Speakers at the event include Mr Abbas Ali Mirza, Partner, Deloitte & Touche M.E. & author of twelve books on IFRS; Dr Khalid Maniar, Founder & Managing Partner, Horwathmak Auditors & Business Advisors and Mr Atul Shukla, Group Director, Horwathmak Auditors & Business Advisors.

IMT, Dubai: Media executives address students

Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Dubai organized an event aMedia Meets MBAsa on January 29, 2009. Dr Mohan Agrawal, Professor of marketing at the Institute, in his opening remarks complimented the media for aco-creating brand equitya and for leaving behind the traditional role of amessage carriersa. He also urged the Middle East Media to do business but with more care and support the local brands.

The meet was addressed by media personalities including Mr Steve Lane, Director of the Annual Dubai International Advertising Festival; Mr Gaurav Sinha, Chairman & Managing Director, Insignia Advertising, Dubai; Mr Manoj Mathew, Vice President, Zee Network, MENAP; Mr Bakul Gala Vice President, Adfactors PR, Dubai and Ms Kritika Rawat, Head Programming, City 101.6 Arabian Radio Network. In his keynote address, Mr Gaurav Sinha predicted the adeath of branding and its replacement by bondinga. Explaining the importance of aGeneration Ya consumers in the Middle East, he asked the local brands and media to communicate atrust instead of mere honesty, feel instead of product functionalitya and similar changes.

Mr Manoj Mathew focused on the power of TV media in the region and discussed case studies of marketing real estate project and new TV channel. He advised MBAs to be more creative and cost conscious in choosing from the available media channels. On more media creativity, Mr Steve Lane showcased award winning media ads and their effectiveness in building local brands. He termed asimplicity and compatibilitya as the two media mantras of today. Finally, Mr Bakul Gala highlighted few media choices in the region and hence the need of creativity in launching PR campaigns. He shared his work and experiences on building PR for a financial service in the region.

IMT students also presented to the media their research work, conducted under the guidance of Dr Mohan Agrawal. They showed how media built two local brands aDubai Shopping Festival and Zain a a telecom brand in the regiona.