Dubai Silicon Oasis’ ‘Dtec Forum’ Guides Startups on Best Communication Strategies

Monday 15 April 2019
Dubai - MENA Herald:

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), the regulatory body of Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), the integrated free zone technology park, hosted its first quarterly ‘Dtec Forum’ of 2019 to highlight the role of public relations (PR) and communication strategies in generating optimum exposure for startups.

Themed ‘From Startups to Business Giants: Driving your Business Strategy with Comms and PR’, the session guided emerging entrepreneurs and founders of startups on best strategies to connect with their stakeholders through the use of public relations tool and techniques.

The forum, powered by Entrepreneur Middle East, took place at the Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus (Dtec), the largest tech hub in the region wholly owned by DSOA, and was attended by entrepreneurs, and startup founders from the country.

Commenting on the importance of the forum in shedding light on best PR practices, Hans Christensen, Vice President at Dtec, said: “Organizations’ communication with the public is conducted through public relations, among other means, which requires certain specialist knowledge. Unlike marketing and advertising, PR is more focused on reputation management and stakeholder engagement. With entrepreneurs focusing their finances and efforts on the business, little is spent on comms and PR, although they understand the importance of PR and its ability to serve business objectives, as evidenced in the high audience turnout. Therefore, we found it’s a must to help entrepreneurs establish a foundational understanding of PR, and how best to benefit from public relations activities for gaining traction among their target audiences.”

Wissam Younane, CEO of BNC Publishing, the media house behind Entrepreneur Middle East, said: “When we launched Entrepreneur Middle East five years ago, we’ve become known as a true supporter of the region's startup community, and not just another journalistic venture solely reporting on the ecosystem. As such, besides our work with the publication, we have also been both creating and taking an active role in the region's most important entrepreneurial events, which are aimed at informing and inspiring Middle East entrepreneurs along all aspects of their business trajectories. The same holds true for our partnership with Dtec for this year’s Dtec Forum, powered by Entrepreneur Middle East, which we believe will serve as an invaluable knowledge-sharing and networking platform for entrepreneurs throughout the year.”

In the opening session, Sunil John, President – Middle East & Founder of ASDA’A BCW, offered an overview of the public relations sector in the MENA region. He also shared insights on how regional businesses should understand the critical role of PR to convey the right message to the right audience using appropriate media platforms.

Anna Roberts, Communication Strategist and Radio & TV presenter, led the second session and touched on how businesses can create customized storytelling on their own, how to carry out good media relations as well as whether investing in media training and public speaking training is the right move for individual entrepreneurs or not.

In a follow-up panel discussion, Sunil John, Anna Roberts and Zohare Haider, founder of Digital Street, highlighted case studies of regional businesses that have successfully communicated their brand’s key messages to the public. Concluding the discussion, panelists shared some dos and don’ts of PR and media relations in the MENA region, based on a quick analysis of recent PR failures.

The Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus, wholly owned by DSOA, is the largest tech hub and Coworking space in the MENA region and a base of operations for more than 800 startups from 72 countries. Hosting the quarterly Dtec Forum aims at addressing key issues of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as helping startup founders expand their knowledge in secondary areas for a more holistic approach to business.

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