During the two-day international scientific conference, a total of 50 scientific and professional papers from public relations, media, marketing, political science and related sciences disciplines were presented.

The second day of the Forum was opened by presentations moderated by Tomislav Levak, Maja Banovac Barić and MSc Zdeslav Milas. Presentations in the session moderated by Tomislav Levak concerned the techniques of persuasion and manipulation demonstrated on the example of the House of Cards series, media literacy, children and the media, the relationship between man and science and legislature as a way of manipulating media activities. Presentations in the session moderated by Maja Banovac Barić were focused on political communication during the parliamentary elections in 2015, populism in world and domestic politics, refugee crisis and crisis communication, and the presentations in the session moderated by MSc Milas focused on PR-specific terminology, the reputation of the profession of public relations, the importance of PR agencies and their role in crisis management, and the future of press releases as one of PR’s techniques and tools.

The second part of the presentation was moderated by Assistant Professor Ivana Bilić and MSc Sanja Rocco, and the topics of presentations included crisis communication in the retail sector and tourism, corporate communication and crisis management, visual communication, lobbying, public sector communication and crisis communication in the food industry. A great deal of interest was also triggered by presentations within the last sessions, which were moderated by Lana Ciboci and Ivana Jeleč. Presented in the last two sessions were the results of interesting research on topics of contemporary media relations, crisis communication on social networks, the role of new media in the communication of higher education institutions and fashion as a medium of communication and media propaganda in the crisis.

The 2017 Communication Management Forum was held on 12 and 13 May 2017 under the title "Living in crisis mode: Time to reconsider definition, meaning and practice?" Over the course of the two-day international scientific conference, the results of scientific research were presented about 90 researchers and communication experts. The aim of this year's scientific gathering was to deepen the understanding of the definition and meaning of crisis as a framework for understanding crisis situations in practice. As the only higher education institution in Croatia to provide full-fledged public relations education and communication management, now organizing a traditional scientific gathering, Bernays seeks to contribute to the further development of information and communication science in Croatia and beyond.

The 2017 Communication Management Forum international conference opened with presentations of its keynote speakers and recognized scholars and experts from public relations and crisis communications, Full Professor Piet Verhoeven and Full Professor Ana Tkalac Verčič. The central event of the Forum was a roundtable discussion on "Reflection of a Crisis Situation on the Image of a Touristic Destination", focusing on the impact of crisis situations on one of the most important economic branches.

The value of the entire project was recognized by Atlantic Grupa, Lider, Zagreb County Tourist Board, Blitz-CineStar, Croatian National Tourist Board, Millenium promocija (MPR +), Magis Team and Catering Kvatrić, who supported this year's edition. An important contribution to the conference was also provided by Zrinka Anić, Gianluca Draguzet, Lucija Franić, Helena Fuker, Karla Horvat, Lucija Kačan, Kristina Kušić, Jasmina Popović, Antonia Primorac, Renata Radovčić and Tamara Zvonarek, to whom we would also like to express our thanks.

 

Photo: Saša Ćetković