Geography: Kharkiv.
Dates: 4-14 November 2011.
Description of the project:
The First East-Ukrainian Law Forum became a genuine discussion venue for professionals from Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Odesa.
Participants included over 100 partners and managers at law firms, scholars, lecturers at law colleges and universities, private-practice lawyers, judges and notaries public, creating a unique atmosphere for the Forum.
Elena Kibenko, Chairwoman of Kharkiv Regional Branch of the Ukrainian Bar Association, Member of the Association's Management Board, Managing Partner at Kibenko, Onika and Partners Law Firm, says:
"The law market used to be quite closed, meaning everyone stayed within their shell and never ventured outside. Now we have to communicate and share experience. The market is developing, lawyers master foreign languages, their firms make sure their offices are opened abroad. Today one has to exchange information in order to grow and change".
Objectives:
- engage most significant Kharkiv-based media as the event's information partners in a short period (one week);
- make sure the Forum is widely announced in Kharkiv;
- organise a press briefing at the event and make sure journalists feel at home;
- provide wide coverage of the Forum's topics and discussions in Kharkiv-based media.
Outcomes:
- The Forum's information partners included Visti (a news show), Dozory (a group of websites), Status Quo (a news agency), Mediaport (a news agency).
- TV stories were aired during the week by such Kharkiv-based media as Obyektiv Novosti, Kharkivski Visti and over 100 Forum-related announcements and publications were published by the website of Kharkiv City Council, Status Quo, Dozor, Mediaport, Vremya, Vecherniy Kharkov, Glavnoye, Obyektiv, TV News website, Novosti Kharkova, Kharkovskiy Portal, Yuridicheskiy Kharkov, Kharkiv's Club of Journalists.
- Held during the Forum, the press briefing was attended by journalists from 3 TV channels, 2 news agencies and 4 publications.
- As part of a few separate subject-matter stories from discussion panels, journalists made online publications on special features of regional markets of legal services, reforms of the Bar, activities of notaries public, evaluation of the new Customs Code, deregulation of business in Ukraine.
