The PRAction 2024 national competition, which was opened last March, was closed through a lively Grand Closing & Awarding on Tuesday (21/05/2024) at the Vocational Education Program, University of Indonesia (UI), Depok Campus, West Java. The event themed “CommuniAction: Bridging Culture, Building Partnership” consisted of three competitions, namely Public Relations Campaign, News Anchor, and Cultural Campaign Poster. The first winner in the PR Campaign category was Team Hidden Figures from Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
PRAction 2024 was attended by hundreds of students and high school students from various regions in Indonesia. “We really appreciate the enthusiasm of the participating students and high school students who came from far away, such as Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and even Bali, to compete in PRAction,” said Director of Vocational Education Program, University of Indonesia (UI), Padang Wicaksono, S.E., Ph.D. in his opening speech. The keynote speaker at PRAction was Special Staff for Public Communication of the Authority of the Archipelago Capital (IKN), Troy Pantouw, S.Psi., FPR, as well as Rizka Vardya, Vice Head of Corporate Communications PR Indonesia, and Malaikha Dayanara Kridaman, S.Sos., B.Commun (influencer, UI alumni) at the talk show session.
PRAction was initiated by the second semester students of Public Relations Study Program, UI Vocational Education Program as an implementation of the Special Event Management and Protocol course. The motor of this event is the second semester students of Public Relations Study Program. This activity is a form of curriculum implementation that focuses on practice, where students are given a real project in the form of organizing an event.
“In running lectures, UI Vocational emphasizes 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 in this PRAction provides a forum for students and students to compete and show their talents,” Padang said.
Troy believes that this year’s theme, which includes elements of intercultural communication, is very relevant and in line with what the government applies in carrying out IKN’s public communication. “We really pay attention to cultural aspects when carrying out public communication, especially with the people of East Kalimantan. We also hope that in the future we can work together with UI to directly share knowledge with the people in East Kalimantan,” he said.
Grace Aprilydia, representative of the Hidden Figures team, said she was very happy to participate in the PRAction activity and have the opportunity to present in front of professional judges. “We are very happy that our proposal and work can be seen by professional judges at PRAction. In addition, the talk show was also exciting and educational. I hope PRAction can be held again next year,” Grace said.
In PRAction, students are challenged to realize the organization of an event. Starting from preparing the proposal, finding speakers who will fill the event, bringing in participants, finding sponsors, executing the event and making an evaluation report. That way, when they graduate, they already have enough provisions in carrying out events as one of the public relations competencies.
This year, the judges involved in PRAction were Jojo S. Nugroho, M.Sos., CCM, CPR. (Managing Director of Imogen) and Irwan Hermawan S.E., M.Mktg.Comm (CEO of Marketing Communication Agency) as PR Campaign judges; Sari Soegondo, S.Sos., M.Si. (Chairperson of the Indonesian Public Relations Association) and Muhammad Fianggoro, S.Si. (co-founder of CKIH Production) as judges of the Cultural Campaign Poster competition. The judges of the News Anchor competition were lecturers at the UI Vocational Education Program, namely Dr. Dony Hermawan, M.Si., MPM, M.Ikom. and Ayu Rahmawati, M.Si.
