The 3rd Annual Conference on Corporate Communications, organised by marcus evans, saw a convergence of corporate communications professionals from all over India and neighbouring countries.

The focus of the two-day event, held on 2 and 3 August 2007, at Mumbai''s Le Royal Meridien hotel, was to examine current best practices. Nandita Lakshmanan, founder and CEO of the pan-India PR firm, The PRactice Strategic Communications India, chaired the conference.

Speakers shared their views and experiences on the concerns and the changing role of corporate communications. They also discussed the tools that can help them achieve their communication objectives better.

Dr Pragnya Ram, group executive president, corporate communications, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Limited, presented a case study on how the corporation utilises communiation in their business strategies.

Dealing effectively with various media is rated as an important aspect of communications, more so in crisis situations. Charudatta Deshpande, head of corporate communications at ICICI Bank elaborated on how senior management could be helped through media training to come across as honest, trustworthy and well-informed disseminators of information.

That the role of corporate communications is changing and gaining importance within organisations is apparent. Corporate communicators are moving away from their traditional roles of doers and implementers to being consultants and co-strategists. Kavita Ghatge, vice president, corporate communications, Siemens, stressed upon the fact that communications is a core business function and a communication plan, just like a business plan, should be planned well in advance.

One of the key functions of corporate communications is managing and maintaining communications during a crisis. Crisis management is always more effective when corporate communications teams prepare in advance of likely contingencies. Advance planning strategies were presented on day two of the event by Meenu Handa, director, corporate communications, Microsoft India. She shared her experiences to demonstrate how the key to effective communication crisis is to be prepared before a crisis occurs.

Communicators shoulder the huge responsibility of continuously enhancing the image of their organisation, building the brand and strengthening relationships with all stakeholders. An online presence through a corporate website plays an important role here. But not just any kind of online presence. Anjali Mathur, director and chief operating officer of the The Information Company (TIC), presented case studies on how her company helped two of India''s largest business houses to define a web strategy and formulate best practices for their corporate websites, tata.com and adityabirla.com.

Anurag Batra, editor-in-chief, exchange4media.com, spoke on the importance of the new media landscape in today''s technology-oriented business world.

Renu Kakkar, vice president, Apeejay Surrendra Group, talked about driving communication as a core corporate value and building capacity in communication as a business competence to increase and sustain productivity, reduce attrition and energise an organisation.