Calendar

#NORA Partner Workshop: Digitalization and Virtualization of Communications – how and how much?

Wednesday

May

Starts:09:00, 4 May 2022
Ends:13:00, 4 May 2022
Location:BI Campus Oslo A2-070
Contact:#NORA (nora@bi.no)

The efforts of digitalizing corporate communications are riddled with prospects and perils on multiple dimensions: There are evolving legal frameworks as well as newly emerging competency needs for communication staff to track and incorporate, but also a plethora of new tools for content generation and calibrating the stakeholder journey across platforms, as well as vast possibilities for aggregating data and insights – not only across channels, but across organizational functions as well.

In this seminar, we explore latest research on these prospects and perils. The seminar starts with an overview presentation and discussions laying out major dimensions of the “digitalization challenge” for communications. After the coffee break, we will take a “deep dive” into two of these dimensions (focusing on leadership in times of misinformation and leveraging the potential of data and insights) – giving opportunity for sharing practical insights and leading more dedicated peer discussions. We close with an outlook on future themes and a joint lunch with all participants.

The event is closed to #NORA corporate partners and their guests.

Schedule

8.45 – 9.00
Arrival at venue. BI Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo. Room A2 – 070 (light breakfast served)
9.00 – 9.15
Welcome. Amir Sasson, Professor of Strategy and Provost for Innovation and Outreach at BI Norwegian Business School. Alexander Buhmann, Associate Professor of Corporate Communication, BI Norwegian Business School, Director of #NORA
9.15 – 10.30
Workshop element 1. Digitalizing corporate communications from a managerial perspective: Challenges, frameworks, and approaches. Ansgar Zerfass, Professor and Chair of Strategic Communication, Leipzig University and Professor of Communication and Leadership, BI Norwegian Business School
10.30 – 10.40
Coffee break
10.40 – 11.15
Workshop element 2. Deep-dive topic A: Leadership in times of misinformation. Vilma Luoma-aho, Professor of Corporate Communication and Vice Dean of Education, Jyväskylä University, School of Business and Economics
11.15 – 11.50
Workshop element 3. Deep-dive topic B: Leveraging the potential of data and insights for communication management. Alexander Buhmann, Associate Professor of Corporate Communication, BI Norwegian Business School, Director of #NORA
11.50 – 12.00
Wrap-up and outlook
12.00 – 13.00
Lunch, BI 7th floor faculty restaurant

Workshop facilitators

Alexander Buhmann

Alexander Buhmann (Ph.D.) is associate professor of corporate communication at BI Norwegian Business School and director of The Nordic Alliance for Communication & Management, a cross-disciplinary and regional research group focusing on communication as a strategic driver of sustainable organizational performance and success.

He has been research fellow at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism’s Center on Public Diplomacy and visiting researcher and lecturer at Stanford University and Santa Clara University. At the former, he worked as a research assistant in the Department of Media Studies at Siegen University and the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Fribourg. Alexander’s research is situated at the intersection of communication, digital technology, and management. Specifically, his current interests are performance measurement and evaluation in communications, corporate reputation, as well as governance and accountability of semi-autonomous systems.

Ansgar Zerfass

Ansgar Zerfass (Ph.D.), is Professor and Chair of Strategic Communication at the Institute of Communication and Media Studies at Leipzig University, Germany. He is also Professor of Communication and Leadership at BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway, and Plank Scholar at the Plank Center for Leadership and Public Relations at the University of Alabama, USA.

He is editor of the "International Journal of Strategic Communication", Routledge, USA; Board Member of the International Communication Association (ICA), Washington D.C.; and lead researcher for the Global Communication Monitor series with (bi-) annual surveys in more than 80 countries. According to Google Scholar, Ansgar Zerfass is the most frequently cited researcher worldwide in the fields of Strategic Communication, Corporate Communication and Communication Management and among the top three in the field of Public Relations (h-Index, July 2020). He has published 41 books and over 400 articles and study reports.

Vilma Luoma-aho