Agenda

The speakers on this panel will be speaking about:

• GR strategies for accessing new markets during the pandemic

• How local companies implement their GR strategies, building on the government’s need to support domestic businesses

• How global companies are using their international exposure to partner with local governments and create policy wins

• The importance of building a strong government affairs team
• Strategic function of government affairs
• GR as an ability to navigate in changing media and political landscape

The case study will concentrate on Airbnb's public policy campaigns in 2021. Namely:

• Compliance with local regulations;
• Efforts to educate hosts and guests on Airbnb;
• Data sharing with local authorities;
• Local partnerships with tourism and policy stakeholders.

The objective of the case study is to create awareness and promote policy on diabetes prevention — a legislative framework for diabetes prevention and early diagnosis. The presentation will be concentrated on what has been done since January 2019, including such actions as:

• Awareness campaigns
• Workshops on diabetes specially developed for journalists;
• National perception study regarding diabetes;

• How did the sanctions imposed on Russia affect the business environment?
• What will be respective organizations’ response to corporations that decided to stay in the Russian Market?
• How did the investment agency have to adapt to the situation?

• Impact of tech regulatory agenda on political/social advertising
• Emerging trends in digital communications for GR
• Impact of misinformation on the digital sphere

•  The fossil fuels have been considered as being a problem or a solution depending on the different country-specific
•  The war in Ukraine has accelerated the rhythm to reduce fossil fuels dependency.
•  The dialogue between Governments and Companies has to focus on sustainable solutions

• How to turn an unregulated industry into a regulated one?
• How to convince decision-makers when managing their expectations about local requirements?
• How to create alliances with local competitors?
• How to manage the conflicting interests of decision-makers at the state and local levels?

• Ukrainian market in the short term: Challenges in a war-torn country

• Mid-term market outlook: What should we expect from the Ukrainian government amidst a massive renovation?

• Long-term view: How will the prospects of Ukraine’s EU membership affect CEE companies’ market and government relations strategies?

• The specificities of Non-EU client integration in the Union territory. 
• Making the relevant state agencies aware of their need and obligation within the EU regulations to establish their own capabilities in the certification process.
• Educating the client and the state on their respective duties in each stage of the integration process.

Local market knowledge indicates that companies usually take the approach of silence while communicating, i.e the entire communication “effort” comes down to crisis communication.

For the purpose of providing transparent two-way communication, the below strategy tends to accurately and timely inform various publics (specific, media and the general public) about the type, manner and essence of the first major PPP project in North Macedonia. The risk of potential crisis for this project exists on several levels, such as political, economic, current actual similar services, etc.

From the strategy implemented so far, it can be concluded that, when it comes to communication of this type of partnership, a key factor for successful communication is the relationship between the public and private partner, identically to Siamese twins.

PA works best in well-organized systems where rule of law and procedures are observed through the decision-making process. There are however countries where systems are not matured enough, or procedures are not observed – in such cases PR works better and more effectively than PA.

• It addresses broader target groups to build a solid base for PA;
• Works well as education for decision-makers and prevents them from making mistakes. 

The best results are achieved with close cooperation and a balanced mix of PA and PR. The presentation describes environments that call for such a mix, as well as the roles and benefits of cooperation.

• GR's role in fighting the pandemic of disinformation

• E-Governance and cybersecurity challenges

• Local data protection laws and anti-monopoly initiatives: how to ensure the new regulations are in the best interests of consumers

• Consequences of staying on the Russian market

• Global security versus consumer needs

• GR strategies in countries affected by the war

With the geopolitical shifts that have been happening globally in recent years and the increasing political distrust between traditional allies, Europe has started a strategic move towards greater European economic and technological independence and sovereignty. One of the industries where this is happening is the payment industry, where today the two leading digital payment companies come from the US.

Europe's response is a mix of a broad range of policies, regulatory initiatives, PPPs and political pressure, with the aim of creating European payment champions and a European network of data and payment flows.

In the presentation Mastercard will present the complexity of the situation and the importance of being able to identify and put into context all the pieces of the puzzle; we will discuss why it is important for a global company to be local and how to demonstrate it; and we will show the importance of showing and providing real value to governments in a broad range of fields, as a long-term commitment.