The Department of Media & Communication hosted a Media & Business Symposium on Friday 8 December to celebrate the 5-year jubilee of the Master programme Media & Business. The event included high-profile speakers, break-out sessions, plenary sessions and an alumni panel.
Media & Business Symposium: Leading in Tumultuous Times - What Digitalisation Means For the Future of Media and Business
Industry professionals as well as interested MA and BA students and alumni were invited to join an inspiring event to explore what digitalisation means for the future of media and business. At the Media & Business Symposium high-profile speakers Pascal Beucler (MSLGROUP) and Lara Ankersmit (NOS) dived into the topics of thought leadership, people’s relations, and digital communication strategies in they keynotes.
In today’s ever changing media environment, it is key to consider redefining communication and the communicator. Organisations are more and more influenced by the voice of their consumers and by a constant stream of technological innovations. During different breakout sessions, professionals and guests of the event explored areas such as contemporary storytelling, customer decision journeys, privacy matters, and reputation building.
In a plenary session, professionals with years of experience within the fields of communications and business discussed the changing communications landscape. Panelists for this discussion were:
- Nanda Huizing, Head of Brand, Communications & Digital at Philips Benelux
- Murli Poonath, Director Joint Ventures at Air France-KLM
- Truus Huisman, Plastic Maker Hubs and former VP Sustainable Business and Communications at Unilever Europe
- Pascal Beucler, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at MSLGROUP
This event was hosted by the Master Media & Business of Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication.
Alumni Panel & MA Thesis Award
During the M&B Symposium, a prize was awarded to the master thesis that reflects the Media and Business programme the best: a thesis that is smart, relevant, innovative, critical and well-written.
The three nominees for the MA Thesis Award were:
- Sarah Girod: The programmatic (R)evolution. Transformations in the German online advertising market after the introduction of programmatic trading techniques
- Lina Janezic: Personalization friend or foe? Personalization as a driver for innovative business models in the online news media market
- Marcus Opitz: From #InsideAmazon to #WeAreVolkswagen. Employee social-mediated crisis communication as reputational assset or threat?
The MA Thesis Award was won by Marcus Opitz for his thesis "From #InsideAmazon to #WeAreVolkswagen: Employee Social-Mediated Crisis Communication as Reputational Asset or Threat?" Marcus was present at the event to accept the award - congratulations!
Media & Business specialisation
The Media & Business specialisation was introduced five years ago. Since 2012, the M&B programme is recognised for its international focus and pioneering role in developing knowledge that is academically robust and that delivers societal value. To celebrate this special milestone, we invite you to this exclusive one-day Symposium.