 The next session, which is going to talk about the three T's, talent, training and technology. Now these three T's, what does it mean for the PR and COPCOM community? This is going to be taken over by Dr. Sameer Kapoor, director at Factors PR, who's here with us. A very warm welcome to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And my apologies for joining in a minute late. I was busy with a link issue, but not to be here. We're happy that you're here and looking forward to your session. I leave the screen over to you. Right. Thank you so much and greetings to everyone. It's really exciting to be here and talk, especially when the world of public relation is at the cusp of a huge transformation specific to the perspective of what is changing this entire thing is digital. And engaging young talent, the current ones, the ones that are going to be the future leader for the industry, of course, rewarding their work and the recognition is absolutely something which is very, very great. And I would like to congratulate Exchange for Media for successfully doing this. This is of course the second session, which they're doing really well. And I believe that companies and brands, they need to talk about things that people definitely care about. So brands with purpose are therefore emerging as a new frontier of this transformation. Now, currently what is happening is we are catering to evolve set of audience, evolve set of customers, evolve set of stakeholders who are not willing to digest something that was given during the last past, you know, past decade or past couple of decades away, the PR has evolved. They don't want to have the fluff, they want to just listen to the stories that hold values and something that matters to them. So the question that millennials and Gen Z's have started off with something called what's in it for me. And therefore the brands need to figure out what's in it for them rather than just talk about about their own message. So the focus will definitely be on sending the right message to the right people. And of course at the right time and right place. So medium becomes important. You want to engage the new generation which is Generation Alpha. You have to have a gaming as a solution in your overall campaign. Otherwise, you know, that Generation Alpha is not even speaking to you. I'm talking about the next generation after Gen Z that is going to enter into the into the marketplace. So there has been a mind shift in the consumers. The companies really have realized many of them have definitely done that. And they are actively engaging with us as agencies, as peer partners to connect with their stakeholders, with their audience in a genuine transparent and more likely in a human manner. You are seeing that human humane part of this entire thing coming up with various CXOs not only outside India, but in India as well now trying to humanize this entire thing in their own connect with their customers, their audiences. They're following what is called the D2C right from the biggest chair in the country's office to the Indian captain. Everyone is now using their own platform to talk about it. And that is where PR has a very, very important and key role to play. Now this current edition is of course dedicated to talent, which is primarily about the future leaders of public relations. And I believe to lay a strong foundation of a promising future. There has to be a concrete step that needs to be put in in the current form. So you have to see that right now so that these leaders, of course, emerges someone who's ready to take on or people who are ready to take on this, this great profession of ours to the next level. And ever since this entire element of pandemic that has hit every aspect of business and every aspect of communication is under question, is getting disrupted. The entire element of work-life balance to the fact from working from home, which was more about survival. Now the entire aspect of thriving, the new format coming in, PR agencies experimenting with metaverse. And all this is now leading the young workforce to question whether it is only about financial security. Is it more about the purpose for what they are doing? So young minds today are of course seized with the idea. Now what is it that they want to do? And they want to add to their, to their lives. Now I think the PR people, PR team and of course the winners of 30 under 30 who are going to be the leaders for tomorrow. They are already leaders in their own rights. They need to bridge this gap by encouraging amongst the new guys who are coming in, the talent that is coming in by encouraging a sense of belonging in them, right? And also the fact, again, I'm thankful to exchange for media because they are celebrating the success of public relations and the hard work that people, you know, many of our resources put in, they are being rewarded by the awards that they do by this kind of celebration that they have, you know, initiated every year. And my kudos to the entire exchange for media group for managing this really well. Similarly, the entire aspect that you see, I was traveling, I was out of country recently and I saw this entire bright month that has been celebrated in the country I was. And that made me realize that not only that country, which is of course, we think in our mind perceptual wise is ahead of us. The entire thing is celebrated in India as well. The fact that we have one community that should not feel excluded and this entire month about celebration that has gone there is also a fact that the diversity that we are now bringing to the table. And it's not only something that it's a good thing to have, it's a must have for all the organizations. And companies will have to be aware and more respectful to the young minds as to what is it that they acknowledge as their social and the cultural backgrounds. Now, what can we do as agencies as a cop com fraternity is provide a safe and open environment to spark conversation and discuss the topics that are important. And hence flexibility because of this work life hybrid model work from home is becoming a guiding norm around the future of the workplace. And of course, the future is going to depend on how this is important. We've also seen purely from a talent perspective as well as that talent not only from the metros and tier one cities, but tier two and other non-central location are also now becoming part of the mainstream because of this entire aspect of digitization that has happened. So the culture of openness where ideas are appreciated, implemented, not challenged, not being thrown about is something which is important. The first T that we mentioned about is the talent part, which is talent retention, talent depreciation. And again, I want to congratulate exchange for media for initiating a dialogue on making sure that talent appreciation is being discussed in a big way. The second T that Cathy mentioned was about training and more and more people need to be trained and understand as to how this profession works. I'm very fortunate that at AdFactors, we have a huge amount of learning and development expenses that we have put across every year to make sure that all our employees are trained in the future courses so that the new age or the new digital channels that are emerging, which will showcase endless possibility, something which was restricted as far as when we are focused was only to the print media has now opened up because of this digital space, whether it is online space or social media space, there are multiple things that can be done. And the new age PR professional needs to be trained in all of that, they need to understand how data works. You don't need to be a data scientist, but definitely you need to understand how data works and how you can tell a story or craft a story around it so that you can get more and more mileage for your client on these platforms. Now finally coming to the fact that the brand and agency relations are something where companies need to understand the importance of public relation. The era of paid format or the advertising format of course is kind of undergoing a lot of changes because media is also getting fragmented, but one common thread which combines all of them is the content where public relation agencies have an advantage. They understand what will make a good story. They understand the nuance of storytelling better than advertisers. And therefore I think that's one of the reason why the talent is also looking at public relation as their natural choice. Now India of course is leading a global startup of ecosystem and media and even consumers are more interested in knowing how these businesses are faring and how much money they are making or whether it is sustainable to scale them up or not. So PR I believe has played a key role in the gap that currently exists in bridging the gap actually and in case there is any other gap between consumers, between investors, between policy makers and other stakeholders, public relation is best suited to make sure that we answer or understand these gaps and give our answers through a creative story. Now before wrapping up I would like to highlight challenges that leader of tomorrow are facing from a PR perspective because as I mentioned, pandemic has totally transformed the Indian media landscape and the ecosystem also is now changing. So earlier which was only hardcore media relationship is undergoing a lot of change and stakeholder relationship is taking place. Influencers, the entire creator's economy, influencer relationship, influencer management is becoming a core form of various PR agencies that they are using as a first mode of storytelling model. So we need to find a way to back up, to put back the trust and the warmth which are back in the relationship because no longer digital platforms that have their own limitations can work. So you have to find a hybrid model here as well and my request to the future leaders and the new talent is to look at both of this in their own right. Now figuring out which is the right medium, figuring out what works best is something that you need to get a sense in and of course make sure that how do you find that right balance becomes a very important aspect. Now as I said, we are catering to an audience which is always on, which is always engaged. They are more responsive. They want a conversation rather than a monologue or a sermonizing anything. So how do you make sure that the audience does not feel ignored? The audience feel that their thing is being talked about and therefore this two way, the new web that has emerged where it is not about just giving one monologue but having a dialogue, the best in all form of communication and having a good dialogue is public relation because you are able to adapt and change your strategy. It gives you that flexibility versus an advertisement where once you've thought of a message and then of course it can't be changed. So responding to the messages, responding to comments, responding to feedbacks, criticism both from a macro side as well as micro influencers is something that the brands are evolving with, understanding with and peer professionals have to overcome this inhibition that we are only doing this part and that's not in our KRA. That is something that is all the future talent needs to figure it out. So it's exciting time to be in peer. The fact that we are all present here discussing the emerging leaders of tomorrow is a reflection of the relevance and importance and I would like to conclude my opening interest by thanking Exchange for Media for making me a part of this and my best wishes to all the winners and hope they will definitely take industry to greater heights. Thank you. Over to you, Cathy. Thank you. Thank you so much Dr. Kapoor for sharing those insights keeping it crisp and yet impactful. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you.