By Josfyn Uba
The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has announced plans to host their ‘First Annual Advertising Industry Colloquium,’ a platform aimed at bringing industry professionals and stakeholders together to interact with and train students of Mass Communication, Advertising, and aspiring marketers.
According to ARCON, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, will declare open the one-day Advertising Colloquium, scheduled to hold on March 30th, 2023 at the prestigious Lagos Sheraton, Ikeja, Lagos.
Speaking to newsmen on Wednesday, Prof. Rotimi Olatunji, Chairman of the Planning Committee, Advertising Industry Colloquium, revealed that the theme of the Colloquium is ‘Changing Trends in Advertising Education and Practice in the Era of Globalization: The Nigerian Perspective’.
Olatunji explained that the colloquium was organised to close the growing knowledge and professionalism gaps among and between advertising practitioners, academia, and undergraduate students at tertiary institutions in Nigeria as a result of the disruption brought on by technological advancement and the unbundling of mass communication by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
He said, “The primary objective of the Colloquium is to provide the forum for academics and students of Mass Communication, Advertising and other components of integrated marketing communication (IMC) to interact with professionals in Advertising/other components of IMC; media practitioners, policymakers and regulatory agencies.”
According to Olatunji, some of the highlights of the colloquium are a keynote address, a panel discussion on diverse areas of marketing communication theory and practice, and a creative pitch competition involving six tertiary institutions namely: Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Ebonyi State University, Babcock University, Ilisan, Bingham University, Abuja, University of Ilorin, and Lagos State University.
The keynote speech will be delivered by Mr. Idorenyen Enanq, President of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN while Professor Umaru A. Pate, Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Kashere, Emmanuel Agu, Marketing Director, Jotna Group, Barrister Charles Odenigbo, Mr. Muyiwa Aleshinloye and Mr. Dozie Okafor, Vice- President of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria, MIPAN will be the discussants at the event.
The hybrid event is expected to be attended physically by students and lecturers from 10 selected tertiary institutions drawn from the six geopolitical zones of the country.
ARCON’s Director General, Olalekan Fadolapo, who spoke earlier at the briefing stressed the need to bridge the gap between the academic and the professional. “We have a situation where students graduate from our higher institutions but cannot fit into the industry. This is so because the knowledge gap between theory and practice is wide. And as a regulator of the industry, there is an urgent need for us to bridge this gap.
“That was why we moved and set this committee to come up with ways to integrate the practitioners and the academics to bridge the knowledge gap,” Fadapo said.