The 23rd International Public Relations Research Conference BledCom was held on the 1st and 2nd of July 2016. Over two days Hotel Golf at Bled hosted the world’s elite of academics and practitioners from 25 countries and six continents.
Organized by the Centre for Marketing and Public Relations at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, the BledCom symposium is an annual gathering of scholars and practitioners in public relations and related disciplines to discuss contemporary communication and management problems. The event has been held at Bled since its beginnings in 1994 and was over the years attended by 2.500 participants from 51 different countries. The home and main venue remains Hotel Golf, a modern conference and spa hotel standing on a small hill in the centre of Bled. With as many as eight function rooms and over 1,000 sq m of meeting space, the hotel is the largest hotel convention centre in Bled, priding itself on its long-established tradition of hosting the most diverse meetings including this annual conference.
This year Bledcom welcomed more than 100 delegates from universities from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Egypt, Finland, Hong Kong, Croatia, India, Italy, Israel, South Africa, Canada, Colombia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Great Britain and US. The conference with the theme “Engaging people in a disengaged world” presented a great programme that focused particularly on engagement, corporate social responsibility and social purpose. Many national and international speakers took the stage among them also the key-note speaker Stephen Waddington, Partner and Chief Engagement Officer at Ketchum (UK).
A novelty this year was an introduction of a fun and relaxing start of the conference days. The sessions begun with a yoga class led by Krishnamurthy Sriramesh that relaxed the minds and prepared the delegates for two days of discussion centred on communications and management issues while giving them the opportunity to enjoy the breath-taking surroundings.
BledCom was also a chance for the foreign participant to get to know the Slovenian hospitality, culture and cuisine. Every evening participants tasted the Slovenian culinary delights at a different locations; from the Bled Castle Restaurant, situated in the oldest castle in Slovenia, excellent restaurant Vila Podvin to Lectar family restaurant, hotel and gingerbread museum, situated in a picturesque medieval town Radovljica. BledCom will return to Bled in 2017.
