By Ms. Ferl Angeline D. Larrosa, Philippines

       East Asia Oceania via Zoom Platform, 4 November 2021 -- The fourth session of the School of Formation entitled: “Institutional Dimension of Institutional Communication” was attended by forty-four (44) Social Communication Delegates and representatives from the East Asia Oceania Region (Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, East Timor, Myanmar, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands) on 3 November, 2021 at 3.00pm PNG time (6am Rome time).

       The formation was facilitated by Dr. Fabrizio Vignati, a layperson from the Salesian Province of North Italy who has been working in the corporate communication field for more than 20 years. The session was moderated by Fr. Ambrose Pereira SDB, Social Communication EAO Coordinator.

       Fr. Gildasio Mendes SDB, General Councilor for Social Communication was present and shared some additional inputs on the topic. Fr. Ambrose welcomed the participants, led the opening prayer, and introduced the resource speaker.

       Dr. Fabrizio delivered his talk through a pre-recorded video played during the formation. In order to understand how corporate communication is structured and how it can be used in daily professional life as communicators, he discussed the history, theory, and model of communication such as information, dialogue, and relationship.

       He also explained how corporations work as an open system emphasizing that corporate or institutional communication is both a relationship and information. There is no gap between interpersonal and corporate communication because it is not a cocoon that excludes the outside environment but instead embeds in it, creating and developing continuous relationship externally.

       Further, he pointed out the different corporation communication sectors — commercial, institutional, internal, and financial and how they are related to different roles of communication professional — operational, educational, managerial, and reflective. According to Dr. Fabrizio, “the global activity of corporate communication is in the hands of the top management” who have the role of implementing and executing the strategy in operational steps.

       His talk ended with the different trends and characteristics of corporate communication, strategic planning, and the Global PR and Communication Model 2021 which he summarized as elements that are the good ingredients for conveying good communication practices to all stakeholders.

       Fr. Ambrose opened the forum for the delegates with the question, “How can we insert institutional communication to Church communication?” Fr. Gildasio responded by reminding everyone to apply corporate communication in their own personal Salesian lives as Salesians and lay persons.

       Institutional Communication, he furthered, consists of St. John Bosco, our values, our educative system, and how we live. And losing this identity means weakening the institution. He also shared the strategy of marketing the Salesian life by valuing the aspect of listening and being in dialogue with persons.

       Br. Ephrem Santos SDB, from Indonesia asked about the involvement of the lay mission partners,to which Fr. Gildasio answered by referring to starting a school for Salesianity to train the teachers.

       Fr. Jaroslav Vracovsky SDB, from Mongolia and Fr. Peter Hoang SDB, from Australia asked about materials to use for corporate communication and ways to market the Salesian identity respectively. These were answered by Mr. Joseph Nguyen Hoan from Vietnam and Ms. Peggy Li from Japan by sharing their own community practices and Salesian products.

       Fr. Gildasio encouraged the delegates to develop actions in addressing community concerns and create projects that can be worked together as a whole institution.

       The enriching session lasted for two hours and was concluded by Fr. Ambrose with some announcements and a closing prayer by Fr. Andrew Tin Trung Nguyen SDB.

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