Digital Tirana: EDDE Western Balkans Road Show training changes location

20. 3. 2019 | European Digital Diplomacy Exchange, PR

The European Digital Diplomacy Exchange Western Balkans Road Show has moved to its third and final destination, wonderful Tirana, Albania. The activities of the two-day training will take place at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs between Wednesday March 20^th until the 21^st of March. We look forward to the opportunity of engaging with communicators, PR officers and other public servants through discussions on the topic of digital diplomacy.

The event was officially opened by project manager Ms Ingrid Omahna, who has been at the core of the EDDE project from the very beginning. Participants of the event were also addressed by Ms Lucija Straley, who is currently working as an Assistant Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tirana. Ms Straley underlined the digital environment that facilitates the debate of this generation. It is up to governments to engage and communicate with their citizens, with digital innovation as only one of the fast evolving tools that can represent a bridge for the fulfilment of the gap between institutions and the people they represent.

The environment in which communication takes place today is devised as a mosaic of multiple media outlets, among them traditional and digital, that have complemented the public discussion into a more democratic network than ever. The participants in today’s training, who are facing the challenges of their institutions representation, had expressed the challenges such an environment entails, and how they are working on fostering the highest level of engagement with their audience, the citizens they represent.

Mr Matt Jacobs, who gained his expertise through his work within the U.S. Department of State, also sees the challenges and opportunities todays public debate yields. Today’s environment should be another opportunity to engage and empower communities through dialogues, not monologues as in the past with traditional media and communication hierarchies. The citizen of today needs to be informed, included in the debate and facilitated towards engagement, to bolster a democratic and transparent discussion, that will in the end effect in more fruitful policies and embrace a more prosperous future for the whole community. State institutions can and should use digital innovation, to make good on their promise towards their citizens as public officers have been entrusted the privilege of representing their constituents, and ensure the interest and wellbeing of the lather. Communicating through social media and other platforms therefore presents an opportunity, to step up to the plate and engage their communities. It´s an opportunity state institutions cannot miss if they wish to not only provide leadership, but strive for a progressive environment in the interest of their communities.

Technological advances have contributed to new opportunities, but also threats. The fully democratized communication flows have also contributed to the rise of deception, disinformation and societal threats, that need to be addressed. Disinformation, as a form of deliberate transmission of false information and data is present in our everyday lifestyle, as U.S. Department of States analytic Darjan Vujica expressed. It is therefore essential that governments who are already aware of this threats, reach out to their audiences and provide them with information and effort, to secure a trustworthy communication flow among everyone.

The training will continue with many more discussions tomorrow, and build on the challenges all public services and their respectful institutions face, to find solutions that will pave the road to an engaging, transparent and democratic future.

Activities in Tirana follow a series of multiple events that focus on  European Digital Diplomacy Exchange. All of the trainings serve as a fruitful cooperation between The Centre for European Perspectives, the U.S. Department of state and U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana. It is the common goal of all the organising parties, to further expand the network and strengthen it, so that it may be best equipped for the digital challenges future has in store.

EDDE projects touches base at the second location: Podgorica

18. 3. 2019 | European Digital Diplomacy Exchange, PR

After a successful event in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Digital Diplomacy Exchange project team continues with an extensive and engaging program in Podgorica, Montenegro. The training will take place from March 18th through March 19th  and will include advanced level digital diplomats, beginners in the topic and all kinds of digital diplomacy enthusiast, that will make the discussion and sharing of best practices limitless.

On Monday the participants of the event were addressed by Mr Jeff Adler representing the U.S. Embassy in Podgorica at the capacity of Public Affairs Officer. The discussion engaged the participants on the topic of disinformation, with lectures by Mr Matt Jacobs and Mr Darjan Vujica, who both currently actively participate in the U.S. Department of state. Both trainers presented the topic of disinformation in a specific way, either from a communication perspective or with more focus on analytics. This enabled the participants to comprehend more closely and clearly, on how disinformation works and disseminated the environment, which enables disinformation to thrive and survive. The participants were engaged in the discussion and not only offered their own opinion and knowledge on the topic, but also valuable experience that addresses the threat of disinformation.

Matt Jacobs tackled two other important topics, namely the way to approach communication in a more structured manor, and how to improve listening to the needs of audiences. We often tend to think of a milestone of communication with the invention of gadgets like the printing press that drastically changed the world we live in. But communication dates much more into the past, and the concept used then are still applicable and useful today, as Mr Jacobs explained with concrete examples, methods and concepts. The discussion also touched upon how to approach communication properly, to reach the engagement and feedback of the audiences in the greatest extent possible, as it is an extensive way to secure transparency and direct democracy.

The program continued with workshops on Tuesday, ranging from morning to the late afternoon, approaching the topic of digital diplomacy in an even more practical and engaging way. Participants were engaged in the practical view of digital campaigns, from their initial planning to purely practical implementation. The discussions were held by Mr Matt Jacobs and Ms Carey Hogg, both experts coming from the U.S. Department of State, who challenged the participants to make their very own digital campaign on the spot. The two groups tackled the topic of public health policies, and devoted attention to the rise of awareness in the field of vital organ donorship. Digital diplomats that were present gave all their expertise, talents and ideas to the debate and produced content with great potential, that would not only raise awareness of a certain policy, but include citizens in their creation, contributing to better conditions in a community for every individual. Transparency, active participation and engagement are therefore only the beginning of multiple possibilities digital diplomacy can embrace.

The start of the EDDE Road Show with a training in Sarajevo March 14th-15th

14. 3. 2019 | European Digital Diplomacy Exchange, PR

Thursday marked the first day of the European Digital Diplomacy Exchange Road show program, with a training organised in Sarajevo. The activities took place in the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina from morning to midday. Participants joining the event came from different ministries and state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but surely had at least one thing in common: interest for the fast developing subject of digital diplomacy and enthusiasm to learn new skills through the sharing of best practices.

The event was opened with an introduction to the past work of the overall project. As mentioned by Ms Ingrid Omahna from the Centre for European Perspective, who has been closely involved with the project from the beginning, the aim of the European Digital Diplomacy Exchange is bringing different stakeholders, public affairs officers of state institutions, PR representatives of ministries and other decision makers to the same table, to work on the challenges and opportunities the digital world enables. The project has already included representatives from multiple countries and different institutions in past trainings, meanwhile the road show training will be composed of two day trainings for individual countries.

The sessions on Thursday were initially based on a historical overlook of the media space, it´s developments, opportunities/challenges and also a sneak peek to the future possibilities. Certainly technological developments, among which the rising popularity of social media platforms is only one piece of the puzzle, have brought a considerable change in the lives of people. The environment that enabled the public audiences to only be a listener in traditional media monologues in the past have grown into a dialogue, that enables active citizens. This positive change also brings a challenge for state institutions who need to actively deliver on their promise for active representation of their audiences, also through participation in social media platforms and other public sphere channels in order to contribute to a future that listens to audiences, and embraces a future closest to the interest of all the citizens.

The participants were also included in a workshop on rhetoric and polished their communication skills. Both the lectures were presented by Mr Matt Jacobs coming from the U.S. State Department, who has also worked on the project from the very beginning. Today´s programme was also spiced with the experience of Dr Jasmin Mujanović, from Elon University, who has gained the attention of the general public through his activism and participation on social media, and New media editor Mr Alexandar Brezar. Both speakers, who joined the discussion in a digital fashion, with an online conference call, presented their personal overview on the challenges, threats but also opportunities new digital trends have in store for the digital diplomacy of tomorrow.

The training on Friday marked the second and last day of the event in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The program of the day was composed of two discussions. The first was organized by Matt Jacobs on how to develop effective messaging campaigns. Effective communicating of anyone working in the digital realm is highly dependent on their skills and experience to understand how this fast evolving realm is developing. Some of the messages of the day were how to approach communication with a structured and conceptual way. The personnel working as PR officers or those, who are a digital ombudsman of their institution in another way should also strive to work on the long run and not only focus on the audiences engagement on particular messages that can be highly rewarding or disappointing. As Mr Jacobs stated, this is a constant balance between output (actual posts, number of engaging articles) and outcomes (the wished engagement of audiences and their feedback on a certain issue), that should be kept in balance. One thing is certain, many output does not necessarily correlate to massive outcome, but without output thinking of any outcome would be fruitless. Reaching the right balance therefore rests in the hands of each institution, to find a recipe that fits their needs and especially the needs of their audiences.

The second discussion tackled Digital disinformation, an elephant in the room of today’s reality and societies. As Mr Darjan Vujica said, on the base of his wide experience on this topic from his analytical work in the U.S. Department of State, disinformation is not new. It has been present in past timelines, only using different platforms. Today´s technically led world only enables much more opportunities for individuals who work with this type of false informing, making disinformation as easy as ever. The topic revolved on the experience of the speaker, sharing of good practices and the participation of the training participants that exposed the challenges they are experiencing. The participants reached out to the trainers during the overall training, touching upon topics from how to develop a more supportive environment for those working as digital diplomats within their institutions, to being very practical on how to build engagement and bring as much of their audiences to the table, to build transparency to the real extent of the name. The program that ended on this day left everyone, both trainers as participants, more informed about digital diplomacy and their work within this fascinating field, learning from one another to tackle the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow in a more constructive manner.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Western Balkan Road Show organised by the EDDE project in March 2019

13. 3. 2019 | European Digital Diplomacy Exchange, PR

The European Digital Diplomacy Exchange project is proud to present the Western Balkan Road Show activities unfolding this March. The series of interlinked events occurring in different countries and cities are a continuation of a prosperous cooperation built in the Enhancing Digital Diplomacy Activities project, that was implemented in the years 2017 and 2018. The lather sought to bring together PR representatives, members of the private sector, members of academia and many other experts working in the field of digital diplomacy with the aim of composing a functioning community, that could share experience, learn from their best practices or mistakes and most importantly build a better and more inclusive future for all of the communities combined.

The project is organised as a joint cooperation between the U.S. Department of state, the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana and the Centre for European Perspective. The activities are only the beginning of a series of events that will take place in the year 2019, building on past experience and motivation to contribute to the rapidly changing field of digital diplomacy.