Getting ready for SPECTRA – a conference like no other

For those familiar with PRAXIS, this year there is a superb replacement in the offing. The team has worked hard in the past few months to create a digital avatar with couple of elements from the offline version to make it a unique conference. The online event is called SPECTRA as several people associated with the event felt PRAXIS should be the name of the physical summit, which has become an annual pilgrimage for hundreds of professionals. The conference will have three times the speakers one gets to listen to at PRAXIS, spread across three Saturdays a couple of weeks apart and a fourth bonus day being added on the last week of 2020. The talks will run from 2.30 pm and until 9.30 pm IST. All delegates will have the option to join an exclusive zoom call to catch up one hour prior to the conference between 1 pm and 2 pm IST in a face-to-face mode.

You can read all about SPECTRA here. However, here is the additional low down on SPECTRA:

The Speakers

First and foremost, the content. For the last 100 days the team has been working the phones, drafting emails and sending messages across continents to ensure a solid line up of international and Indian speakers.  There are three categories of speakers – CCOs, Consultancy Leaders and Inspiring Communicators. Here below are the first set of speakers we are referring to as the headliners:

The global speakers include the following Chief Communication Officers of some of the leading international brands:

1. Andy Pharaoh of Mars
2. Christine Jones of AG&P
3. Deia Campanelli of Wabtec
4. Edna Ayme-Yahil (Dr.) of SITA
5. Jerilan Greene of Yum! Brands
6. Jonathan Adashek of IBM
7. Matthias Berninger of Bayer
8. Russell Dyer of Mondelez
9. Sabia Schwarzer of Allianz

And the following consultancy leaders:

1. Ellen Ryan Mardiks, Vice Chair – Golin
2. Gail Heimann, President – Weber Shandwick
3. Kass Sells, President – International at WE Communications
4. Margery Kraus, Founder – APCO Worldwide
5. Patti Temple Rocks, Founder – Temple Rocks Consulting
6. Rick Murray, SHIFT Communications
7. Shelley Spector, Founder – Museum of Public Relations

All the sixteen speakers listed above (10 of whom are women) are being matched with a conversation anchor. These are mostly Indian in-house communication leaders. They are listed on the website – www.spectraonline.in

Besides these we have a set of inspiring communicators including one of India’s more prominent management thinkers, Rama Bijapurkar and two global association leaders – Justin Green of the Global Alliance and Nitin Mantri of ICCO who will make opening remarks on each of the three days. We also have two world renowned Indian storytellers – Amish Tripathi, the best-selling author and Neelesh Misra, the award-winning journalist who will share insights.

We will share the list of SPECTRA Plus speakers by November 17^th. Read more about that next!

SPECTRA Plus

The team is working closely with over two dozen (mostly India based) communication leaders to deliver mini keynotes that will be the fourth bonus day of the SPECTRA experience. All who register for SPECTRA will get access to this. However, those who only want to sign up for SPECTRA Plus will have the option to do so between November 20^th and December 20^th. This will be a marathon session of talks starting at 10 am IST on the designated day and going on till late.

Delegate Bags

All participants based in India will get a carefully curated delegate kit that comprises of the following-

1. Sanitisers from Godrej
2. Publications from Fuzion and Westland
3. Eatables from Mondelez
4. Calendar from the Promise Foundation
5. The SCoRe Certification one pager
6. Reputation Today special issue
7. A smart bag from Ford

These kits will be home delivered in the week of November 16^th, soon after Diwali to those who sign up by October 31^st. Those who sign up on or after November 1^st will not be eligible for the kit.

Lunch from QMIN by TAJ

We have worked with the chefs at Taj Hotels at Taj Palace, New Delhi (NCR), Taj Lands’ End, Mumbai and Taj MG Road, Bangalore to curate an exclusive menu for all delegates registering before November 6th. The three-course meal will be delivered to people’s homes on November 28^th which is the first day of the conference. This will be Indian cuisine. Those who opt in for additional meals by paying for them will get a Chinese and Continental meal on December 12^th and January 9^th at the same address. The default package includes meal on the first day. One can choose from either a vegetarian or a chicken-based meal.

Tech Interface

The online event on the three main days will be available only to registered delegates on a specially-designed technology platform called the SPECTRA ADDA. This interface will have four sections: An Exhibition Arena where there will be a few stalls and brands can communicate with delegates to offer them literature and videos; A Networking Lounge where delegates can chat with each other during breaks; A Resource Centre (that will house the tweet fountain) and the Main Auditorium where the content will be delivered from. In addition, there will be a layer of gamification to enrich the entire experience though a leader board. We will have the content available at a later date (sometime in March 2021) on the Reputation Today YouTube channel which has over 12,000 subscribers and is now the largest online channel for any Public Relations focussed portal across the English speaking world.

Track the conversations taking place on Twitter on the impact dashboards –

• Twitter Leader board: https://myimpact.in/rtspectra/tweets/
• Picture board: https://myimpact.in/rtspectra/twitpics/
• Tweets Feed: https://myimpact.in/rtspectra/tweetsfeed/

The Partners

We have 20+ brands that are supporting SPECTRA in two ways: commercially and through barters as supporting partners.

Adfactors is the Titanium Partner.

Avian WE, Value 360 and Fuzion PR are the Platinum Partners.

A set of respected corporate brands – Godrej, Google, Hero Moto Corp and IFFCO are the Gold Partners.

SPAG, Ruder Finn, Impact Research, First Partners, Kaizzen and Media Mantra are the Silver Partners.

Media Value Works, On Purpose and PepsiCo India are the Bronze partners.

The supporting partners include Global Alliance and ICCO which are international associations. Comms News, SCoRe and PR Club as knowledge partners.

Ants Digital, Avignyata and Kritical Edge as digital, social and design partners. We are grateful to the brands listed above for their generosity.

A special thanks to Geo George who designed the classy SPECTRA logo.

Well, I am eager to see the action unfold and I’m sure you will value the learnings and knowledge greatly. It surely will be time well spent. Head to bit.ly/RTSPECTRA to buy your pass today.

Amith Prabhu

Founder at PRomise Foundation

Amith Prabhu is the Founder of the PRomise Foundation which organises PRAXIS, India’s annual summit of reputation management professionals.

He is also the Founding Dean of the School of Communications & Reputation (SCoRe).

He can be reached at @amithpr on twitter.