To answer these challenges, SKK Migas-PetroChina International Jabung Ltd. held a PR virtual monthly meeting with the theme, “Public Relations in the New Era” on Tuesday, August 31, 2021. The event was attended by around 100 people from SKK Migas and oil and gas PSCs.

Nia Sarinastiti, a senior academic in the School of Communication, Unika Atma Jaya and head of Public Relations Association of Indonesia, Agung Laksamana spoke during the event. SKK Migas program and communication manager Susana Kurniasih and PetroChina VP HR & Relations Dencio Renato Boele gave opening speeches with Dencio also officially opening the meeting.

In his opening speech, Dencio mentioned the importance of redefining public relation practice as it changes overtime. “The world of public relations is defined by relationships between humans. Therefore, the ideal model always develops over time,” said Dencio. He hoped that this event could bring insights on public relation practice in the new era. “I hope this event could give us new, interesting knowledge on PR in the new era,” said Dencio.

During the sessions, the speakers talked about the importance in redefining PR practice in the increasingly digital world. Nia mentioned that there is a need to shift paradigms in creating a PR plan. “It is important to consider multiple aspects in designing a PR plan,” said Nia. “Corporate PR in the new era cannot be a one-way street. We need to consider a number of things such as our stakeholder acceptance, our competitor strategy, and how we want to measure outcome,” Nia said.

Taking a more pragmatic approach in redefining PR, Agung talked about the challenges that many businesses face in the increasingly digital world. He mentioned the importance of being adaptive due to the vast changing digital world. “Digitalisation is inevitable. People have shorter attention span and information is more saturated. Therefore, we need to adapt to the current needs and be prepared to change our strategy in order to stay in touch with our audience,” said Agung.