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The BlogAwards Unconference day 1 was held in IBA City Campus on 22nd December 2011. The program was initiated with a speech by Dr. Ishrat Husain. In his speech Dr. Ishrat Husain pointed out the fact that there is a lot of talented writers in Pakistan and that he is not convinced that our institutions and forums are currently formed entirely with a vision. It Is only where ownership is widespread and highly diffused, that the institution can be great.
IBA has started in its Business School, the concept of media studies and are looking forward to expanding it because it is also highly demanded. Also on the IT side, the societies, the Web society and the Infosys society are very active. IBA has its own process for the creation and designing of the curriculum. Focus groups from both, inside and outside IBA are conducted and then decision is taken about what stays in the curriculum and what is eliminated. IBA is now focusing on integrating IT and Media into its curriculum.
The second part of the event included a Panel Discussion. The panelists included Ms. Jehan Ara, Mr. Badar Khushnood, Mr. Adnan Malik, Ms. Sana Salim and Mr. Imtiaz Noor Mohammad. The session was mediated by Ms. Rabia Gharib from CIO. A discussion ensued between the panelists and the participants about how social media is being used to bring about a change in the Pakistani society. The potential uses of analytics gained from social media for something that goes beyond profits and market shares and the fact that it can give great insights as to how a change is being brought about in the mindset of the people.
One of the many examples is the campaign ‘Khamoshi ka Boycott’ by Telenor. A part of the campaign entailed the users to share their Khamoshi Ka Boycott moments in which they got around 4000 entries. This shows the level of impact that can be achieved using these moments.
The second topic of discussion was the etiquette of blogging and commenting online. One of the major issues that bloggers face is that if people don’t like what they have written they tend to get rude and make snide comments. The session closed on the note that in case of Pakistani society the change is gradually coming in as the level of education increases and thus the level of awareness increases. The third part of the conference entailed several simultaneous workshops for the participants to attend according to their area of interest.
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