Leading communications experts emphasise the importance of education in public relations
 

The first international academic conference on integrated communication, Communication Management Forum 2015, was opened with welcome speeches by the Edward Bernays College of Communication Management's President of the Board of Governors, Mario Petrović; Assistant Director of the Agency for Science and Higher Education, Sandra Bezjak; President of the Croatian Employers’ Association in Education, Mislav Balković; professor from the Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, also Bernays' Erasmus+ partner, Alexander Marbach; and Bernays Dean, Damir Jugo. The opening speeches were followed by presentations by the keynote speakers of Communication Management Forum 2015, and renowned experts in the fields of public relations, corporate communications and strategic management, Dejan Verčič, Betteke van Ruler and Darko Tipurić, who emphasised the importance of communication and of managing communication processes in their presentations.

The central event of the conference was the round table on the topic “Reconciling the traditional and contemporary: the new integrated communication”, in which, apart from professor Verčič and professor emerita van Ruler, participating were the President of the Croatian Public Relations Association, Aleksandra Kolarić; well-known public relations expert and professor at LUMSA University in Rome, Toni Muzi Falconi; and professor from the Marketing Department of the Faculty of Business and Economics in Zagreb, Ana Tkalac Verčič; while the discussion was moderated by Igor Vukasović, lecturer at the Edward Bernays College of Communication Management and Head of Public Relations in Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank. Roundtable participants discussed the importance of education in public relations, highlighting that the education of communication practitioners, ready to assume responsibility and aware of the importance of managing communications, is the only road for advancing the profession as a whole.

The second day of the conference, held at the Edward Bernays College of Communication Management, was an opportunity for over 50 researchers and communications experts from ten European countries to present their research and results. With presentations from the fields of public relations, marketing, communication management, media and related disciplines, officially brought to a close was the first international academic project that was organised, in cooperation with partners Coca-Cola HBC Croatia, Poslovni dnevnik, INA, Blitz-CineStar, Croatian Public Relations Association, Millenium promocija plus (MPR+), Magis tim and Catering Kvatrić, by the Edward Bernays College of Communication Management. On this occasion, the College also celebrated its second anniversary, and announced its second academic project – the international academic journal Communication Management Review. The journal will be published twice annually, and it will contain academic and professional papers in the English language from the fields of public relations, marketing, political science, communication science, management and related disciplines.

Currently underway is the review process of all papers presented at the conference, after which papers that receive a positive review will be published in the conference proceedings.