OREANDA-NEWS. On 22 April 2008 was announced, that Comstar Group of Companies’ representatives took part in the activities of the 3rd International "LINE" Forum: "Development of External & Internal Communications in the Field of IT & Communications". Comstar corporate media were among prize-winners of the Forum.

With its focal point on the "Image. Reputation. Capitalization", the "LINE" Forum was held in Moscow during 16 through 17 April 2008 under the auspices of Ministry for IT Technologies & Communications of the Russian Federation. The program partner of the event was the Institute of Communication Management of the State University "Higher School of Economics". Strategically, the Forum aims for setting-up an effective public relations infrastructure in the field of infocommunications; building of a fair image of the domestic ICT market; improving the information openness and industry’s investment appeal.

The Forum called together about 200 directors and top specialists in the field of PR, IR and GR, corporate governance, marketing and advertising of the Russian and foreign telecommunications and IT companies; the analysts, representatives of specialized agencies, socio-political, business and industry mass media.  

The Forum reviewed the highlights relating to employment of the modern communication technologies for image-building and managing of business reputation of the hi-tech companies, the impact of reputation factors on the increase in the business worth, as well as other vital aspects of information support to the projects in the field of infocommunications.  

Based on the results of special study "Telecom Nightingales 2008", conducted by the analytical unit of the Communications Agency AGT Telecom using the materials from more than 2200 Federal and regional mass media, President of COMSTAR-United TeleSystems Sergey Pridantsev took the first place in the citation rate of top managers of multiservice communication operators, while COMSTAR-UTS JSC secured a place among the 5 major telecommunications companies in terms of the number of purpose reference in the mass media influencing the Company’s media image-building.    

Comstar PR Director Elena Seregina, together with Adviser to the Minister of IT & Communication of the Russian Federation Evgeniya Kolosova, moderated the first plenary session "The Role of Communications in Company’s, ICT Industry’s, Country’s  Image-Building: International Experience and Russian Reality". Comstar Press Secretary Ekaterina Nevskaya spoke as part of round table "Image and Reputation of Journalist and PR Specialist". Representatives from COMSTAR-UTS PR, IR and Marketing subdivisions, as well as specialists from MGTS and COMSTAR-Direct (the Group of Companies’ members) participated in the activities of the Forum.

Based on the voting results of the Forum participants, COMSTAR-UTS corporate publications, the Comstar Galaxy Newspaper and Comstar Community Magazine, won a prize of the Exhibition/Competition of ICT industry’s mass media in the Image Nomination, while the photograph displayed by the Company at the Photo Show "In the PR Lens" earned mention in the Original Format Nomination.