• Indonesia
• English

Sahabat Anak Public Relations Training, January 17-18, 2009

PERSEVERANCE is the key

Saturday, January 17, 2009 – The Sahabat Anak (SA) secretariat office was crowded with PR and Finance staff and volunteers from SA branches. It was the day for a two-day communication training facilitated by Maretha Sambe and Tania Hapsari from IndoPacific Edelman. Both were public relations consultants who would equip the participants with basic communication skills with media and donors.

Organizers were busy making preparations since eight in the morning to ensure that participants would be comfortable during the training. One day before the training, PKA (Children Activity Center – non formal schools for school drop outs) students cleaned the room and chairs to be used. During the preparation, morning snacks served.

On a long table, plastic glasses were marked with numbers for participants to use the whole day so they would not litter.

Participants paid Rp 15,000 participation fee to cover the costs of food provided, and each given a blank paper with a House Message drawn. We were wondering what this paper is going to be used for.

OPENING

9 a.m. – the session started with ice breaker game. Participants and friends gathered at the activity room, presented with a ball made of brown paper named IDEA. We were asked to pass the idea to everyone in the room. Everyone could only receive and pass the idea once. To whomever it was given, his name must be called, and those who received it should say thank you as acknowledgement. The objective of the game was to spread your idea to all your friends, as quick as possible.

The time was 22 second at the first try. Participants stood in circle and randomly threw the ball. After four tries, the time reduced down to 12 seconds. However, when the formation changed into a line, they managed to cut time until 6 seconds.

The essence of this game was: there are many ways of communications, but it was the public relations team’s job itself to determine which one would be efficient to spread the Sahabat Anak idea rapidly.

FIRST SESSION:

DEALING WITH THE MEDIA

In the early session important points were given to the participants on how to deal with the media. Among others, who are your target media, understanding media characters, maintaining good relationship with the media, preparing key message. Then a scenario was given for interview simulation.

The video of each simulation were replayed and reviewed. Facilitators gave inputs about things need to be improved. The main key takeaway of this simulation is that a spokesperson must be ready with his messages anytime, anywhere.

SECOND SESSION:

TO DEAL WITH DONORS

This session opened challenges faced when dealing with parties we want to approach to garner support for Sahabat Anak. Participants were taught on how to make preparation before a meeting, dealing with objections and how to collaborate with third parties.

Each simulation was recorded by video and participants can review their answers as inputs. Personally I felt that this training was beneficial for me not only as the public relations division, but for friends at the local branches who often meet the media and external third parties.

My learning takeaway was that we have to prepare key messages in presenting our ideas, so the discussion topic would not be diverted from what we were trying to say.

Thank you for Maretha and Tania from IndoPacific Edelman who gave time to teach us this important topic, and also we thank the organizers who have arranged the preparation and training. With this training, we hope we would be able to speak to external parties better, whether it is media, potential donors or other parties so we can convey SA’s vision, mission and spirituality better.

By: Erika Marthalina-Public Relations Team