AEGEE-Europe’s Public Relations Committee (PRC) has a new speaker: Christian Bussar from AEGEE-Aachen took over the task from Deniz Özhan at Agora Budapest. Together with vice-speaker Réka Salamon (AEGEE-Debrecen) he has an ambitious to-do list: the Visual Identity Manual, a proper picture database for AEGEE and to connect all people working in the field of PR. The AEGEE Golden Times asked Christian about his plans to improve the PR work of the AEGEE network. “We want to improve the way AEGEE and our vision is perceived from the society as one big association throughout Europe”, Christian told the AEGEE Golden Times.
Golden Times: Christian, congratulations! What will be your first official act as PR committee speaker?
Christian Bussar: The first thing I did was writing an e-mail to thank the former Speaker Deniz Özhan for her work and our PRC members for the trust they gave me through their mandate. Of course since this cannot be taken as an act, therefore my first act will be to finalize the Visual Identity Manual together with our team and to bring it into place for AEGEE-Europe and the network.
Golden Times: What is the PRC actually doing for AEGEE?
Christian: The PRC is a group of skilled AEGEE members in the field of design, marketing and social media strategies, who want to support all bodies of AEGEE-Europe with their work in the field of Public Relations. By offering coherent strategies and designs we want to improve the way AEGEE and our vision is perceived from the society as one big association throughout Europe.
Golden Times: In which cases should people contact you?
Christian: Contact for support requests is done via a webform on our Website: http://www.wg.aegee.org/prc/contact – I am personally open for all kinds of criticism or ideas how the work of PRC can be improved, so feel free to also approach me personally via mail or Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/christian.bussar). When people feel the communication between their antenna or AEGEE body and PRC could be improved I would hope for a personal note, so I can work on the improvement.
Golden Times: Can you tell something about yourself?
Christian: I had the chance to celebrate my 27th birthday recently and also finished my studies in the field of physics a few months ago. Now I am searching for new opportunities in an interesting PhD position. Apart from my duties in PRC I am also a member of the IT Committee where I manage the Myaegee support requests and I help out in the advisory board of my antenna AEGEE-Aachen. In my other free time I enjoy the company of my friends in pubs or just conversations or doing sports, where I do kung fu, swimming or cycling.
Golden Times: How did you join AEGEE?
Christian: The way I joined is somehow not too usual, because I wanted to become an organiser of Autumn Agora Aachen in 2008 where I was fascinated to meet 700 students from all over Europe. I joined the core team and was responsible for all the finances back then.
Golden Times: You are known as one of AEGEE’s main photographers. Will you increase the importance of photos in PR?
Christian: There is this common phrase: a picture is worth a thousand words. I believe this is true and I also see that AEGEE still lacks a proper picture database which could be used by all AEGEE bodies to fresh up their PR materials. There have been steps taken in the past, and I will try to improve the situation, where also the personal rights of the people on the pictures and photographers copyrights are properly managed.
Golden Times: Why are you so interested in PR?
Christian: This is a good question, fortunately I know the answer. A long time ago when I was in the board of AEGEE-Aachen, I had the feeling that the impact we’re making among students at our university is mainly because of our famous Erasmus parties, but only few people knew about the European background or the network. I felt like this had to be improved so my and the successive boards worked a lot to become more visible at our university and also being better recognised at our university also for European projects. The main thing AEGEE was missing until now was a coherent visual appearance. To tackle this some member of our antennae established the “Shape our home” project together with AEGEE-Europe in 2010 to work on a visual strategy. Well, since the past was difficult, we learned a lot of lessons, so I hope now we’re ready to finally establish a visual identity.
Golden Times: What’s your AEGEE and non-AEGEE experience in the field of PR?
Christian: My experience in the field of PR comes only from my AEGEE activities and a small PR Workshop we had in Aachen by a professional PR trainer. I think I have a good sense of how the idea of AEGEE can be sold most efficiently to prospective members or the public in general. Of course I have gained some skills in design throughout the years, but I am realistic enough to say that I’m not a professional. I think that to the improvement of our work in PRC I can also contribute through my leadership and communication skills, which I developed through the work in the board and in projects of my antenna.
Golden Times: Anything you’d like to add?
Another big step we are planning in PRC is to get a better connection of all people working in the field of PR, to bring together skilled and less skilled members and hopefully gain a lot when implementing the Visual Identity, but also establish some personal contacts and bring the European and local level a little closer in our field.
