Conferences & Seminars

The Media Alliance has partnered with a number of UN agencies, development agencies and foundations to organize workshops for conferences and seminars to review and promote the role of media and creative industries in raising public awareness of development issues and achieving behavior change. These have included:

• A series of seminars on the CSR practices and policies of the Media, Advertising and Entertainment Sectors in Asia organized in partnership with CSR Asia. The seminars examine best policies and practices of media companies in giving visibility to social, humanitarian, environmental and sustainable development issues through programming content and social issue and public service advertising. Details of upcoming events in Hong Kong on 7 May 2013 and Singapore on 8 May 2013 can be found here
• A day-long workshop was organized for students of the Vietnamese Academy of Journalism and Communication™s Faculty of Public Relations and Advertising on 28 March 2012 in Hanoi, Vietnam, to introduce them to climate change concerns facing the country. The workshop was held in conjunction with the launch of the Redraw The Line climate change awareness campaign being developed by The Media Alliance for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Asian Development Bank.
• A Climate Change Adaptation Film Festival was held in Bangkok on 11 March 2012 in conjunction with the Second Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum. The film festival was organized by The Media Alliance in cooperation with the Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia, the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network and the Asian Development Bank. It is planned to make the Climate Change Adaptation Film Festival an annual event following the success of the inaugural festival.
• A seminar organised by the UNEP™s Regional Climate Change Adaptation Knowledge Platform for Asia (AKP) and the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) in partnership with The Media Alliance and the Swedish Environment Secretariat for Asia (SENSA) which was the fifth in a series on public awareness, behavior change and calls to action for sustainable consumption and production. Titled ˜The Role and Responsibility of the Media, Entertainment and Creative Industries in Adapting to Climate Change™, the seminar was held in Bangkok, Thailand on 27 April 2011 and explored how partnerships with international development and donor agencies, as well as private sector companies, can affect issues such as climate change by encouraging mass awareness of green consumption. It also examined ways to enhance communication and strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations and the mass media to influence environmental governance in south-east Asia. The seminar included a panel of professionals who demonstrated the use of media relationships and tools for advocacy, awareness and behavior change in accomplishing sustainable development;
• A Media Leaders™ Forum on CSR and Climate Change was held in Singapore on 7 December 2011 to discuss the role and responsibility of media companies in affecting positive social action and behaviour change on the critical issues relating to climate change. The event was held as the opening conference session of the 2011 Asia Television Forum. The purpose of the Media Leaders™ Forum was to discuss how partnerships with international development and donor agencies and private-sector companies with strong CSR initiatives can affect public engagement on issues relating to climate change, and to explore how the media companies could be persuaded to provide more advertising inventory, entertainment and editorial space to the issue so that a broad and extended campaign could be mounted throughout the region to raise awareness of climate change mitigation and adaptation issues. A summary report on the Media Leaders’ Forum can be found here
• A Roundtable on œClimate Change Action in Asia and Europe: Everyone™s Business, a side event to the COP 16 UN Global Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, on 5 December 2010, which was organized jointly by The Media Alliance, the Asian Development Bank, Sida/SENSA and Microsoft Corporation;
• A Workshop on œEducating Audiences in Creating Demand for Sustainable Consumption and Production: The Role and Responsibility of the Media, Entertainment and Creative Industries at the Asia-Europe Foundation™s ENVForum in Munich, Germany, on 3 September 2010, which was organized jointly by The Media Alliance, Sida/SENSA, ASEF and Deutsche Welle.