Depok-The 2024 PRAction national competition, which was opened last March, closed with a lively Grand Closing & Awarding on May 21, 2024 at the Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia (UI), Depok Campus, West Java. The event with the theme “CommuniAction: Bridging Culture, Building Partnership” consists of three competitions, namely Public Relations Campaign, News Anchor, and Poster Culture Campaign. Coming out as the first winner in the PR Campaign category was the Hidden Figures Team from Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
PRAction 2024 was attended by hundreds of university students and high school students from various regions in Indonesia. “We really appreciate the enthusiasm of participating students and high school/vocational school students who are willing to come from far away, such as Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, even Bali, to compete in PRAction,” said Director of Vocational Education Programs, Universitas Indonesia (UI), Padang Wicaksono, S.E. , Ph.D. in his remarks when opening PRAction 2024. The main speakers at PRAction were Special Staff for Public Communications of the Nusantara Capital Authority (IKN), Troy Pantouw, S.Psi., FPR, and Rizka Vardya, Vice Head of Corporate Communications PR Indonesia, and Malaikha Dayanara Kridaman, S.Sos., B.Commun (influencer, UI alumnus) on talkshow session.
PRAction was initiated by students in the second semester of the Public Relations (PR) study program, UI Vocational Education Program as a practical implementation of the Special Event Management and Protocol courses. The driving force behind this event was the second semester students of the Public Relations study program. This activity is a form of implementing a curriculum that focuses on practice, where students are given a real project in the form of organizing an event.
(Photo: The winners of the competition held by PRAction 2024)
“In carrying out lectures, UI Vocational focuses the curriculum on practice, so that graduates have special competencies and are ready to work. The practical activities carried out also have an impact on society, as this PRAction provides a platform for pupils and students to compete and show their talents,” said Padang.
Troy believes that this year’s theme, which includes elements of intercultural communication, is very relevant and in line with what is implemented by the government in carrying out IKN public communications. “We really pay attention to cultural aspects when carrying out public communications, especially with the people of East Kalimantan. We also hope that in the future we can work together with UI to be directly involved in sharing knowledge with the people of East Kalimantan,” he said.
Grace Aprilydia, representative from the Hidden Figures team, said she was very happy to take part in PRAction activities and have the opportunity to present in front of professional judges. “We are very happy that our proposals and work can be seen by the professional judges at PRAction. Apart from that, the talk show is also exciting and educational. Hopefully next year PRAction can be held again,” said Grace.
(Photo: Atmosphere of PRAction 2024 activities)
In PRAction, students are challenged to realize the holding of an event. Starting from preparing proposals, looking for resource persons who will participate in the event, bringing in participants, looking for sponsors, executing the event and creating an evaluation report. That way, by the time they graduate, they will have sufficient knowledge to carry out events as one of their public relations competencies.
This year, the judges involved in PRAction are Jojo S. Nugroho, M.Sos., CCM, CPR. (Managing Director Imogen) and Irwan Hermawan S.E., M.Mktg.Comm (CEO Marketing Communication Agency) as PR Campaign judges; Sari Soegondo, S.Sos., M.Si. (Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Public Relations Companies) and Muhammad Fianggoro, S.Si. (Co-Founder of CKIH Production) as a judge for the Cultural Campaign Poster competition. The judges for the News Anchor competition are lecturers at the UI Vocational Education Program, namely Dr. Dony Hermawan, M.Sc., MPM, M.Ikom. and Ayu Rahmawati, M.Si.
