The two-day intensive workshop, which comprised five training sessions facilitated by mid-level PR women from Africa and Europe, global branding expert and the marketing lead of international software company Meltwater, brought together over 40 high-skilled female professionals from Indonesia, Namibia, Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda, England, the United States and Nigeria. Exclusively designed for senior PR professionals with over 15 years of experience, the Reverse Mentorship Workshop provided a unique opportunity for the industry mavens to learn from their middle-level, yet high-ranking counterparts. These faculty presented their professional insights on actual tendencies in brand building, trend identification, team management and the undebatable role of tech solutions in business communications.
Inaugurating the workshop on the Day 1, Global PR Consultant and the Founder of Nigerian Women in Public Relations, Tolulope Olorundero said “To effectively manage an increasingly young communications team that constantly propose the use of apps and platforms being introduced daily, one way to ensure that senior professionals keep up is reverse mentorship. The world is changing daily and the public relations industry must rise up to the occasion and design upskilling programmes for veteran professionals who lead communications at the highest levels in organisations”. Speaking during her welcome address on Day 2 about the forthcoming projects of Nigerian Women in Public Relations, Tolulope revealed other ambitious plans of the organisation to execute a series of impactful initiatives including the C-Suite Acceleration Workshop, a national communication policy to be delivered in 2025, as well as proprietary research for Women in PR across Africa, to mention a few.
The Keynote Speaker, Eloïne Barry, Founder and the CEO of African Media Agency (AMA), gave the introductory statement: “In the continent that we work in, we cannot speak the language of the past for the youths. Who I have learnt from the most in the work we are doing is from the youth — and this is the future. More than 60% of the people on the continent are under 25, so if we want to build a service or innovate we cannot do it through the lens of a 50 year old. So, I was particularly excited when Nigerian Women in PR reached out to me to keynote this Workshop. The concept of reverse mentoring is the future.” The Event Faculty demonstrated extraordinary expertise while speaking on the event theme. Carol Kaemmerer, a global executive branding expert emphasised an urgent need for executives to prioritise personal brands and consider themselves more than their job designations. Philippa Dods, the Head of Marketing at Meltwater, Africa, showed the vital importance of embracing tech solutions in public relations as she demonstrated the Meltwater SaaS platform.
Enitan Kehinde, Lead Consultant at BHM in her 40-page presentation on identifying and leveraging trends provided practical examples of how her team has used influencer marketing to drive results for clients. “How many people read the traditional press releases again? We must explore various formats in communicating with the public: video, designs, etc. Content atomization is the future.” Jennifer Ogunleye, B2B Communications Lead for Google, UK and Ireland, shared insights on diversity and inclusion as foundational principles of managing complex communications teams as well as ethical responsibilities of brands when a market segment they represent is being oppressed. She further commended the initiatives of Nigerian Women in Public Relations as ones that are driving professional inclusion amongst female Nigerian PR practitioners across the world.
