how this is going to evolve. But if you're smart, if you're intelligent about how you can derive the most and the best out of it. This is a long, long, you know, it's a long journey ahead of us. But an exciting journey also in terms of what it can do for an individual who's starting out in communication. Thank you, Mr Paul. Mr Goyal, I would like to know your views from a regional PR perspective that with the introduction of chat GPT what ways do you think the operations of PR professionals are going to evolve. So it is the next stage which I feel will evolve after some time because the working on the language versions of chat GPT is evolving probably. But what is important is that the customization it needs in terms of when it comes to the reaching the regional audiences is very difficult actually because the psyche of the audience, the psyche of the people we are trying to reach is differing especially in a country like India, you know, where they say that every 100 kilometers of the language change, the people, psyche change, people lifestyle change. So when we have to reach out to those reasons, I think the role of traditional will still come. Yes, it can throw you a lot of data can give you analysis can give you trains. But somebody has to read that and that's the human mind and customize it and make it relevant. That's where we thought our role will continue to be built. Thank you, Mr Goyal. So my next question would be for Mr. Adwa that in your opinion, how relevant are the traditional or conventional PR methods in today's digital world, how are they relevant still. See, we have to evolve with the changing times. So if you ask me that how relevant is today radio and television in the overall advertising. This thing similar question is this for PR. So the relevance comes from the fact that bear is my audience. And what are they reading what are they doing, what are they consuming and therefore am I actually reaching out to them in the in the language that they understand at the time that they need and with the messages that will resonate with them. So similarly, the basics of marketing haven't changed the basics of PR haven't changed. What is changing is that we are getting more as in a digital world we are getting a much more distributed time. So, you know, we want it is distributed. Second is that we are getting a lot more technology to help us aid us today. We can reach out to micro segments. We can reach out to we can God what is the intent of our target audience. We can, you know, see and reach to them with the right messages we can test those messages much faster. Let me give you example of traditional advertising. We would give an ad in the newspaper and then it was like, okay, now God is willing it is going to reach out to the right target audience. It will resonate or it will not. Today, when we do digital marketing campaigns in a few thousand bucks, we can find out whether, you know, our message is working or ad is working or not. What should we change the headline. So, and we can create different campaigns for different and several types of target audience. So we can slice and dice in numerous ways. Now, if coming to artificial intelligence, I think that will add up a new layer of giving us better insights. And therefore, it is incumbent upon us to be able to use it for reaching out with with better messages with better personalization. And that's where the key lies. Are we in a position have we elevated ourselves to be able to take advantage of what lies ahead. So it is not about beating AI, what it is about using AI for all. Thank you, Mr. Baba. Miss Singh, I would like to know your view from a communications point of view that how relevant are the traditional methods still in today's digital digital first world. So always believe that communications is all about a good story and what's a good story without any emotion without any feeling. So I'll just read out something to you all I found it interesting so I took a photograph of it. No points for guessing what the story is because you'll get to know of it. But I'll just read it out.  This was the output that was given when the input in chat GPT was explain the plot of Cinderella in a sentence where each word has to begin with the next letter in the alphabet from A to Z without repeating any letters. So I don't know whether this is the Cinderella we have heard of, but it's Cinderella nevertheless it's got the message of the whole story. But again, I mean, we are storytellers. So it depends and like how all the other panelists said it's, it's not one versus the other. It's how we use it. And everything has its own use. There's no doubt anybody can challenge digital social campaigns being effective. More engagement, more two way communication, rather than what he said, which was earlier one way.  So I think I these are my views on this. Thank you, missing. So, Miss Ganesh, my next question would be for you that since AI is making things very easy and convenient for people. What are some of the possible challenges that one can face when AI enhances further laziness. And if we become lazy that then then that that's the doomsday right so that's the fear we should really be articulated. As long as we don't have that because fundamentally, you know, as Bhavna said, we are all storytellers and nobody tells story rather than movies. So AI is going to help us to give what I believe is all of your IQs. Okay, so it'll give you your facts, your insights, your data all at one place super quick, all perhaps in a better format than the story we've just heard. But layering off it with our own intelligence our own understanding to create a story that is engaging that is relevant. That is unique. And as AI can faster AI develops and gives us better versions, better products, better tools. I think as long as we understand these are tools and it's incumbent upon us to deploy use them to continue to tell those stories, which is what we've done so far right. The combination of this EQ that you and I bring to the table and the IQ that AI will get to the table is what is going to create better stories, and we are here to tell stories, stories that can genuinely impact the consumer. So consumers not devoid of this site. And please appreciate that whatever story that AI throws that Cinderella story is not going to wow that small child who's possibly the consumer of that story. And that consumer is at the center of the reason why you and I heard this in this room. So if we are not going to be able to figure out what that consumer wants and that AI cannot tell me I can tell me how that consumer has behaved so far. So appreciating that input and packaging it and then of course a very relevant point that the deep made that where are we going to tell the story. Right, so all of that combined is what is going to help us to be better value creators for what we do. So, I should develop and I think should develop really fast. Who knows this free world of AI that exists or the so called free world some of the tools are free when they get monetized what avatar is it going to take. We'll see, but I think the relevance and upgradation and upskilling and our own understanding of this technology and keeping ahead of the curve is what's going to help all of us. Thank you, Mr. Nish. Mr. Paul, your view on the same. How what are the possible challenges that one can face when a enhances further. Challenges I'm not so I'm not going to take a view on saying that this is going to be really challenging for us in future. It's going to take on a role of its own it'll be interesting to see how it develops, but what it can do technology enables what it can do to enable people to do their jobs better to perform better to understand communication in a where I can do sentiment analysis topical modeling come out with predictive analytics performance matrixes and use AI tools within them to be smarter sharper stronger will just bring me that much closer to the customer or the mandate that we're serving. I also wanted to add another thing of you know content which is chat GPT but the AI tools out there creating visual design creating better photography for us creating I don't know all of us use Apple right. Apple's been using an AI tool. In your photos, you take a photograph. If you go immediately open up for graph you suddenly see the photo brighten up on its own. That's the software that Apple's been using in order to enhance its own photography and capability for every end user without the end user even knowing about it. But these are realities. I mean, it's already there.  Are we to be threatened by this? I don't think so. It's too big a animal that's been let out of the bottle that can be put back into the bottle. It's not going to happen. We need to embrace we need to adapt and you know every change that comes along there these questions that are thrown up in the air. But guess what somewhere down the line we figure it out we move on and we make sense of what was what that changes. We adapt to it we evolve with it and guess what we are here for the better so I really don't see many challenges coming about. It's about taking our own abilities and saying how do we embrace it to better serve what we do. Thank you so much for support. I just wanted to add a point here when severe was talking and like like how he said it's not so much a challenge. But I think you know. And I think Salish also mentioned that the need for ethics and the need for a framework, probably a guideline on where what needs to be used is something that in terms of privacy in terms of many other things, which is evolving. And that's something that we also need to take into cognizance when we start adopting this in our field of work. Thank you so much. I would like to say that chat or sorry AI is not a devil but it ain't no saint either. And why I say that is that you know all the issues about data privacy and you know accuracy and a lot more. The point is that governments have failed in industry after industry to come with regulations ahead of time. So be it a right healing service like over Ola or you know social media. Now we know that social media started with like a revolution and connecting people lost and long lost friends etc. Now it's become an kind of a pandemic or you know youth are really suffering and there is no debate. So governments and lawmakers are living like 20 years behind. Now with this AI coming up very very fast. Are they going to globally and in several you know different countries be able to come up with regulation which protects the users as far as data privacy as far as you know copyright IP issues are concerned. So those are the things I think we need to look at which is not for the practitioners like us but we can play a role in helping the governments you know take a more educated and you know improve their understanding to that. And second is we also have to be cognizant that we are not deliberately or because we do know we lack the knowledge are jeopardizing our in the interest of our clients. Are we actually inputting data and information of our clients into the software where it can get leaked or are we informing the clients ahead of time that we are using. That's why I think yeah. Thank you so much. Ms. Venesha concluding remark. Thank you so much. I think fundamentally just kind of taking off from where Pradeep left it is that remember the credibility part of it the organic part of it which is what has been out of fashion we get to the table. That role we will still continue to need we need to play more so in the context that Pradeep has just highlighted a couple of days back there was a video which got circulated Satya Nadeela nobody with AI you can't tell whether it is fake or it's real. Right now those are evils which exist with this as with any other technology right it's new. There's a lot of excitement around it I don't want to label it as fear, but I think fundamentally the strength of our storytelling is the credibility the facts that we all check before we responsibly put a story out the the organic life that the story, the ability that the story has to take their organic life. So as long as we mindfully use it as long as we have mindful of all the challenges that something like this could potentially bring to table. I feel this can only help us to do our jobs better. Thank you Mr. Nesh and thank you to all the panelists for joining since we're running out out of time. So let's get it. Thank you so much for your time. Ladies and gentlemen let's give a huge round of applause. So may I please request you all to kindly come up front for a group picture. And also to present a small token of appreciation on our behalf please welcome Ms. Shipra Biswas E for M team. I request the panelists to kindly stay back on the stage with us, as we have Ms. Biswas presenting a small token of appreciation on behalf of exchange for media. Thank you very much. What a fantastic start to a fantastic day ahead with this ladies and gentlemen we come to the second session which is the first keynote address for the day. Our keynote speaker will be shedding some light on the changing role of PR and marketing for brand. Ladies and gentlemen join me as I welcome Mr. Ashwani Singla founding managing partner as from repetition advisory. Can you hear me the audio clear. All right. You know when four of the five panelists who preceded me happened to be my colleagues in my in somewhere in my life tells you how old I am. But great thoughts for the everybody who are part of this panel. Thank you very much. And of course, my generous thanks to Dr. Bhattra for his very, very kind and generous remarks. How are you for the way he has honored me by saying what he did. So thank you very much. I thought there are enough experts through the course of the day to talk about the or pontificate on the benefits or evils of technology and how the world will change as technology will shape itself. And the chat that I wanted to have with you and this is a conversation and not some not some pearls of wisdom is around what's really changing in a world or is there any change at all. Right. It's great to talk about technology and the influence and the change that technology will bring to our lives. And when I juxtaposed that with a simple question to eight out of the 10 young associates either in the salting world, or in the in the corporate communication world as to what your day looks like. Then I start to really wonder, is there any change, or are we going to do more of the more of the same. So aptly, I've titled my conversation is about change is a question about how you want to look at life. And how do you want to embrace or not embrace that change to your advantage. Right. So that's that's really the the first context to the conversation and this is a conversation that we are going to have. What Dr. Butra said, gladdened my heart simply because he wished well for each one of us, who is in this room a young professional or or a seasoned communicator, because he said that one day or very soon or now. We have a seat on the boardroom table. And over the years. Now, what makes astrum unique or my journey in public relations unique is that over the two and a half decades close to two and a half decades that I have spent in this profession. I've talked about the use of science and the use of data and evidence and insight to drive decisions. What a surprise to me when you think about the founding fathers of a profession in the early 1900s happened to be all psychologists behavioral scientists or sociologists understanding behavior is fundamental to the pursuit of a professional forms ethical influence in whatever way you call it. So from a from a standpoint preference or reputation is undecided leave is a sustainable advantage because people will not choose to work for you and that's the percentages are all here. People will not choose to work for you if you have a reputation problem. And in the age of e commerce reviews and ratings decide decisions to purchase or not to purchase, which is obvious because peer reviews matter to us not claims made by products or service providers today increasingly. And if I was to ask Seema or anybody else who's tasked with the company's reputation, they will tell you reputation risk is their number one priority.  In a few seconds to a few minutes, it's little wonder that reputation risk protection or risk mitigation is going to be a very important consideration for either the CMO CEO or CCO, whatever C sweet title, you want to give them. If reputation today is going to become central and advocacy of reputation or protection of reputation is a critical task that we as professionals have. So what is it that's changing in our world or not changing in a world that we can play to our advantage. So let's go a question to, to wonder. And, and given the fact that I'm a big advocate for data and evidence and insights. I thought I'll use these 15 minutes with you to bring to attention because I have a wide audience here of people who are veterans in this industry who will probably say, Hey, this is the most obvious stuff. And we've got young professionals who are entering this profession who may want to know a little bit more. So let me just share some, some critical insight, it's outside a, a survey that was conducted by PRCI and, and my team worked with the deeply and her colleagues to really bring out some very important nuggets out of this sort of unstructured to structured to structured conversations that we had across with decision makers in the communication industry. So there are about 28, 28 heads of consulting companies, medium to large to about 28 chief communication officers head of corporate communicators. And then of course across a range of industries to be able to to synthesize a few nuggets that I want to present to you today or share with you and then we can have a conversation about it. And obviously we we also did a lot of second research around some of the publicly available data that is available to in the register of companies annual report filings etc to be able to submit it. What's the good news. The good news is that our industry has delivered a consistent double digit growth so congratulations to all of you. Because that's a great testament of the work that you have done to be able to drive the fact that the industry is consistently outperforming the economy. Good news. Now, the other, the other part of the, the news here, if you look at which is here, which is about 2100 cross or about about a hundred million odd here is something that we are touching now. So we have a substantive industry today, growing at a steady double digit growth. And what you don't have here is who's driving this growth and the mid firms, or the mid sides firms are driving this the fastest. Right. What's the other good news. People who are in the client side chief communication officers and others will tell you today that they have the attention of their CEO chairman founder, whatever role that you have, which means reputation. If it's the central most important task advancement or protection of reputation, then the fact that we're starting to see communication heads have a seat in the boardroom is a great testament for the importance. And these are people putting their money where their mouth is. So what Dr. Betra said about being in the boardroom is not a pipe dream, but a reality for people. And consulting firms will naturally follow with clients. If they're in the boardroom, I would assume that they will have their firms also in the boardroom. If not, that time will come also very, very soon. What's the, what's, what's the good news here. You're starting to see the share of spend in the overall budget also steadily increase so that sort of again reinforces the fact that if you're going to spend more in the pursuit of public relations, the pursuit of reputation, then obviously that's also the, the, the function that's also fueling growth. Right. So for an industry that's increased centrality of its impact on business, seeing good outcomes in terms of growth is all good news. Now they may be some, some, some challenges here in the consulting world about people fighting in the small pond and trying to distribute the fish and therefore creating an inverse proportional relationship to value and price, but that's something for the industry to worry about as not the subject of the conversations that we want to have today. The, the small quotations that you see at the bottom of my of the slides, ladies and gentlemen should just tell you the actual words and phrases which I have paraphrased out of the conversations that I'm representing before you. So that's the good news here. Right. Now, it's a change here at all. And, and what got us here. Will that get us to where we want to go. Let's look at that. Again, based on these conversations. One thing's clear that the share of spend around online reputation is going to grow. And that's your now next year, and you're three, that's over three years. If you want to look at this, this part of the spend which is ORM digital going from about 26% one fourth to about one half. So that's going to happen, which means what we do online or in the space tomorrow with the way digital was going to become important. Right. So that's obvious now whether AI takes us there. And, and I think I want to just qualify and what we said is right is being AI has been around for a very, very long period of time. There are things in the room here and we founded impact 20 plus years back and LP was a language that we were experimenting with at that point of time, which is the base of AI. What we are seeing today is generative AI, which is your ability to generate on the fly of things that we want to whether visual pictures or or content. So we're going to start to see regulation for the spoke about the fact that legislators are maybe a step behind two step behind his pen 20 years. I don't want to be as bold as him, but certainly is our legislation in lockstep with the way technology will all I don't think there's any government in the world, which will be able to keep lockstep with the disruption and the pace at which technology will wall. So clearly, the ability to create convergence between what the interest of the business is, and what the interest of the policy or legislators would be would be an important skill set. And that's a growing need in the industry to be able to find the convergence between policy and progress. That's the second piece. And then of course content employee engagement was gladdening my heart to be absolutely sure is the growing share on a very small base of industry starting to now invest in research analytics and data. There's a lot of senior executives talk about use of data insights analytics. Frankly, I think there's a lot of talk. There's small walk in islands, and I like to see whether this walk will become a lot more mainstream, because I can tell you the entire business of Astrum is found in the fact that insights and data is the key to growth. And I'm glad to see Suvi who spent many, many years with me is pursuing the same passion through RF thunder. So more power to use to read congratulations well done. So, therefore, if that's what's going to happen. And that's what's changing in our world, we see what's required from us. So, are we ready for the skill sets that are needed to deliver the goods crisis public affairs internal communication, and all that is I think going to be the skill set that you're going to need so are we ready for it. Dr butter also talked about the the cycles of the sectors some sectors are up sector down here at the top industry versus industry or the industries fueling our industry in terms of size so pharmaceutical healthcare education, all of them will continue it will continue to feel I think it somewhere 63% and startup 10% gets merged. Therefore, a large part of it will also be I think the unicorn to the startup ecosystem that's coming in. So that's really the, the, the, the question is, is that the dawn of the new era, or if you look at it. Are we going to do some same and some right so as digital increases traditional media will pivot and you will start to see the centrality of media but maybe towards pivoting into more digital online formats and what you see here as the number of human beings, that's eight out of 10 people are telling you that they will be spending less around, or using less around media relations but still want to be about 50% that's significant, and clearly, as, as India becomes more literate as penetration increases and free the career said, complementing Mr ambani in his post in, in his, in his op ed in the Washington post he, he termed the geo as the second revelation revolution fueling the growth of India. So you're really obviously going to start to see penetration in regional markets start to increase that sort of substantiates the trend, and of course fake versus fact. We'll start deep fakes, all of those. And clearly, are we ready to deal with the fakes as good as we should be. I'm not to show. Let's look at the, the, the next piece. Technology will certainly play a role. The question that I leave with you. Is it going to be technology versus talent or technology with talent. But one part out of automation, automation intelligence is going to certainly drive talent technology will drive talent, but at the same time, the talent has to play a very smart, very important strategic role in the pursuit of what we need to achieve. Last, in terms of the, the credentials, the proof of the pudding is always going to be in eating it. Right. So what's going to drive progress is people these ladies and gentlemen are the top four matrices of evaluation of talent. And from there, as you start to think impact and impact and results are going to be critical. You know, I always believe that fashion is temporary. Classics are timeless. Right. So quality, ladies and gentlemen will be timeless. Ask any client, ask anybody that will tell you, and I'll leave with you the four critical quality parameters that in my 25 years of consulting have been the standard differentiators to success. So thank you very much. My time's up. I appreciate your time for listening. And should you have any questions are remain available for you to have a conversation. I appreciate the time you have. Thank you. I must request you to kindly stay back here on the stage with us. I cannot let you leave without asking the audience to bring up a very enthusiastic chair for your very lively presentation. And to present a small token of appreciation on behalf of exchange for media group, please welcome Mr. Thank you. Good to see you again. Thank you. Thank you. Before I introduce our next panel, I would like to remind you all about our life social media contest. In order to participate, all you have to do is simply scan the QR code and follow us on LinkedIn. The QR code is available on your tables. Please do not forget to tag us and use the hashtag E for M I P R C C C and our three C's in there. And as I've been told, there are extra points for posting pictures and videos. Exactly. But this we move on to the next panel discussion and the topic at hand is Industry 4.0 and its effects on PR. Ladies and gentlemen, join me as I welcome our panelists. Please welcome Miss Abhilasha Gupta head global corporate communications and public affairs tech Mahindra. Please give it up for Mr. Bhanu Arora senior vice president corporate affairs and communications metro cash and carry India private limited. Mr Arora. Mr Arora. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a huge round of applause to Mr. Bhanu Arora. Please take the work. Thank you. Please welcome Miss Laveena Gujral C O O Kanda communications. Please give it up for Mr. Pranav Kumar managing director Allison and partners. Let's welcome Miss Sayantani M Roy chief strategy officer PR Pandit. In Hindi, they say that GST does not apply to Tali. Tali is tax free. And completing this eminent panel, please welcome the moderator, Miss Shrabasti Malik, exchange for media. Hello everybody. My panel needs no introduction today. As MC has already done, we have a stellar panelists, and the topic we are going to discuss today is Industry 4.0 and its effects on PR. The industry 4.0 refers to the current era of connectivity and advanced analytics, and that has been transforming industry and businesses for quite some time now. So my first question would be, how would you describe Industry 4.0 and how do you see it as, and I would start with Miss Roy.  We've seen that in PR. When we started about 22 years ago, we used to deliver press releases by hand. Now we are checking press releases on WhatsApp. WhatsApp is a tool and a technology. The entire digital and the technology and the previous panel also spoke a lot about it is there in our day-to-day lives as we go on working on our operations. What I would say is if we were to apply the principles of marketing, which is the basic Philip Kotler of product place promotion process to this, then the technology is all pervasive. There are products today, when we are researching data analytics, which helps us do our job better. Are we in the right place for digital transformation? Well, yes, PR is one of the professions which has a direct access to corner room. Very few other professions actually have that. Promotion, are we promoting it right? Well, maybe not. We are talking about technology and transformation in this close group of communicators. But when you go out to digital transformation and other symposiums, is there anything that is being discussed on PR there? Maybe not. We could certainly, certainly promote it better. So overall, my sense is it's there. It's there for us to embrace its taste. It impacts all aspects of how we do our job. But it is not technology versus people. It's how we make it better for ourselves. How do we deliver better for the companies who partner with us? Ms. Kuchral, from a corporate communications point of view, how do you see or would like to describe the industry 4.0? Well, just as a correction, I'm a PR agency person, not a comp person. But regardless, I do work with a fair number of technology companies. I think industrial revolution 4.0, whatever you want to call it, industry 4.0, essentially started with, like you said, digital transformation, but driven by new technologies like cloud computing, IOT, robotics, automation, all of these things. And so when we hear terms like AI, ML, and all these are nothing but these, you know, just tools of these kind of, you know, that are used for digital transformation, primarily for the core industries of manufacturing, etc. But now we are seeing its adoption across various sectors. And we see that with our clients, regardless of the industry that's functioning in, regardless of the size and scope of their business. So it's happening everywhere. Basically, the, so what is the need of this, the need for this came in, you know, for primarily for increasing efficiencies for upgrading talent usage for saving costs for more demand, etc. So we're seeing all of these things. And that is what has been primarily the change from the way businesses were conducted earlier to those that are being conducted now post this digital transformation era. How it is affecting PR is that now, you know, regardless of whichever sector a PR professional works in, whether it's lifestyle or it's FMCG or it is tech or education healthcare, you need as a PR professional to be able to understand and appreciate these technologies, and to be able to build them into your messaging for your clients, because every sector today is technology driven, whether you know you are promoting a coffee brand or a lipstick or, you know, you are buying an iPhone or whatever it is that you're talking about. That's I think the crux of the matter. Every PR professionally, professionals should be technologically well versed should have an understanding and should be able to weave that into a communication narrative. Thank you, Mr. Kumar. If you could tell us if the industry, the PR industry is ready for this revolution and in what ways is it ready. That's a great question. Do I know the answer? No, but maybe I can make some assumptions in that sense. So I think as my co-panelists rightly pointed out that industry 4.0 automation has already been around for a while. And I think in some sense, I think, you know, maybe about 10 years ago or so, we've really started to embrace, you know, social digital online, more and more. So I think knowingly or unknowingly, you know, we've been compelled to embrace all of these new platforms tools. And I think we're certainly well on that path to evolution because that's the demand of, you know, modern day PR and modern day corporate communications.  We're using tools like Brandwatch, for example, to really be able to use, you know, elements of industry 4.0 ML and AI to give us, you know, insights data that we're then sort of used to really create compelling campaign and ideas for the clients. But of course, you know, I think industry 4.0 or 4.0 as a concept has been around for a while. I think it only got a bit amplified with the induction of chat GPD 3, which was I think in the tail end of last year, that's when because of the generative AI capabilities that it cannot write and create text and imagery. I think it sort of compelled PR folks to sit up and take notice that actually we can use these tools, you know, more and more. Is it a threat? Is it enable the juries out there on that. But I think everything that I've read and seen about the fact that, you know, we have so much of technology at a disposal now. There's also talks of the fact that, you know, well, for tomorrow's job is do we need PR practitioners like us? Of course we do. I don't think we have to be defeatist about it. I think we have to be more bold and sort of embrace the fact that, you know, there is always the human element. You know, all of these tools are great at, you know, creating content. You know, the good with the grammar, for example, but they definitely need for the iterations, you know, with human intervention and for content and messaging that actually strikes a chord. Right. If you ask chat GPD to actually create a piece of content for you is going to be rather planned. Right. So I think we need to add a layer of, you know, that's where we come in. So I think it's definitely an enabler. Are we ready for it? Probably not because, you know, it's a very fast evolving space, which is happening at the speed of light. We are all sort of grappling with it. And as our clients and as our, you know, broad organizations also many industries outside of PR have actually banned, you know, chat GPD and AI banks, for example, are citing security and compliance concerns. So have they figured it out? No. Have we figured it out? No. Right. But we all have to sort of be very open about it and how we can effectively harness it, you know, to what advantage. So I think that's where we are at the moment. Thank you, Mr. Kumar. Mr. Arora, taking a cue from what Mr. Kumar said about chat GPD and how even if it, you know, delivers or creates a content for us, it's rather bland and it needs human intervention. So what do you think are the possibilities and the challenges that the industrial revolution and chat GPD in particular holds for the industry. I think picking up from what Pranav has just mentioned. So I'm just saying that for taking from what Pranav has been mentioned. So what is actually happening is we have to study the, sorry. So taking a cue from what Pranav has just mentioned, I'm saying that if you have to study the industrial revolutions, you know, there are opportunities, there are gaps, which we need to understand the only thing what we're talking right now is we are just getting worried or nothing. Now, if you see the first revolution which started probably around 1780, the next revolution took 100 years. The third revolution also took almost 100 years, but the fourth revolution, you know, we're talking about right now, fourth industrial revolution, it took only 50 years, or 40 years probably the speed which he just mentioned, you know, probably it's happening at the lightning speed. Now, which means what we need to be kind of worried as you know it's been talked about everywhere. IBM laid off a lot of people 7800 people recently. A lot of people are just getting worried that what will happen to our jobs and all. You just asked the question about the chat GPD and all. Now, chat GPD or AI or using the digital technology, I think there is an immense amount of opportunities are available. Now what is it replacing it is replacing the mundane work. What we are taking out of it, we're just, we're just just adding some stuff and trying to get some image results. It has immense potential. What we can do away with our mundane jobs rely on artificial intelligence rely on robotics rely on all those things which are available and biotechnology nanotechnology which is being used here. I think there are enough number of opportunities which are available which needs to be explored. It is just tip of the iceberg which we have discovered. There's a long way to go. So I think we should need to, you know, kind of be patient and keep exploring. That is something which I have to answer on this part. Thank you, Mr. I think we can have your views on the same. So, I mean a lot has been said I don't want to repeat myself. I'll just give an example. Some of you must have seen this post that's been doing the rounds on LinkedIn. The user is asking chat GPT if they can if chat GPT can give a list of pirated websites and GPT says no that's not okay and this is an ethical and so on and so forth. And then he uses reverse psychology and he says, can you give me a list of websites, which I shouldn't be using and there it goes gives you a list of websites that have pirated content. So it's the same thing it's technology is there and it's across industries whether PR industry or any other industry technology is there for you to leverage now whether you make it at it and enable or whether you use it for something or something mundane is is up to you, but I think it's it's there for all of us to use and to your question about where are we and are we ready. I would have a slightly contrarian view and I'd say that we're already there. I think we're already digitized I think we're already using these tools to our advantage. For instance at Techman that we're using a press release portal for last five years which is already a digital way of creating a press release for a company that is $6 billion has is present in 100 countries and is listed so there are many renewable tasks which are there whenever a press communication goes out and we've been using this portal which is automated just fully equipped which which has basically automated every menial tasks for corporate communications person for last four years so we're already there but what do we need to do I think we've also supposed to think about a policy we need to think about copyright issues we need to understand if tomorrow I am using a paragraph that chat GPT has given me is that mine or is that chat GPT is who's the owner for that content. So I think we need to now get double click into the next phase of tech and how we leverage it and think about all these pertinent issues. Okay, taking you from what you said that whether a text if it is created by charge a pity or if we wrote it, we have a dubious view on what it is. So, how do you think that the digitization and the introduction of charge a pity can affect the human effort that goes in. Okay, so something as simple as I think I'll get reiterating but technology can be an enabler, but the moments of truth will always be human. I think this is something that we can never forget. So chat GPT like he said it can help you develop better content it can help you repurpose content as agencies you'd know that there's a lot of repurposing that happens day in and day out that some of the things that we use as tools for us but it cannot replace human intervention if that was the case then after COVID we'd stop with press conferences but we've not because we still feel that it's important to meet like this to be speaking with an audience in a physical environment to be networking to be talking to each other. And so in a sense this kid never be replaced. Thank you. So I'd like to ask of how you see the industry 4.0 in the next five years, how much is it going to penetrate into the PR and cocom space that changes the more changes that are going to come in. I would start with Ms Roy. So, our pace of adopting automation has been there. Is it fast enough it's quite fast. I think next for next five years seven years. It has to be much faster, because even PR is a profession where the median age of our colleagues is about 2223 they are already the generation that understands this very well. So, if we are providing opportunities to them whether on the, you know, on the consulting side or on the other side, it has to be much, much faster. It provides us an opportunity to technologically upgrade ourselves. Look at products that are there in in the market with products that we can create on our own, see technology technology democratizes. So there is the disparity between a function of a marketing versus a PR versus an advertising. If some of the things are available at a click off a button, then those specializations are overlapping. There are four seed changes, and that has to be really really fast, where we adopt.  Mr. Kumar if you could have your view on the same. I mean, I think as I mentioned earlier that we've already adopted that, and we are already growing with that whole evolution. But I think the next step would be to see how the tools we use evolve right there already some tools out there like profit and there's one more to let that I forget the name of the using AI to create help you create better storytelling, how to pitch better, you know, when you create a pitch for a journalist for example if you're trying to get a story out. It sort of takes inputs from the external world out there takes those data sets and helps you be more targeted, right. So I think we will see a greater development and usage of those kinds of tools, which are using, you know, chat GP AI automation ml, which is sort of in the broad purview of industry 4.0. And I think that also poses a lot of challenges, you know, in terms of the ethics of it. You know, copyright issues have always been there for a long time and with AI and automation they've only increased over time right. So I think that's something we have to look at. But there are also lots of questions to be asked. So as an agency we've actually globally created a Allison AI team, which is looking at, you know, with the adoption and growth of generative AI, what are the implications for us as an agency, because the implications in terms of, you know, local rules, data compliances, best practices, local considerations right so we are we've created a sort of a steering committee that is gathering inputs from you know all regions around the world to come up with some sort of you know guidance tools and you know things like that for our colleagues, because obviously, there is a lot to grapple with, and you know we don't know all of those answers as yet. So I think there is certainly we're in the early stages of you know laying that foundation and sort of really pulling it all together. But yeah, I think the future is definitely right in terms of you know automation and AI being more of an enabler for us. And then there is always you know the consideration of the fact that you also need you know season PR practices to come in and you know, give clients you know true counsel, you know in terms of the issues around reputation of AI, you know how our clients using AI what are its implications and, and things like that. So I think there is just a lot to be learned and done over the next few years but I think it's all heading headed in the right direction. Thank you Mr. Kumar. Ms. Gujarat if you, if we can have your view on how you see the penetration and how the industry 4.0 is going to aid PR operations in the next few years. Sure. So to my understanding, I think industry 4.0, you know, generally, if we talk about it beyond PR was driven by, you know, the ultimate objective of giving a better product, better experience to your customers. And to reach that, they use, you know, industry 4.0 is using tools like analytics like data like predictors and all of that. We need to as a PR industry start reflecting and adopting similar techniques, similar, you know, strategies. So we have data because of the so many tools that we have because you know, there's a lot of automation that has come in our monitoring tools have become better our measurement tools are better. So the data is there. Point is how are we using that data to derive better analytics for our clients. How are we using that data to arrive at various different, you know, predictive situations and how are we creating our strategies in sync with that. That is when as a PR, you know, as PR partners to our clients who are already in the digital transformation phase will be able to sync up with them and live up to that their expectation. There could be a million tools today at GPT. Tomorrow it could be something else everyone's talking about NLP. There's already something called LLP which is coming out which means that you can take a tool of this kind and you can customize it to suit your particular requirements regardless of the industry that you are in there are companies and these source these tools these platforms are now based on open source which means that they are available to any company any sector and customizable. It can ride over your current platform that can sit with whatever you have there is, you know, there's, there's an open technology future. So sitting here today and then predicting what industry 4.0 means for us is like, you know, by the time you leave the event, a lot of changes would have happened. That's how technology is moving that's the speed of change today. So, yes, content, you know, and basically it is the content and the strategy which is going to drive things but it has to be driven through data through analytics and through predictive analytics is that's what I thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kutral. Mr. Arora, if we could have your vision on where you see industry headed in the next five years with penetration and. Okay, as far as I see industry 4.0, I feel, you know, probably this question needs to be modified. Five years is too long a time. We have seen last five years the changes the way it has happened is phenomenal. The way the integration happened among different industries across the globe is phenomenal.  So probably we need to gauge every year. That's one part, you know, probably as I mean, as just mentioned, and by the end of this, even there will be some new technologies which will be there. So what is required here that what the ultimate requirement is, we need to upgrade assets, you know, right. The only thing which we say, you know, probably, as I said, some time back, we are only worried because people say that we'll be jobless people say that you know, probably a lot of jobs would be cut. Now that's a very small part of it. We need to continuously upgrade because who's innovating all these things. It's a human people. Talent cannot be substituted. Right. If we have developed something really big, then we nearly really need to, you know, kind of in order to develop something bigger, we need to upgrade ourselves. So that is something which I would like to contribute here that, you know, we just see that probably every year, we are gauging this, you know, kind of the development. And then we are, you know, probably seeing that how can we make it more effective, the technology as well as ourselves also. So it is the effectiveness and effectivity, which matters the most in terms of gauging the technology and gauging our own people. Thank you, sir. Ms. Gupta, if you have your concluding remarks on the same. In terms of how industry 4.0 will affect a couple of buckets. So one is of course content. So in terms of predictive content, how can we automate repurposing as spoke about. So one is in terms of how the different tools, AI, ML, how can they help us generate better content, smarter content, more intelligent content and how can we as PR professionals and corporate communications professionals leverage that content. And take it forward. The other bucket is also in terms of media monitoring and right targeting. So for instance, in a crisis communication scenario, how do these CRM tools, how do these platforms help us with constant 365 24 hours monitoring. They help us with there is no restriction on language. There's no restriction on geography. There's no restriction on the platforms. We have one tool and we have real time alerts. So how it is making us more equipped as communications professionals. The other part is reaching the right target audience. A lot of what all of us do in this room. It ends up reaching the right stakeholder technology platforms like these can purely enable us to find and fine tune that strategy. We can figure out who is the right stakeholder, how to reach them and what are the best platforms and channels to reach them. So the potential is immense. I think it's up to us and how we leverage. Thank you so much. I would like to thank my panelists for this wonderful session. Yes, sir. So I will have a mic given to you. I must offer my sincere apology sir as the mic wasn't available earlier. Would you mind repeating the question one more time please. Yes, sir. Yeah, my name is essential are not from the Gemini. I'm from the industry. So I want to upgrade you to know industry at home while presenting any industry. They are talking about industry 5.0, not 4.4 is much behind. And Mr. Rodha has mentioned that when I'm trying to be more dated question that five year period is so long. According to Mr. Rodha, it should be one year. See, India is much behind as far as technology concerned as compared to the 12th country, America and Europe. We are 10 years behind America technology. Technology, technology, AI and other all too. No, I actually would not. So my first question is, we are talking about PR. My question for all the families, some family has to purchase a car. How many customers will say that if this particular company is using 4.0, then buy it. So when we talk about 4.0 or 5.0, essentially, in the, in the traditional sense, it is supposed to be applicable to manufacturing units. And the example of the car that you gave is right. Absolutely right. Right. So the maximum improvements happen in products that are driven by engineering or technology on a hardcore basis. Rest everything is the environment of 4.0 or the 5.0 is evolving and continuously evolving and six months later, it might be 6.0. That doesn't matter. Point is that the manufacturing processes need to be improved to create efficiency to create better products. And all of us that peripherally support such core sectors need to constantly be upgrading and adopting and, you know, learning new ways of aligning with the clients that we work for. Basically, with whichever regard, what I'm trying to say, I think is regardless of the phase of industry that we are in, whether it's four, five, six, doesn't matter. The basic tenets remain same, which is continuous learning, skills, upgradation, learning tech, becoming tech friendly and building our strategies and narratives in keeping with that. And I believe when we culminate the point of skill upgradation, we are by default adapting to the changes of the market. So to your point, technology also helps in hyper personalization. So for instance, a young person who's buying a car may not be looking at the look and feel and how does it feel when he drives it, but maybe looking at only the sound system. Now that is something that I can get an experience of in Metaverse. So industry 5.0 is also about helping each customer as they want. So it's basically, it's helping a range of people. It may not be applicable to all. Yes, of course. Maybe tomorrow I will still feel the need to get a test drive, to feel it physically, to talk to somebody face to face. But there would also be a segment, whether it's Gen Z, Gen X, that would be just fine to experience that in the Metaverse. So we're just trying to create experience for everybody and anybody. I think that's all we have time for. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank you. Could I please request the panelists to kindly come up front and join us for a group picture. And also please welcome Mr. Paisal Ali from exchange for media to present a small token of appreciation on our behalf. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Well, that was quite a panel discussion, almost turning into a fireside chat. Moving on, this brings us to our next keynote address for the day. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ms. Rachna Chaudhary, founder and director, Media Value Works. I have, I, am I audible? Hi. Perfect. Yeah. Hi everyone. I think this has been a fabulous first half and tough time for me to take 15 minutes of your time just before lunch. So promise what I'm going to be talking is going to keep you motivated and increase your appetite for lunch. So that's me, Rachna Chaudhary and 10 minutes we will take some very quick view. No big, just very simple tactical information that gives us the opportunity to go out and bag more business as simple as that. I'm trying to get our attention on marketing hacks required for the small and medium businesses. A minute here to draw your attention and focus on who and what are the small and medium businesses all about. Normally we have spent our time looking into the big brands and we go searching them, we go working on them, etc. But here is an opportunity where probably more than 80% of businesses globally are falling in the category of small and medium businesses. What we need to do is look at these SMBs, look at their growth tactics and identify them. And they are the ones who probably can be the biggest bet for all of us in the near future. The next few slides I shall take you will have three core perspectives understanding the SMB business ecosystem. SMB owner, who they are, what they think, how they operate and what their challenges are, which is where we come into play. And the third aspect would be how we understand the best marketing tactics to ensemble our propulsion and deliver to an SMB owner. I shall take this slide here, understanding the small and medium businesses, businesses which are, see, government of India, government of US, government of every country on their website, if you go, you can read up who is a small and medium businesses. These are driven by sector turnover. What is the turnover of the company? So maybe in India, we have a micro, a medium square and a little growing SMB categorized under less than 10 crores turnover, maybe 50 crores turnover, maybe 100 crores, maybe 300 crores, etc. So there are different definitions of small and medium entrepreneurs that one can identify and look into the government website to really get the grip about whom are you going to be targeting. Innovation is key for these small and medium businesses because they are driven by innovation. If they innovate, they bag new businesses. Hence, most small, medium businesses, guys are driven by innovation, identifying talent, they are very agile. We come to the next stage, resonating with the SMB owner. I think you can change this slide. They are the backbone of the country. They are the backbone of the economy. They understand the importance of marketing the most. While we all understand we have enough knowledge about PR, social media, compelling content, etc. These owners really get the grip about what we want to say, how we want to implement and what is the best strategy. So they resonate very well with us. I think we change weekend. What are the core characteristics of these small and medium businesses? Typically, they have limited resources because these are smaller companies. These are not big brands, but the aspiration is to become big. So they would have limited resources. There's flexibility and decision making. Normally the owner is the decision maker and our engagement always is best driven when you are in touch with the owner directly. Closer customer relationships, personalized service, hence the need of communications is even more than it was in the earlier days. Focus on local markets. Very easy to connect with them. Understand what their activities are. You are able to map the business very easily in couple of settings. Maybe three meetings and you can map the entire strategy and the roadmap for the small and medium business for annual one year. And then you do quarterly meetings and you can keep revising. We can change the slide. Here are some of the challenges that we understand. Limited marketing budgets, hence the small and medium businesses are an obvious bet for the PR corporate influencer marketing social media kind of solutions because they are not the probably the ones who are going to be spending crores of rupees on advertising. So the advertising industry does not really look at small and medium businesses. That opens a huge opportunity for the PR corporate communications, social media, influencer marketing, you know, all of us in the business. Very, they are having lack of brand, but today social media, etc.  We compete with larger business. They compete with larger businesses. We know how to drive narratives that can help this particular small and medium business to fight the competition. That's our skill again, keeping up with the technological advancement because the small and medium business is competing. So typically I'll explain here is a manufacturer maybe Noida and he has some auto parts and probably he's probably he is doing some business in India. He may have some exports. He may want to grow his exports business. How does it open up our agenda because he wants to grow his exports business. He would need social media presence. He would need web development. He would need influencer marketing. He will need so many avenues to do webinars to do. So he needs a complete communications ecosystem. And we are, as I speak, why I'm speaking this also is because I have set up something called an MVW MSME Development Center. Under this development center, we are actually onboarding small and medium businesses across helping them with different kinds of mentoring. You know, if he needs mentoring on finance, we need mentoring on marketing, if he needs mentoring on production help, etc. There are different consultants who would come on board and help him via this. The learnings of all of this is what made me put these four or five slides together, which can bring in our attention. And I believe there is immense potential in this and all of us can move towards it. Move to the slides next. They understand importance. So here is understanding the mindset of a small business owner. I've already covered this part. They face challenges. They are very much driven by marketing. Come to the next slide. Here is what the owners are, you know, they're very passionate. This is the first point. Every business owner is very, very passionate because he would have started his business from scratch and he would have taken it up to 50 crores. Maybe he would take it to 75 crores. Sometimes you will find the business owner and his next generation, maybe his sons and daughters are playing a very vital role. Many of our businesses that I have been handling personally and our team are engaged with, you know, we've come across this business. It's been 67 years, madam. We have so many customers. Have you kept any data, sir? No, madam, it's over there. So it starts from that level and it really calls for all of us to upskill. Now that we've learned, we know we need to understand marketing. Okay, I'll take you to the next slide. I'll not mix this. So understanding the owner, these are the core topics, you know, we know they are very highly committed. So they would be very committed on the word that they give because he is the owner. He is not driven by some decision maker and some board of director meeting which will happen and our entire campaign is dependent on somebody and etc. But so your action is quick. Decision is across the table and innovation happens across the table. No need to make these fancy presentations and go there for meeting. They don't. Boss Dhani ki baat karna hai, baidke samjhaye kya hoa? Itne pese mein itne rupe mein kya deliverable hoa? Let's do that. So sometimes I think we need to do brass stack conversations keeping the customer in mind. Yes, when we want to go and make a presentation to an enterprise client. Yes, we want to go fancy and we want to do all that because all that is required. But at the same time, when you're talking to a client directly face to face, some brass stacks conversations really help. Seal the deal, move on, seal the deal, move on, you know, that kind of thing. So we are very strong work ethics, very, very resourceful. You say, sir, hammari limitation yeh hai iske baat aap iskaam ke liye kisi ko lehi hu. It's very nice and simple to be very transparent with the client and explain this is all that we do. This part that you need, you put somebody on the job. Maybe he can upgrade any of his existing staff members and little training and orientation the company. So it goes very, very mutual and it's very, very powerful for and fulfilling for all of us as professionals because you would actually not just look at business. You would actually empower that company by your marketing skills offered to him, you know. So I think come to the next slide. Yeah, then here is where we get on to our marketing skills and our marketing skills would, you know, the ABCs of marketing we all know we know that define the target audience conduct market research, utilize social media and tailor your marketing efforts. This part we have heard enough, we know most of these part and this will only help us enhance our own skills by identifying understanding is the company into services business is the company to manufacturing. Is he a distributor? Is he a channel partner? There could be various formats. But at any point in time, he would have enough opportunities for all of us to get on to the entire gamut of marketing, not just limited to PR, not just limited to social media. Hence, we refer it as the marketing hats for SMB businesses. Come to the next slide please. So here we leverage social media. I think this part, if anybody would like to ask or discuss, we can discuss this part, but I think developing consistent brand messages. These are our skills, okay, engaging with audiences, regular hashtag user generated content, innovation all across in marketing tactics. Come to the next one please. Compailing content. I think we have covered enough just before lunch. I think change the slide please. So yes, definitely influence of marketing and the influence of marketing in this context is out of experience. I would like to share influence of marketing always need not be a model or a glamour person or you know, somebody who's in the film and entertainment business is an influencer. No, influence of marketing for a manufacturing unit who could be an influencer for that. Let's identify from the profiles of people look at their LinkedIn profile, somebody who is a subject matter expert. SMEs also referred as subject matter expert. He is he or she is an individual who probably has spent 20 plus years in actually leveraging a particular skill set which directly endorses manufacturing unit or this man or this small and medium business. That person comes in at the great influencer for this unit. So it's matchmaking. We may not have these influences on any of these dashboards that we have available for because when you are searching for influences you will find many for fashion and many for, you know, cosmetic brands and many of these but when you want to look at B2B influencers there are very few people but to identify them I think LinkedIn is the best source. Go into the product category, go into the segment, go into the industry, go into the geography and you'll be able to match with the right profile and funnel down so you know who is the right influencer. And then connect with them over LinkedIn and a few messages can get the conversation going and the grip is when you get the grip of the business from that small and medium business that I am a specialist in exporting maybe hospitality led products. That's his core. So how do you scale him back. That kind of perspective is what I'm trying to draw here. So building relation with them leveraging, maybe they can endorse some of your social media posts etc. They may not cost you any kind of money but it's just innovation in your mind to connect with the right guys. I think I'm to the next slide please. So here is email marketing which is a tool. It's been there forever but lesser said it still works, even if there is social media and there is everything and there is paid marketing and there is everything. Sometimes clear email marketing really works. So the way email marketing is done and especially with MailChimp and etc. And we all have used, we probably are using HubSpot or all of us have different tools. This email marketing really helps after you have created like a newsletter and some of these influencers and the industry people start opting in. So when you have an opt-in, the email marketing works. When you don't have opt-ins, the email marketing doesn't get delivered. So I think this email marketing tactic would be, if you all are familiar with this, take on whenever. I think change the slide. Search engine optimization, SEO, digital marketing tactics. If anybody would want to know we can discuss this otherwise I'll move on with this. These are simple tools for marketing for a small and medium business. You can opt for very, very effective Facebook or Google Ads or they deliver results. They deliver results and it costs really, really very low if you get on to doing these things. Come next. Word of mouth is always been the biggest driver, continues to be and especially so in the case of small and medium businesses. They are very much driven by referrals. Meet them at events, conduct events for them, get local people to talk to each other and it really helps. Even in some of my recent conversations we were at Google meeting. Even Google is putting a lot of emphasis on small and medium businesses, a lot of big businesses. SAP has a lot of presence on small and medium businesses. So if you Google out and read SMB, the word small and medium businesses, it will catch your attention because there's so much emphasis everyone is putting into the size of the businesses are growing. Innovation is happening here. They know to write on technology. They are still learning and we evolve together with them. So that's the, I think that's the appetite for the lunch now. I think come just change the slide. I think we are done now. Mobile marketing techniques. Yes, it's a part of digital marketing and the hats on mobile marketing. We can change this. So the conclusion is these are different things. All done. I'm on time. If someone has any questions, I am open to answer. Sir, GEM. It's a big thing. Absolutely. So sir has pointed out, Government of India has created the government ePortal where procurement happens and lakhs and lakhs of businesses are now benefiting out of GEM portal. So government is creating a lot of ONTC. So there are government is putting a lot of emphasis on MSME community. So when you Google and read MSME of India, you will see opportunities opening up. There are enough dashboards to identify the right set of clients and they are all around us. They are just around us everywhere they are present. Just need to connect with them and your everything falls in place. You know, because the 24 hours day that we all are limited with and the time is shrinking.  So opt for clients who are closer and of course clients who are where they are only driven by web meetings, then it solves your problem. So mostly having that from me. Anything else I'd love to catch up with me sir. How do you justify cost to this clientele? Because this clientele will count every rupee. So even for a billing say of 1 lakh plus GST. How would you convince them that this is the price that they need to pay and the output which you get, how do you convince them that this is worth this much of money and you will get that benefit. Absolutely sir. So the 3-4 counseling sessions or the meetings that I referred in the beginning is the time when you are reading the mind of the owner and you are working on your presentation to actually gauge that this person will settle. You know, because he has to have a progressive mindset, number one. And when I'm referring to his traits, they are having progressive mindset. So if you are very sharp in identifying who is in the water, we will catch up with you. If you have any other simple points in your presentation, sir, we are doing this and that in your month. They are now open to, they are listening to and they are also realizing that they want to market themselves. Hence, I'm also part of many of these training programs where they are actually conducting MSME accelerator programs. And in many of these accelerator programs, more and more SME owners are coming and asking questions. We want to do marketing, but we haven't done marketing yet. So this is the segment which really will be the big opportunity for all of us. We can just go into our skills and create simple mailers and start approaching them. Thank you so very much. Thank you. I must request you to kindly stay back for another few seconds. Please welcome Miss Shrabasti Malik, exchange for media to present a small token of appreciation on our behalf for such a lively presentation. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a huge round of applause to Mr. And with this, I invite you all to kindly join us in the hall for a networking lunch. Please join us back in the hall in exactly 40 minutes. Please enjoy yourselves. Each magazine provides a ringside view of events unfolding in the marketing landscape, along with media and advertising. 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For over 120 years, during the journey of our nation's independence, we haven't just been making India. We have been passionately doing a bit towards making India. We have been working on the challenges of this Second World War, and we will continue to be strong and open to all of the world, from the U.S., the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. and the U.S. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that you all enjoyed the lunch. Requesting everyone to kindly settle down. I must remind you to kindly put your mobile phones on silent or vibrate-only mode. Thank you. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that you all had a good time at lunch. It is now time for the next panel discussion. And this eminent panel with shed light on the topic of public relations, why is it the perfect career choice? Please put your hands together for our panelists. Please welcome Dr. Pooja Arora, Independent Researcher and Educator. Please welcome Ms. Neha Singhvi, Director of Public Affairs, Communications, and CSR Games 24-7. Well, I do understand that this is an after lunch session, and everybody is feeling a little dizzy, but maybe we can bring up our very enthusiastic chair for our panelists. Thank you very much. Let's welcome Dr. Surbhidhaya, Professor IIMC. Please give it up for Dr. Sameer Kapoor, Director, AdFactors, PR. Let's welcome Ms. Aninda Dasinha, Head of Corporate Communications, LNT Metro Rail, Hyderabad Limited. And completing this panel, please welcome the moderator, Ms. Madhvi Chaudhary, PR Manager, Media Mike. Hello, everybody. I hope you all had a very nice lunch gathering. And so beginning with our third session, we have seen in the last few years, public relations has grown exponentially. More and more businesses are coming into the market, and they have just one common requirement, which is to engage customers better and have a good brand reach. And with this, the scope of PR has grown to a next level. And we have all gathered here today to understand what are the benefits and what are the fascinating facts that are attracting people towards this profession. So with that, I would like to pose my first question to Ms. Anandita. Over the years, PR has become a career choice for men. What is it about this profession that attracts individuals irrespective of age and job verticals? So good afternoon, everyone. So when she is age, that's particularly seeing us. When she was a moderator, she kept that term age. Well, I think it is one of the most dynamic, something new, you can do every day. Even someone is handling the media. But every day is a new day. Every press release that you need to disseminate, that you need to draft, it has a new angle to it. And also, I feel if you really, I mean, if you think little clinically, it is a blend of art and science. It's creativity and strategy. So I think that gives a kick for any individual to take up this profession. And yes, the challenge is there. It's 24-7 challenge. Anything, any crisis can come up, anything can happen. But for me, at least, I feel that this profession grooms an individual into a very 360-degree oriented, a complete individual. Because the attributes attached with this profession, it actually grooms up. You need to be diplomatic. You need to be quick. You need to be very prudent. You need to be very balanced. You need to be very strategic. So all these, I think, gives a boost to someone for taking up this profession. At least it happened with me. Thank you. Very well said. Dr. Kapoor. Yeah, for me, of course, I am not the right person to give advice because I have a very chockered career in this style of as an engineer, moved into finance and then into PR. Oh, I have been an engineer. Yeah, so I think most of us do engineering and then decide what to do later on in life. But I think since I've been an engineer and a finance guy, I understand one thing that I liked about as a youngster, I was sitting with the who's who of the industry. It gave me a kick at an early late 20s. I was sitting right with the Star Wars of the Indian Inc, giving them so-called yarn on media. That gives a great kick altogether. Then of course, you have one thing that man left out was element of media training, which of course adds a layer to it. The dynamism, specifically because I'm from an agency, no day is same. There's a word called buzzer, which keeps on happening as far as agency people are concerned. It's not only with the news guys, it's also with the agency guys. But I think what makes it, as she mentioned, it's dynamic, it's challenging, it keeps you on your toes. I have a lot of my colleagues who have a lateral entry into this space, and they've done phenomenally well. So it doesn't require, it's like management, it doesn't require any one, so for engineering, you have to learn something. Unlike this PR can be, it is multiple disciplines that can come in. It has behavioral sciences, it has sociology, it has psychology, it has multiple other elements that come into it. And you start out by saying that it is in demand, it's double digit growth. The reason is because everyone is realizing the reputation is very important, and that's what a PR guys can do. And it's, I think that what makes it one of the most, if not perfect, but one of the near perfect careers of choice for youngsters. Rightly said. Dr. Zuki. Thank you, Mathwee. So I would like to just say that I like PR as a career, or I would advise people to take up PR as a career because of two reasons. The first one is that, we all teach that PR is a strategic communication that builds relationships and builds trust and builds credibility. So I feel, I personally feel that, you cannot not communicate. Even if you're not communicating, you are communicating non-verbally. So it is a basic human need to communicate. So those who have passion for communication, they are very, very good strategic communications, communication specialists. So, even if you've done engineering or you come from a financial background, but if your heart and soul is into communication, you ultimately land up into a job, something like a public relations officer or a communication strategist. So this is one because it is close to your heart. So all the people who have good communication skills, who have good influencing skills or convincing skills, they ultimately land up into this profession. Secondly, I think that why PR is important as a career is because all of us are brimming with ideas. But, and all of us have heard the sentence that an idea can change your life, but all your ideas, whatever you think of, you cannot actually implement all the ideas. It could be because of any reason. It could be because of financial reason. I have a business idea, but I just can't implement it because I don't have money. So in that case, here a PR specialist is the one who has convinced others with his or her ideas.  And that is a great satisfaction because when you see that others are implementing the ideas that are given by you. So it instills a sort of satisfaction, a sort of happiness inside of you. So I think these two reasons are prime. And otherwise, as my colleagues have already said, that it's a very happening field. It's a very upcoming field. So it's a very paying job also. So you must choose PR as your career option. Thank you. Ms. Neha, your thoughts. What makes PR an attractive career option? In one word, everything. Been around for almost two decades. I think everything about PR that one has learned over the years makes it extremely rewarding and attractive. But just sort of take a step back and see what is PR. In very simple words, PR is a strategic communications process by which you can help how organizations are viewed by the public. In short, it's about building and protecting reputation. There is, you know, as Sameer, Anandita, both of them pointed out and this involves a lot of learning, right? There is never a dull day. It is laborious, yes. It is exacting, yes. But never, never boring. And in the process, you learn just so much. Imagine you're sitting here and learning about different businesses across the world. There are no geographic boundaries anymore. You're learning about different people. You're learning about sectors. You didn't even know existed when you were growing up or you know something that could happen. You're learning about new technologies that come in every day. And I think all of this also helps you evolve as a person. And so I say that, you know, whatever it comes with public relations, in fact, I would say communications in all is an extremely rewarding experience. And anyone, anyone, the reason why it is age agnostic, it is sector agnostic, because, you know, we live in the attention economy where information is really the currency. Anyone who has the aptitude for absorbing information around them and comprehending it to reach out to the audiences that they want to engage with, at the same time, be able to think on their feet and adapt to changes swiftly. Can come into PR. It is, it is pretty much a huge canvas. And everyone can shout out their own roots in this. Thank you, Neha. Dr. Pooja. So the benefit of speaking towards the end is that, you know, most of the points are over. And, but yeah, I think I'm going to answer in, you know, as many words as possible. So when we look at PR, PR has always been an evolving field. And all of us understand the way the world is changing around us. PR is also adapting to it. And if you look at the past, Ivy Lee was in the history. He started with PR, right? He came up with the first PR tool, a press release, which is still relevant today, right? So while press release continues to be relevant, there are more and more tools that get added, right? Like a social media is the current form of PR. And then in terms of futuristic, it's chat, GPD, Grammarly, Hemingway, all of those AI tools that I think all PR people are using these days. So it's evolving with time. So I think if someone who's interested in moving with, you know, how times are changing, how things are changing, they can definitely adapt themselves to a career in PR. Two kinds of people can actually enter PR. One, who are interested in it, genuinely, you know, the youngsters who have obviously the nickname communications and they can talk about things around them. They read, write, listen. Listening is a great skill that all of us forget. Obviously, problem solving, critical reasoning skills. I think the 21st century skills that all of us talk about are actually something that PR people take care of on a regular basis. They are like the guardians of a brand, right? They take care of, they're solving problems of a brand. They are coming up with solutions every single day. They're solving crisis. So if somebody is interested in, you know, counseling a brand or understanding what their organization is made of, then definitely PR is for them. I would also say there's a lot of learning and I think Neha has already covered the learning part so I won't really get into that. But yeah, those were my points. I'd like to keep your mic with you so because I'm starting the next question with you. Thank you. One good debate that the subject of the perfect career choice is subjective. How should be addressed? So I feel that the word perfect, if you say, when we say that this is perfect, that means you don't need any sort of change in that, right, but that doesn't apply to PR. PR is continuously evolving. It's changing with times like I said. So, and you know, when you say perfect career choice, it completely depends from person to person, right? Whatever is perfect for me might not be perfect for you or them, right? So if I like the thrill of working 24 seven of responding to journalists, maybe at the night, if they're doing a story, it might not be true for you. You might just like a nine to five kind of a job. So perfect, the definition of perfect, I think it's from person to person. It depends from person to person. I just want to add one more point here that you know, study and research has suggested that the Gen Z's are actually going to change 10 careers in their lifetime and different jobs. So I don't think so. If any student is studying PR today, we'll continue with PR. They might experiment and they might get into different fields, which are obviously aligned to PR strategic communications, but then they will adapt with the changing times. And that's the beauty of PR. Yeah, right. Ms. Singvi. Okay, perfect career choice, right? And I'll make it a little more broad based, you know, like Pooja just mentioned, it is an individual choice. Like your career that you go for is an individual choice. And before I go with, you know, what I think should be done, I'll quote from one of my favorite books, Alice in Wonderland. Alice says, you know, which road should I ought to take? The cat says, where do you want to be? Alice says, don't really know. And then the cat says, then it doesn't matter which one you take. The point being, knowing your goal is very important. You know, no successful career is a lucky accident. It isn't. It may seem like it, but it's a very thought through effort working towards your goal. I don't think you can define exactly what your trajectory is going to be, but you need to have the right goal, which every individual needs to decide based on their understanding of themselves and a realistic assessment, if I may say. Their strengths, their weaknesses, their unique abilities, and then look at what they are charting out for. Once you have a goal defined, you know, then working towards it is a joy.  That is a completely different high. What a beautiful example, Dr. Surabhi. Well, I would like to say that, you know, I just, after she was quoting Alice in the Wonderland, I just remembered the film Three Idiots, where, you know, Amir says in the end, that whatever you want to do, you do that and success will follow. So don't do anything for being successful.  One is this. And second is that when you follow your heart and you start doing something, there are, you know, after a year or two when you are in the industry, many avenues open up where you have better choices, because, you know, priorities in life also matter.  So I remember I started my career as a reporter with the Tribune, but after two years, I, you know, one day it was very, very, very hectic wherein I had to do three stories, officially three press notes, and I did two exclusive, you know, stories, hoops, and that was the day, the next day when 11 of my stories were there in the, in one paper. And that day, that day, I actually realized that I could, the maximum I could do is 11, and think if I have, if I start teaching and, you know, if you have 70 students in your batch, and if they do 10 each, then I will do 700 stories a day. So that is, you know, what made me change my own profession. I shifted from industry to academia, and today I have more than like two, 3,000 students who are doing wonders, who are doing many, many, many stories per day. So I feel that, you know, you know, it is because of that decision that I could make so many students do the stories that I wanted to do, but in a better way, in a more multiplicable way. So this is very, very subjective, and you know, you should actually follow your heart. Thank you, Dr. Zubi. Dr. Kapoor? Yeah, I think perfection, as Pooja mentioned, is subjective and should be also mentioned the same thing. But as I said, PR is very close to perfection. You can do multiple things here. Of course, you can start off with the, the bread and butter of publication, which is media relations. That is something that, while all of us say strategy, I think that's execution is something that gets us the money. Then of course you can go into what is called the investor relation. You can go into policy communication, ad book, you see the world is huge. We talk about reputation, right? And it's the man-generated reputation, the reputation repertoire till 30th of November, 2022 was Google, and probably 30th of November, 2023 will be ChargedGPT. So what is artificial intelligence-generated reputation that PR guys are going to learn and unlearn certain things? It's something that can only happen in this career, in this field. An engineer, you can either be a mechanical, electronic computer, there are divisions. But in PR, I think this is one choice, which has amalgamation of everything.  The other day, you're doing execution. Then of course you're strategizing for, it depends on which client and which sector you're working in. But I think this is one career that has element of everything coming together. And that's why it's near perfection that you can have.  You will not have a mix of all of this. This is the only career choice that you will give you multiple things at one place. Very rightly, sir. Anandita? Well, taking from Mr. Sameer, you know, bread and butter. Now point problem is that nowadays we really don't aspire for bread and butter. It's not even wine and cheese. It's even more nowadays. And I feel that at least the COVID, post-COVID, you know, taught us that first think about whether you can pay your installments. You have a career. Passion is very important, but please be practical and follow your passion unless you have a good backup, a plan B. If it fails, how to go about it next, you have a good bank balance from your dad, which you can support you or anyone. Think wisely before taking any career decision. And as I think Neha or Dr. Suri said, the trajectory, I think Neha said, the trajectory should be well carved out. We have to be strategic at this point of time. What we are looking at. For me, I believe in something that we have to know what I am looking from life and how I am looking at life. PR, definitely it will stay. It is bound to stay. As Bill Gates said, that if I'm down with my last dollar, I'll spend it on PR. So PR basically, it's a reputation. Everyone wants a reputation, you know, image building, the reputation custodian to be there for him or her or any gender. Gender agnostic. It will be there. But as I said that, you know, I'll come back to you all with due respect. Don't spoil an engineering and medical seat and then come to PR. Okay. Someone who really wants to do that, they have lost the seat. Don't do that. No, no, but PR. I was a private student. Okay. So PR is, I mean, everyone is welcome in PR. It is a very, very dynamic. But as someone already said, if we have to evolve, we cannot just keep ourselves to the only the verticals. I was telling one of my winners, I was telling Shubhendra, a very senior PR professional here, that nowadays the trust is when a company, any corporate looks out for a PR professional, they want a marketing tag. If attached, it's better. They get a preference. So I think we have to move a bit away from the track and see how we can upgrade ourselves continuously, more studies, more other sections under PR or public. It's a people's relation basically. So as communication, she already mentioned that if we think about communication, now right from the time we get up in the morning till the time we close our eyes in the night, we communicate first with ourselves, with God or family members, whoever communication is very, very integral. So we have to think in that line. But when we are making a career choice to the youngsters, I'm addressing here, other seniors, they are much more aware and educated and qualified in experience, I'm sure. But for youngsters, please carve out your trajectory, keep a plan B. Think whether this is really a passion where you can continue because the hardship behind it, the 24-7, I should not call it stress, but the requirement involved with it, especially if you're dealing with crisis communication. It is really very stressful at times. You don't have a personal space of yours.  It's a 24-7 field. So think wisely. If you think, no, I have to do this and this is what I am looking from life. Go ahead with it. You have noticed that many media people nowadays, they're coming to the other side of the table. They are joining corporate. Now, as someone said that, you said that how many stories you did. One lady from Times of India, she was telling me that we are given a target of 60 stories. How do we do it? It's so stressful for us. So maybe at times, you feel that, okay, so this is not what I can do it. Maybe I can do it now, but with age or God forbid, any health problem comes, I cannot continue it.  Take your, do your, take your pre-studies in that end, but always upgrade yourself and keep a plan B that if something does not work, you are good at something else also. Especially this, I'm talking thing, keeping COVID time in mind, because I've seen a lot of, you know, like examples, people, they, they didn't know what to do because that is all what they could do in life. And the family suffered, they suffered a lot of suicide, and I'm sorry, I don't want to sound negative.  Thank you so much. I'll keep you for one last question. What is the role of educational institutions to instill in its students and interest in this field? How can the process be made more engaging? Well, yes, lot of educational institute, in fact, who can speak better than Dr. Survi here, they, it's vertical, definitely all the verticals under corporate communication, communication needs to be explained in a proper way. It has to be included properly in the curriculum. I feel that a lot of mentoring and not only only, it should not be only bookish, but a lot of case studies, a lot of field visits, a lot of exchange programs, a lot of, you know, internship, forget the money aspect, a lot of internship in different corporates. It's very important. Another, I personally feel that any PR professional should keep in mind that the business, the know-how of any business, it is not only the other department's work, but all the department activities should be at the back of the hand, if not very technical, for a PR professional. At least the PR professional, I'm telling you because I saw, I see many people getting stuck there and I'm sure you would agree to it. Mr. Sameer from PR agency that they don't even know how to study a PNL sheet. Okay. So general management, operations, all these, at least how you should thoroughly study your annual quarterly, half yearly reports and understand what are the term finance accounting terminologies? What is PBT? What is EBITDA? How are businesses growing? So these should also be included in the curriculum and not only, you know, media relation and public relation and branding and social media. There are many vertical standard communication and PR, but I feel that if we add these also in the curriculum, Dr. Surya can comment better because you become a complete business professional, you know, that is very importan