ore than 300 government officials, area specialists and scholars participated in the Shanghai Public Relations Summit Forum 2014 – “Urban Image and Public Relations in the Age of Big Data”.

The Forum was co-hosted by Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), Shanghai Public Relations (PR) Association and the Wen-Hui News.

The influence of big data in urban development and the PR industry were two main discussion topics related to the Forum.

All participants, who included those from the U.S., the U.K. and Russia, agreed that big data makes a big difference in two ways: it helps to promote consumption and transform the economic growth mode, and it emphasizes people’s livelihood by trying to innovate in social management. They also agreed that molding and managing a city’s image appears to be more data-driven, while goals set for PR communication and the evaluation of its effects are becoming increasingly accurate.

In his speech, Big Data author Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, an Oxford University professor of Internet governance and regulation, outlined methods of data analysis for public relations departments.

Sha Zukang, a former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), discussed public diplomacy in the world of big data. Prof. Peng Kaiping from University of California at Berkeley made many constructive suggestions, drawn from his own experiences, for a movement to create a happier society with help from big data. Li Yaoxin, director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information, and Hu Xiaoming, co-founder of Alibaba, focused on the “Smart City” in their speeches.

Wu Youfu, Vice-Chair of Shanghai PR Association, former Chair of SISU’s University Council, advised on the re-organization of PR in the big data era. Prof Yu Mingyang, Council Chair of Antai College of Economics and Management of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, described the trend toward accurate data analysis in the PR industry.Prof. Jiang Yahong, Communication University of China, focused on the opportunities and challenges brought by the big data to the PR industry.

SISU’s research group on Shanghai’s city image presented a group of papers on “The Effects of Major Events on Promoting Shanghai’s City Image: Based on the Study of Public Opinions from the Mainstream Media in English-speaking Countries.” Online PR, crisis communication and management, and the individual brand, were among the aspects of big data discussed in other papers. 

Chairing the Forum were Hong Hao, Vice-Chair of Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People's Congress; Vice-Mayor Zhou Bo; Stanislav Naumov, Chair of the Russian PR Association, and Zhou Hanmin, Vice Chairman of CPPCC Shanghai Committee.

SISU is the Director and Secretary-General of the Committee for Learning of Shanghai PR Association. The best papers in biannual Forum are published in the Journal of Public Relationship, which is the only academic journal in the Chinese PR industry and is edited by SISU’s School of Business and Management.

Before the Forum, Oxford’s Mayer-Schonberger presented a lecture at SISU, “Innovation and Revolution: The New Economic Structure in Big Data Era.”

The age of big data has arrived, with an estimated 90 percent of information worldwide originating in the last two years. Bid data is new research for global metropolitan areas on how to make good use of big data as a form of available capital.