On November 22nd, as one of the high-end academic forums to celebrate the 65th anniversary of SISU, the 2014 International Public Relations Summit Shanghai was rolled out in Shanghai. The theme of this forum is “Urban Image and Public Relations in the Age of Big Data”. SISU, Shanghai Public Relations Association and Wenhui Daily jointly sponsored the forum. Coming from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and different countries such as America, England and Russia, more than 300 participants attended the forum to explore the development of urban and the revolution of Public Relations industry in the age of big data, among whom were prestigious scholars, entrepreneurs and representatives of different sectors of society. Besides, Ren Hao, Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, Vice Mayor Zhou Bo and Stanislav L. Naumov, Chairman of Russian Public Relations Association attended the forum. Professor Zhou Hanmin, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Municipal Committee of CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) held the forum.
The keynotes speeches of participants in the forum were highly brilliant. Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, author of Big Data Era, analyzed “the Public Relations in Big Data Era” by focusing on illustrating how to enhance the data capacity of public. Mr. Sha Zukang, former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, dissected the “Public Diplomacy” in the age of big data. Peng Kai, the tenured professor of University of California Berkeley, shared his views on how to build up a “Happy Society”. The concept of “Smart City” came to speeches of the director of Shanghai Economy and Information Technology Commission Li Yaoxin and Hu Xiaoming, partner of Alibaba Group and Vice President. Wu Youfu, former Chancellor of SISU and vice president of Shanghai Public Relations Association, called for the “Organizational Public Relations in Big Data Era”. Professor Yu Yangming, Chair of Antai College of Economics and Management Council of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, focused his discussion on the topic of “Precise Public Relations based on the Big Data Analysis”. As for Jiang Yahong, the Distinguished Professor of Communication University of China, he cast his eyes on the challenges and opportunities in Public Relations industry.
The panel discussion sessions were hosted and mediated by significant figures such as Secretary-General of Shanghai Public Relations Association Academic Committee, Dean of SBM, Profess Fan Zheng, and Professor Huang Yihui of School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Coming from various universities, such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, East China Normal University, Donghua University, Nanjing Normal University, Nanchang University, Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics and Xinhua College of Sun Yet-sen University, more than 30 participants freely exchanged their views on academy in the forum. Shanghai urban image research group of SISU published the paper Great Event’s Effect on promoting Shanghai Urban Image Based on Public Research on International English Mainstream Media of 2014. Other papers in the forum covered topics on “the Crisis Communication and Crisis Management in the Age of Big Data”, “the Internet Public Relations in the Age of Big Data”, “Personal Branding in the Age of Big Data” and “the Urban Development and Urban Exploitation in the Age of Big Data”. Some teachers of SBM such as Han Yaojun, Yang Chen, Cao Shujing, Zhang Peng, presented academic papers in the forum and some teachers such as Hu Jie and Zhang Wenjie were the simultaneous interpreters and site translators.
Today, the age of big data has come to all around the world. About 90% global information data were produced in the past two years. It has been regarded as a new research field to explore how to make good use of plenty data resource and change them into capital in big cities. The experts in the forum all agreed that big data showed its most significant value in two aspects: promoting information consumption to accelerate economic transformation and upgrading, and focusing on social livelihood to push social management innovation. At present, the urban image building and managing are driven by data, putting force in precisely setting and measuring communication objectives of Public Relations.
This is the 7th International Academic Seminar jointly held by Shanghai Public Relations Association and SISU SBM, the unit of director and secretary-general of Shanghai Public Relations Association Academic Committee. International Public Relations Summit Shanghai is held every two years. The excellent papers in the forum will be selected into the Public Relations Journal, the only academic journal edited by SBM in the Public Relation field in China.
