Depok-After last year’s success with its online implementation, the 2022 Vokasi Humas Festival (VokHumFest) is back in early June 2022. VokHumFest 2022 was held via the https://vokhumfest.ppvui.id/ website. In the online exhibition, there were sixteen MSMEs participating. They do not only come from the Greater Jakarta area, but also from other areas.
VokHumFest is an annual creative event organized by the Public Relations (PR) study program, Vocational Education Program of Universitas Indonesia (UI) in the context of community service to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). All public relations activities are carried out to assist MSMEs in promoting the products and services they offer to the general public. This year marks the 11th year that VokHumFest is being held. This program has also won the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) Presidential Award 2021.
“The VokHumFest event is an activity that is very beneficial for all related parties, especially students, as well as MSMEs partners involved. We can implement the courses received during lectures and are integrated with the branding process by MSMEs partners. Through these activities, they also benefit from the public relations we provide voluntarily as a form of community service,” said the Head of VokHumFest Committee 2022, Leonard Alfaro.
(Photo: Head of the VokHumFest Committee, Leonard Alfaro, together with one of the MSMEs)
This community service activity is carried out by implementing a branding strategy that has been studied from several courses by promoting the products or services offered by the MSMEs. The courses are 1) Communication Program Preparation Practice; 2) Cyber Public Relations Practices; 3) Public Relations Visual Production Practices; 4) Practice of Writing Multimedia Public Relations Manuscripts; 5) Practice of Public Relations & Multimedia Negotiation; and 6) Analysis of Conventional and Contemporary Research. Through the implementation of these courses, students are required to actively provide creative ideas, starting from the initial research process, preparing program proposals, implementation, strategies in maximizing the branding of an MSMEs, to the program evaluation process.
Different from previous years, this time VokHumFest added several programs that help MSMEs in developing their products, such as adding social media content to increase awareness in the community, branding in e-commerce (Shopee, Tokopedia, and others), introduction of MSMEs through publications in a number of mass media, making public relations visual materials (such as brochures, posters, video uploads), also facilities for taking product pictures for each MSMEs.
The Director of the UI Vocational Education Program, Padang Wicaksono, S.E, Ph.D, said, “Vocational education focuses on practices that are as beneficial as possible for industry and society. VokHumFest is here by integrating the three pillars of higher education at once.”
(Photo: Number of MSMEs that have benefited from the VokHumFest program)
Padang also said that the community service activities carried out on an annual basis certainly provide many benefits for the community, especially MSMEs who have started to promote their products digitally. “VokHumFest activities that have been running every year are expected to continue. Thus, the benefits provided to MSMEs in Indonesia can be increasingly felt, and the vision of ‘Free MSMEs’ can also be realized.”
In line with this statement, the UI Vocational Manager of Education, Student Affairs, and Alumni, who is also the initiator of VokHumFest, Pijar Suciati, S.Sos., M.Si., said, “Through the integration of the courses carried out, students can fulfill several learning achievements. in one project. In addition, lecturers can teach also be supervisors, as well as the data obtained from this activity can be published and provide new treasures for digital public relations science,” said Pijar.
