Sharjah: A world of learning opportunities for aspiring government communication professionals and public affairs specialists knocks on the door as the 11th annual International Government Communication Forum (IGCF) taking place in Expo Centre Sharjah on September 28 - 29, announces a packed agenda of specialised workshops.

To be led by communications specialists and thought leaders at the two-day forum which will carry the slogan ‘Challenges and Solutions’, the daily workshops will introduce latest digital innovations powering the sector, while highlighting best practices and the journeys of local and global media entities, providing an ideal skills training platform to university students, young government communications professionals, media professionals, public servants, and all individuals who work in any capacity in the areas of formulating and delivering the government’s messages to members of the public.

Learn how to create innovative content for the digitally savvy

Sky News Academy will organise a workshop titled ‘Digital Content Innovation, from/to phones’ led by Abnoub Mansour and Eman Khattab, presenters at Sky News Arabia, who will highlight to participants the best tools to create professional content using smartphones.

Attendees will learn ways to transform institutions’ official content into appealing messages to be transmitted digitally for the current generation of end users who prefer to communicate via their smart devices. The workshops will also highlight how to increase public engagement with the government on social media, sharing specific guidelines on ways to make their messages more appealing to smartphone users.

Drive results by combining latest tools & best practices in digital communication

A workshop titled “Government communication in the digital era” organised by the Arab Administrative Development Organization - League of Arab States will empower participants with the skills and knowledge necessary to develop government communication systems in light of the administrative and technological dimensions that have changed the features of communication and provided new tools that enable communicators to enhance the impact of messages and measurement methods and the application of modern management principles in achieving goals.

Led by  Dr. Mona Magdy, certified trainer from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in the UK, the workshop will highlight characteristics of effective government communication in the digital age, crafting persuasive messages to build status, impact measurement and performance evaluation indicators for effective communication,  digital storytelling skills and best practices.

Get a mini diploma in AI Journalism

Organised by Artificial Intelligence Journalism for Research and Foresight (AIJRF), a workshop titled ‘The AI Journalism Mini Diploma’ targets media professionals, government leaders and government communication officials, and content makers to enable them to successfully employ Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications and solutions in the content industry, as well as for the management of government services, and the realisation of the most important organisational goals and strategies.

The workshop will be led by Dr. Mohamed Abdulzaher, CEO of AIJRF; and Fadi Rida Hammoudeh, Certified Trainer of AI services from Fonn Group, who will introduce participants to AI Journalism born from the tools and technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and highlight the foundations of Big Data analysis in media.

The session will also focus on AI applications and solutions in government communications and international media, links between AI techniques and social media, and talk about the basic principles of robotics marketing.