Singapore, 3 March 2006 – The best public relations achievements in Singapore were honoured this evening at the PRISM Awards 2006 organised by the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore (IPRS) at the Pan Pacific, Singapore.
The 9th PRISM Awards held since 1987 recognises and rewards the best efforts and creativity of communication programmes. 29 awards were given out to PR consultancies, government bodies and private organisations for their outstanding work and excellent public relations efforts. The Guest-of-Honour, Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts, and Health, presented the awards at the event.
Four special awards were also given out to individuals. Mr Jimmy Tay, Chief Executive, Southeast Asia, Hill & Knowlton (SEA) Pte Ltd, was awarded the PR Professional of the Year award. The Lifetime Achievement Awards were given to Mr Arun Mahizhnan, Deputy Director of Institute of Policy Studies and Mr Yeo Toon Joo, Managing Director of YTJ Total Communications Pte Ltd. Ms Rita Chia, Consultant, Consumer & Healthcare Practice in Singapore, Weber Shandwick Worldwide Singapore, won the young PR Professional of the Year, an award created this year to recognise promising young PR professionals who have been in the industry for not more than three years. The complete list of winners is attached as Annex A, and the bio-data of the four special awards winners are attached as Annex B.
We received 88 entries for 12 categories. Entries came from global players such as DHL Asia Pacific Regional Office and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, home-grown companies like CapitaLand Commercial Pte Ltd and Institute of Technical Education, government bodies and non-profit organisations. The entries were judged by a panel of judges chaired by Mr Lee Chong Kai. The list of judges is attached as Annex C.
IPRS introduced three new categories, which are: Marketing Communications, , Internal Communications and Strategic Positioning / Corporate Reputation Management. Also, the Institute initiated the Young PR Professional of the Year for the first time. A full list of the categories and the descriptions are attached as Annex D.
At this event, 18 PR practitioners were conferred accreditation certificates. This brings the pool of accredited members in Singapore to 50. The accreditation scheme aims to recognise experienced PR professionals and raise the level of professionalism of the Public Relations practice in Singapore. The list of newly accredited members is attached as Annex E.
Another award given out was the IPRS Valued Partner Award to London School of Public Relations of Jakarta (LSPR). The award is to recognise institutions with whom IPRS has a close working relationship and undertakes collaborative projects. The award was received by Ibu Prita Kemal Gani, Director and Founder of LSPR.
This event was supported by many sponsors, namely ExxonMobil, Starhub and Aquent.
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