The SMART Myanmar project staff participated in an extensive workshop on communications and visibility to help raise public awareness for the European Union-funded three-year initiative that will help small and medium enterprises in Myanmar's garments sector enter the EU market.
Public relations consultants of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP), one of the project partners, conducted the workshop, which ran from Feb. 10-14, 2014 at the SMART Myanmar Office in Yangon. Communication experts Sheila and Bertrand Pesayco also ran a half-day workshop in public relations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the staff of the CSR Office of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the country's largest not-for-profit business federation.
During the five-day workshop, the SMART Myanmar staff attended lectures and hands-on workshops on improving their communication skills and strategies. Topics ranged from an introduction to public relations, media relations, writing press releases and other PR tools, conducting press conferences and other media engagements, writing articles for specific audiences, writing web content, and special interest topics such as CSR, crisis PR management and photojournalism. A half-day tour of Best Garments International factory and actual interviews with the garments manufacturer were also held to demonstrate how the media works and covers a story. Another half-day tour was made at SkyNet, a privately owned TV network in Myanmar. Workshop participants wrote a press release and business articles that feature the SMART Myanmar project, then engaged in discussions on how to best disseminate it to media and online.
“The SMART Myanmar Project is potentially rich in inspiring and informative stories. All we have to do is to help bring that story out so that more SMEs in the garments sector in Myanmar and consumers in the EU market get to know the benefits of the project,” said Sheila Samonte-Pesayco, one of the workshop trainors.
Work produced during the workshop will be used for the SMART Myanmar communication and visibility campaign materials and website.
