PRSP Students' Conference goes virtual this November!

The first virtual PR Students' Conference happens this November 20 and public relations, marketing, advertising and communications students are gladly invited to participate. The event aims to help everyone to learn to decode the information we consuming and prepare them in the journey to PR for Good through an informative virtual adventure to the different stages of the content journey.

This year, it will be interactive, and nationwide edition of the Students’ PR Congress, the organization’s annual event for students to learn more about the public relations industry from leading practitioners in the field. With the theme “Decoding Content: The Journey to PR for Good”, this year’s Students’ PR Con aims to help participants navigate the new media landscape and tackle the three different stages of the content journey, which are:

• Capture and Consume - aims to address how we contextualize the content that we come across in everyday life to mindfully capture and consume information from different media platforms.
• Curate and Converse - discuss curating content from reliable sources and starting conscientious and fruitful conversations about topics that matter as a way to fight misinformation and become responsible communicators.
• Create and Care - collates all the learnings gained from the previous segments by talking about why creating our own PR for good can show that we care, not only to communicate our messages for self-serving purposes, but to push forward ideas, advocacies and causes that benefit society.

Top PR practitioners in the country are expected to share their expertise as speakers for the online event. For the Capture and Consume segment, Lynda Jumilla-Abalos of ABS-CBN News Digital will tackle “The News and Information Media” while Peach Natividad of Google, Neil Trinidad of Lazada, and Toff Rada of Tiktok will talk about “Social Media and the Emerging Platforms”.

The Curate and Converse segment will include Yvonne Chua of Vera Files and Luz Rimban of Asian Center for Journalism to discuss “Dissecting Fake News, Trolling, Propaganda and Demolition”, and Dr. Randy Dellosa of Pinoy Big Brother and Carlo Ople of PLDT and Unbox for “Being Digitally Ready and Responsible”. Finally, joining the Create and Care segment will be Caroline Veronilla of World Vision, Anna Meloto-Wilk of Human Nature and Cat Trivino of MindNation for the “Forwarding Your Advocacy and Giving Voice for Social Good” discussion. 

Norman Agatep, President of PRSP and President and Managing Director of Grupo Agatep shared, “Students of Communication have always been a significant sector that the PRSP has been reaching out to over the years. As such, we have designed pillar programs that aim to supplement their classroom learning, fuel their interest in public relations, and ignite their desire to pursue careers in our industry. This year's PR Con will give all participants an exclusive glimpse of what their lives as PR professionals could be like.”

Students’ PR Con 2021 is also set to kick-off the upcoming Students’ Grand Prix in January 2022. The upcoming Students’ Grand Prix will be PRSP’s first hack sprint edition of the annual student event and competition. More details will be announced during its launch in the upcoming PR Con.

Everyone, PR practitioners and students are encouraged to take part in the timely issues and conversations in the event. They can register by going to www.prspstudentsprcon.com/register to secure their slots. PRSP’s Students’ PR Con is free but registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, based on allocation per location (NCR, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao) and per school, so register early and don't miss out on the biggest virtual event for students this year. Confirmed registrants will receive an email with a link to access the virtual platform for the event.

It will be more exciting with exciting prizes and a concert after-party after the event. PRSP has partnered with Warner Music Philippines and PhilPOP Musicfest Foundation to bring together a line-up of up-and-coming artists for a one-of-a-kind musical experience, which includes Jikamarie, Keiko Necesario, Lara Maigue, Paul Pablo and Reon.

Badges and raffle tickets are also given to those who will complete the talks making participants eligible to games and prizes including a Lenovo laptop. A social media game also encourages everyone to actively participating for exciting incentives. Click on the posters below on more details.

 

To learn more about the PRSP Students’ PR Con 2021, follow www.facebook.com/studentsprcongress or linkedin.com/company/prsp-students-pr-con-and-grand-prix. For inquiries, please email studentsprcongress@prsp.ph.

The first-ever virtual PRSP Students Conference would like to thank these sponsors:

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PETA's Under My Skin: Review and why we should not stop talking about HIV

Last night in a special preview of the Philippine Educational Theater Association "Under My Skin," it has shed more light in understanding HIV, the disease and more about humanity towards people who have it. I haven't seen the production on stage but the streaming version gives a different approach and I thought as impactful to everyone.

"Under My Skin" is an anthology on different cases of HIV/AIDS. And as an eye-opening production, it shatters notions that it only affects gays. It tells us that homo or hetero relationships can also be affected through unprotected sex, blood transfusion, needle sharing or even at birth. A wrong mistake due to curiosity can change one's life slowly if it was ignored.

PETA, in partnership with LoveYourself and The Red Whistle, helps everyone affected or unaffected to be informed, and with this production, it reaches out to the individuals, their families and communities to understand people living with HIV. As for now during the pandemic, it is feared that cases may have tripled in reasons that might have been in the dark.

I like how Under My Skin gives a backgrounder on the frailty of the victims. Promiscuity and curiosity in the name of self-expression and love. The advocacy of playwright Rody Vera and director Melvin Lee produced a very informative, emotional, and no-nonsense production. Ms Cherry Pie Picache gives a straightforward but caring delivery of her dialogues as a non-discriminatory epidemiologist that patients would like to have. And also as a person, she shares the struggles of the victims and fights for them, and gets sad when she loses a life. The ensemble also immerses us to the journey that you'll think you're the infected and puts your heart to it. The magic of pre-recorded production and editing sends a new signal with its "in-your-face" graphics that tells us to watch out for signs especially that we are social individuals.

Under My Skin is a commendable, provocative, informative, scientific production that should not be missed. It sheds the light to everyone, not just the victims but also to the people around them to know how approach it and even avoid to stop the spread of disease. LoveYourself and The Red Whistle opens their lines for those who'd seek help and encourages everyone to get tested and to stop the stigma.

Under My Skin will be streamed online via ticket2me.net starting November 26 to December 5, 2021.

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Watch Don't Look Up trailer -- lands on Netflix December 24

The Netflix gods brought down the stars in the new poster and trailer of Don't Look Up which will start streaming in Netflix on December 24.

Don't Look Up features Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio with  Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi, Himesh Patel, Melanie Lynskey, Michael Chiklis, Tomer Sisley with Cate Blanchett and Meryl Streep in an apocalyptic story. Watch the trailer here:

DON’T LOOK UP is written and directed by Academy Award winner Adam McKay (The Big Short)

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Breaking up? Get break-up advises from Viu shows

Maritesses are so busy this week with a couple of breakups announced in social media. From online personalities Wil Dasovich and Alodia Gosiengfiao to Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendez, netizens are still raising speculations on why, how and who. 👀

While most are collecting more information (or even gossips) from the radar, we still support each other's decision and privacy in this point of their lives. How about let's recall some memorable scenes from different Kdramas that made our hearts stop and cry?

In 18 Again, we've seen that marriage does not equate to a happy ending. But sometimes two people who have a lot of love just need the space (and later communication) for their love to blossom. For Da Jung (Kim Ha Neul) and Dae Young (Yoon Sang Hyun, Lee Do Hyun), the distance was needed but they later realized that love and family are things worth sacrificing for. Rewatch it again on Viu.

Many would look at the I'm Not A Robot scene with Aji 3 as the “official” breakup, but this scene of them spontaneously meeting again made it feel final. Ji Ah (Chae Soo Bin) would not be playing Aji 3 anymore, and the only way Min Kyu (Yoo Seung Ho) was ever going to see Aji 3’s face was through this stranger. Many INAR fans still curse Tilda for this heartbreaking end to their relationship - to this day!

If you don’t remember Tilda, she was actually the nurse that betrayed the patient who had a similar

human allergy condition as Kim Min Kyu. Because of what she did, that patient was so heartbroken, he

died. Finding out about her betrayal ruined the Santa Maria team’s plans of telling Min Kyu the truth,

resulting to this angst.

“Tap tap” to something that held a heart-crushing meaning - letting go.

Though it would have been better if Kang Joo Eun was given a chance to support Kim Young Ho during his recovery process, we also respect Young Ho coach-nim’s decision to just come back when he’s back to his fighting form. Rewatch this favorite performance from Shin Min-ah and So Ji-sob in Oh My Venus.

Whether your breakup went too hard or civil, there's a Viu show that can comfort you. Right now, Now, We're Breaking Up is playing on Viu, you can now prepare for more angst. Check out the trailer below.

Now, We're Breaking Up features Song Hye-kyo and Jang Ki-yong in a story of break ups and breakdowns in the romantic world. New episodes arrive Mondays only on Viu.

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Villains revealed in the official trailer of Spider-Man: No Way Home

The official trailer of Spider-Man: No Way Home is out! While we're on hype on its global release on December 17 and later on in the Philippines on January 8, 2022, let's discuss bit by bit the details of this highly anticipated multiverse introduction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Following the events of Far Away Home and Spider-Man is revealed to be Peter Parker by The Daily Bugle owner J. Jonah Jameson, he reached out to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for a spell that can undo it. However, it's not just the public that had forgotten he is Spider-Man but everyone who knows him.

This also unleashes a new danger as the "Multiverse" has been opened bringing back all Spider-Man's foes. Starting with Dr. Otto Octavius / Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) and also The Green Goblin (Willem Defoe). All hell break loose when more of the other Spider-Man universe villains come back with Electro, The Lizard, and Sandman join the party. It's totally a huge task for our superhero to defeat them all and bring back order in this universe. Watch the trailer below.

Will Spider-Man be able to survive? What can you say about the last part that MJ falls similar to how Gwen died in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Spider-Man: No Way Home brings back Tom Holland as Peter Parker, with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon. Also starring Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau and more. 

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First look on Netflix's "The Witcher" Season 2

In the season 2 of Netflix's The Witcher, Geralt faces another installment of the End of Days with the great changes and new monsters to face. The second season premiers on Netflix, December 17.

In a panel, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich with the rest of the cast gave an exciting first look on new images and trailer of the The Witcher, led by Henry Cavill. Watch it below.

Based on the best-selling fantasy series of books, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. The story of the intertwined destinies of three individuals in the vast world of The Continent, where humans, elves, witchers, gnomes, and monsters battle to survive and thrive, and where good and evil is not easily identified. More first look images here.

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30th Conferment Anniversary of Celia Diaz Laurel’s “Woman for Peace” Award

November 29, 2021 marks the pearl anniversary of Mrs. Celia Diaz Laurel’s conferment of the highly prestigious international peace and humanitarian award “Woman for Peace” given by the Insieme Per La Pace (Together for Peace) Foundation.

Like its founder and president Madame Mariapia Fanfani who herself had devoted all her life to cater to the sick, poor, and victims of war, the honor is bestowed upon remarkable women who have helped promote, advance, and partake in global peacebuilding processes through meaningful social, educational, and cultural means.

Mrs. Laurel’s vast humanitarian work began in 1986 when she volunteered to head our country’s national bid for the United Nations’ Million Minutes of Peace —a worldwide campaign asking people (even with differing religions) to pledge and devote “minutes of meditation, positive thinking or prayer for peace.” Under her leadership, she launched a series of peaceful undertakings that triumphantly landed the Philippines at the fourth slot (out of the 88 participating nations) with an overwhelming 94,000,000 minutes collected and dedicated to peace!

Following this success, UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar flew to the Philippines in 1987 to honor Mrs. Laurel with the “United Nations for Peace Award” and to personally invite her to speak at the Million Minutes for Peace international conference that same year. She then attended the Universal Peace Conference in Mt. Abu in India and the World Media Association in Seoul, South Korea. She also stood before the International Security Council to discuss, among others, the impact of insurgency in the Philippines on the general security of the nations in the Southeast Asian region.

 

Alongside these many international engagements, she likewise organized and established several key socio – civic organizations like Causa Philippines, Inc., (a humanitarian movement against international communism), DAYTOP Philippines (Drug Addicts Yield to Persuasion), Handog Lingap sa May Kapansanan (HALIKA), Philippine Tuberculosis Society, Kidney Transplant Association, Gifted Children and Youth Foundation, Memorial to the Peaceful Revolution, Save the Children (Community Development), People’s Welfare Foundation, Philippine International Friendship Organization, Philippine General Hospital Foundation, Philippine National Red Cross Overseas and Diplomatic Divisions, and Peace Development Foundation, Inc. She also worked in the countryside where she focused on health and education developments like providing sustainable potable water in depressed areas and building public school libraries. Months before the big awarding ceremony in Madrid, Spain for the Woman for Peace, Mrs. Laurel, tirelessly had already been providing relief to fellow Filipinos devastated by natural calamities (i.e. earthquakes, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, and the killer cyclone in Ormoc City) that hit our country in the early 90s.

The grand awarding ceremony was held at Pabellon De Cecilio Rodriguez in Madrid, Spain on November 29, 1991. Besides Mrs. Laurel, other honorees that year were Queen Noor of Jordan, Madame Chirac of France, and Madame Silva of Portugal. The occasion had 400 guests in attendance –– comprising mostly of prominent international personalities like Senator Gianni Agnelli of Italy and royalties like Prince Saddrudin Aga Khan, King Simeon of Bulgary, and Baron and Baroness con Thiessen Bormenisza. With her conferment, she joined the revered roster of past awardees like Queen Sophia of Spain, Raissa Gorbachev, Former US First Ladies Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush, Marcella Perez de Cuellar, Diana Vreeland, President Violeta Chamurro of Nicaragua, and Queen Sirikit of Thailand.

Almost thirty years later, that fervent wish, sadly, remains unachieved. With Celia Diaz Laurel, our country’s very own Woman for Peace, now at peace with her Creator, it becomes therefore incumbent upon us who were left behind to continue the crusade she tirelessly but silently began decades ago. The nearing pearl anniversary of her conferment, therefore, is meant to evoke and challenge us to continually work towards achieving peace and creating a harmonious social balance in the next thirty years or so… especially here in this part of the world –our beloved Philippines – where we, STILL need them the most.

The family of Ms Celia Diaz-Laurel has adopted the Pearl as the gemstone in the 30th anniversary. As a Woman for Peace, she and her family wishes and prays for peace for all humanity.

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