Sharjah Media Centre Announces Two-Day Agenda for First Government Communication Forum

The first Government Communication Forum to be held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qassimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, will seek to benchmark the emirate’s government communication standards against global best practices and examine ways for infusing fresh methodologies into the communication mechanism among government departments in Sharjah.

The forum’s objective is in line with the overarching mandate of Sharjah Media Centre, the communications arm of the Sharjah government and the organisers of the two-day event.

Scheduled to be held from 26-27 February at Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, theGovernment Communication Forumwill witness dignitaries and experts in government communication as well as top-tier regional and international media headlining the workshops and panel discussions.Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, will deliver thekeynote speech during the opening session of the forum.

The first ‘Government Communication Forum’ will include eight sessions and two workshops. Globally accredited certificates will be given away to participants of the workshopscomprising mid-managerial executives from the Sharjah government departments.

Osama Samra, Director, Sharjah Media Centre, said: “The first edition of theforum willdeliberate upon a series of topics that focus on best practices for upgrading intra-departmental as well as external communication among government entities in Sharjah. Towards this purpose, the forum will highlight the latest tools, skills and applications topractitioners and professionals, besidesofferinggovernment institutions in Sharjahwith a guideline for improving its standards."

Day-1 of the Government Communication Forum will open with a sessionon ‘Management of Risks and Crisis in Government Media Communications’ that will include panelistsDr. Nabil Al Khatib, Executive News Director at Al Arabiya, and Brad Staples, President of APCO International, Chair of Global Development. In addition to outlining the strategies and mechanisms for risk analysis and crisis, the two industry thought-leaders will analyse best ways to build an integrated risk management system as a proactive approach to managing risks. The session will also tackle participants’ professional skills in crisis management and throw light on how to transform potential crises into real opportunities.

Dr Nabil Al-Sharif, Member of the Jordanian Senate, and Dr. RaficChlala, former Press Advisor to Presidential Office, Government of Lebanon, will lead the second session on ‘Spokespersons in Government Institutions – Fundamentals and Skills’. Substantiating their viewpoints with case studies and real-time experiences,the experts will underline the competencies required for communication practitioners and reiterate the importance of continuous training for the purpose ofstepping up the quality of government services.

Dr. Ahmad Al Dbeiban, Plenipotentiary Minister of the Secretariat General for the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, and Firas Al-Khatib, Media, PR and Information Officer, UNESCO, Beirut Office, will headline the third session on the opening day of the forum. Titled ‘Coordination Strategies of Communication Efforts among Government Institutions’, the distinguished speakerswill address decision makers in governmental departments and reviewinternational communication models that meet the gap forspeed, quantity and accuracy, as well as ensure seamless coordination between organizational units.

Samir Al-Baha’i, Policy and Government Affairs Manager of MENA at Google, will talk about the future of ‘Digital Media in the Government Sector’during the fourth session. The session comes at a time whenindustry experts are expecting digital content to be responsible for 17 per cent of the total media spending (around US$1.4 billion) in the UAE. Digital commercial ads are expected to increase by 3per cent to 5 per cent and reach 22 per cent of total commercials by early next year. Against such projections, the session will highlight the use of social media outlets and e-commerce practices as well as analyse emerging trends in the sector.

The first day of the forum will conclude with a workshop led by international trainer Arwell Owen. The segment will focus on ‘Skills of Dealing with Media for Senior Officials and Heads of Institutions’. It will primarily examine how public sector employees can develop their media-relationship skills. It will also look at best practices for building synergy with regional and global business leaders for the purpose of enhancing the government’s image and manage its reputation.

The second day of the Government Communication Forum will also host four sessions. The agendawill kick-off with a segment on ‘Case Study of the Governmental Awareness Campaigns in the US and UK’. Sue Wolstenholme, elected president of 2013 for CIPR, UK, and Gerard Francis, CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, will lead this session.

IlkerAyci, President of Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT), and His Excellency Abdul Qadir AlSheikh, Minister of Information, Malaysia, will take the podium in the second session. Both speakers will share Turkey and Malaysia’s experience in developing the government media sector.

Turki Al-Dakhil, founder and owner of Dubai-based Al Mesbar research and study centre, along with ZavenKouyoumdjian, Lebanese TV celebrity, talk show host and producer of acclaimedprogramme ‘SiréeWenfatahet’, will highlight the ‘Role of Broadcast Media in Supporting Government Institutions’ Vision of Social Development’ during the third session on day-two of the event.

‘The Role of Caricatures in Correcting Misconceptions and Raising Levels of Awareness’ will be discussed during the fourth session that will draw out the perspectives of OmayaJuha, Chairman of Juhatoon, Rasha Mahdi, Egypt’s first female cartoonist, and EmadHajjaj,well-known cartoonist in Jordan and the Middle East.

Nicolas Georges, Founder of Reputation Institute, will host aworkshop on ‘Organizing the Government’s Image and Managing its Reputation’. This session will conclude the forum’s agenda on the second day and bring the two-day event to a close.

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Sharjah Media Centre Launches Government Communication Forum to Benchmark Media Best Practices against Global Standards

Region progressing in workforce gender equality: forum

Vivian Nereim

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ABU DHABI // When Reem Amer began working in the oil industry, she thought her biggest challenges would come from the desert: the sun, the heat, the insects in her lunch.

Instead, she found being the only woman in an all-male environment was tougher than the elements.

People stared. Older technicians found it awkward to follow her instructions. Men did not take her seriously.

"I don't think I have a problem showing we are up to it," Ms Amer said of women in male-dominated industries. "It's more them accepting it."

That Ms Amer, 23, a field engineer, even held such a job is a sign of enormous progress in workforce gender equality in the UAE and Middle East, said people participating in the Women in Leadership Forum yesterday.

"All these sisters who would like to step in and run to the front, the door is open," said Nasif Kayed, the male general manager of the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, in Dubai.

But working women in the region continue to face hurdles; some subtle, others serious.

Ms Amer, an Egyptian born in the UAE, said she left fieldwork soon after starting. She is still an engineer.

The oilfield services company for which she works, Baker Hughes, supported her and has a special initiative to recruit, retain and develop female engineers. But there was little anyone could do to force the men in the field to accept her.

"It's just the limitations of the region that go beyond programmes," Ms Amer said.

During the two-day forum at the Emirates Palace hotel, participants described the difficulties Middle East women tackle as they advance in their careers.

Sometimes it was the classic dilemma of balancing work and family, they said.

"The traditional picture of women is being at home," said Manal Al Nasser, a Saudi Arabian mother of five who has worked in health care for years. "Acceptance is really taking time."

Societal pressure to marry can lead women to give work lower priority, panellists said.

"I am so disappointed when I go to a high school and I say, 'What are you looking for?' and they say, 'I am looking to get married'," Mr Kayed said. "Why do you have to have a male in your life to become somebody?"

Women who do enter the workforce find a shortage of networking opportunities, several people said.

One audience member asked the panellists for advice about a bonding activity her male colleagues had planned: an overnight boat trip. She cannot go because it would be improper but worries she will miss making connections.

"I am with you on that," said Ghaniyah Al Yafei, a strategic adviser at the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations. "There is an overnight trip coming next week and I can't go, it's that simple. It is because our culture does not allow it."

Confronted with a similar situation, Aida Al Busaidy asked her brother and her husband if one of them could come along, she said.

"Yes, there are cultural limitations, but 60 per cent of my job is how do you get creative," said Ms Al Busaidy, the manager of planning, internal and online communications for Masdar.

Finally, many women said they faced scepticism from male colleagues.

"They'll look at you and they think, 'Aw, she's so pretty and she's so young', and that's all they think," Ms Al Busaidy said.

Ms Amer described a drill in the field that required her to put on heavy equipment.

"I could tell that everyone was waiting for me to be a huge mess and not be able to put it on," she said. So she did it faster than everyone else.

To be taken seriously as a working woman, Ms Al Busaidy said, you must beat men at their own game.

"I've never regretted being born female," she said. "I have always felt more superior because I am a woman."

vnereim@thenational.ae

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Sharjah To Host The Second International Forum On Technology Transfer In The Arab Region

Dr. Abdalla Alnajjar, President of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) said that under the auspices of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member of the UAE and Ruler of Sharjah, and the Honorary President of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation, ASTF is organizing in cooperation with the Licensing Executives Society -Arab Countries (LES-AC), the second international annual Forum on patents licensing and technology transfer in the Arab region on November 28-29, 2011, in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates.

The theme for this year’s Forum will be the "Opportunities for Protecting and Marketing Inventions 2011". Among the main participants in the Forum are: the Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

Dr. Abdalla Alnajjar added that the Forum, at its second session this year, will seek through a group of experts, jurists, economists, industrialists, businessmen, academics, and representatives of venture capital and risk funds and companies, to link inventions to the needs for them in the Arab societies, particularly to the economic needs, and mainly in the area of industry and investment.

Dr. Abdalla Alnajjar, President of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation, stressed that the creative Arab minds are able to contribute to the production of knowledge and economic development, and are not limited to importing technology entirely from the West. He praised the role played by the LES-AC in partnership with the Foundation in this area. He stressed that the best way to invest and make use of the invention, is not to protect it through obtaining the patent only; yet the real success for any invention lies in its investment at the industrial level, Stating that the existing inventions should come out of the "Valley of Death"- from the drawers, laboratories and offices- to be invested in the "Valley of Technology," for they are now dead treasures that are not yet invested to serve Arab economies and societies.

Dr. Abdalla Alnajjar added that the invention is a commercial and investment opportunity, and very often its owner does not appreciate its value, and therefore the need emerges for specialists. He underlined the leading role of the Forum that aims to provide the right climate for marketing inventions, through an Arab observatory for their marketing, to be administered by the Foundation in cooperation with LES-AC, to evaluate the viable investment value of inventions’ patents, and to present them to bold venture capital funds and companies, while preserving the property rights to their holders.

On his part, Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, LES-AC Chairman, stressed the importance of partnership between the Society and the Arab Foundation, which comes in line with the professional responsibility of each of them, in connection with the dissemination of awareness among Arab industrialists, businessmen, technology developers, inventors and investors, regarding the protection and marketing of inventions, and strengthening of cooperation between the academic institutions and the economic and industrial sectors.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh added that the Forum’s agenda this year covers the various legal and strategic aspects for the protection and investment of inventions, in an attempt to transform the invention into a realistic product available in the market that provides a new technology, so as to offer a new product for the Arab consumer, or to develop an existing product in the market, in terms of quality and price.

He also stressed that this Forum represents a form of support for economic development in the Arab countries through strengthening the Arab experts’ capacities, providing a catalyst climate to link the industrial companies, industries and the universities in the Arab countries and to achieve economic growth.

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