ULAB Masters in Communication Public Lecture on 'Leading in Crisis' was held at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) on Wednesday, 30 September 2020.
The session, moderated by Dr. Sarkar Barbaq Quarmal, Assistant Professor and Graduate Programme Coordinator at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism (MSJ), ULAB featured as guest speaker the President and CEO of Globalstakes Consulting, Maiden Manzanal-Frank, a Canada-based global impact consultant, writer, Rotary Peace Scholar, educator, and mentor to aspiring social innovators. Head of MSJ, Professor Jude William Genilo delivered the welcome speech.
Maiden Manzanal-Frank shed light on the role of crisis communication and improvising strategic goals through informed decision-making process during a crisis like the ongoing COVID 19 global pandemic. She said that such crises create new opportunities too. It is important for an individual to be proactive and go beyond resilience to mine new opportunities – as a professional, in teams and at the individual level, and also in personal life.
“We cannot just rewind everything and go back to ‘normal,’ so it’s wise to look forward to adapt with the neo-normal,” she added, “and we must not wait for time to come, rather we should review our strategic goals immediately, be it at organisational level or personal level.”
Manzanal-Frank also gave some useful tips for young-aspiring professionals to minimise the impact of the ongoing global crisis to their professional career and personal life.
The programme was held through the Zoom platform. It was jointly organised by ULAB Media Studies and Journalism Department’s graduate Programme Masters in Communication and International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Bangladesh.
ULAB faculty members, students from ULAB and other institutes and professionals from different organisations around the globe participated in the interactive discussion.