The annual Public Diplomacy Symposium is returning to Syracuse University with the theme of “New Public Diplomacy” and will feature speakers and panels examining the role of non-government entities in the realm of public diplomacy.

This year’s symposium, set to take place on Oct. 13 and 14, will be held at SU’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The ninth installment of the symposium makes its return to SU after the eighth annual symposium was held at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Jordan Robinson, an SU public diplomacy graduate student and a public relations representative for the event, said in an email the decision to bring the symposium back to SU was made to allow a higher level of participation and audience turnout.

“While last year’s event was a success, we believe that having the Symposium here this year will make it an even greater success, with a much higher audience turnout,” Robinson said.

The goal of the symposium is to “raise interest and understanding in the emerging field of public diplomacy,” Robinson said.

Keynote speakers and panelists were selected based on their prowess and experience in various subsections under the umbrella of public diplomacy, Robinson added.

“Overall, each of the panelists and speakers have several years of work and practice in the field of PD,” Robinson said.

Several of those speakers are current SU professors or alumni, including Carl Schramm, a university professor in the School of Information Studies; Steven Pike, an assistant professor of public relations in Newhouse; Roy Gutterman, an associate professor of newspaper and online journalism in Newhouse; Ken Harper, an associate professor of multimedia photography and design in Newhouse; and Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken, director of the Transnational NGO Initiative in Maxwell.

Each panel has its own theme of discussion, such as “New Public Diplomacy,” “Academic” and “Corporations.”

Schramm will be featured as a panelist in the lattermost panel. Before coming to SU’s iSchool, Schramm served as the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation president for a decade, earning international recognition in the field of entrepreneurship and economic growth. He said he intends to channel his experience to touch on public diplomacy through the lens of businesses and other private entities.

“I believe increasingly that companies are bypassing officials and government organizations, including the State Department, in part because they are so difficult to deal with and, in part, because no one can trust that your private interests will not be compromised by political actors advancing their own self-interest,” Schramm said in an email.

The “New Public Diplomacy” panel features Michael Short, founder of Short Enterprises. The company focuses on utilizing “market based solutions” to solve problems related to a wide range of topics, from green infrastructure to urban revitalization and STEM education, Short said in an email.

Short said each of these initiatives involves creating and sustaining “public-private-nonprofit-foundation partnerships, which are a key aspect of public diplomacy.”

The symposium is being held in both Newhouse and Maxwell over the course of two days. The two schools offer a joint public diplomacy program, in which Short is an alumnus.

Short said he was specifically invited to discuss the public diplomacy related aspects associated with launching their financial technology platform, called SourceFunding.org. The platform works to connect small businesses with $100 million in funding by the end of 2018, according to its website.

“I credit my education at Newhouse and Maxwell with providing me with the skills and experiences necessary to launch and grow my firm and our initiatives,” Short said.

Published on October 12, 2016 at 8:04 pm

Contact James: cjwight@syr.edu