The first pan-Homenetmen public relations conference kicked off its three-day activities on Monday at the Armavir hall in Yerevan’s Holiday Inn hotel.

Among the 30 participants were Homenetmen regional public relations officials, representatives of the organization’s Central Executive PR committee, as well as six members of the Central Executive.

For some time now, Armenia has become a hub for all-Homenetman events. In conjunction with the conference, the Homenetmen kicked of its “Arartian” Order scouting jamboree in Aghveran on Tuesday. The Armenian Athlete Day will also be celebrated on Friday and will coincide with the start of the Homenetmen General Assembly.

Conference Opening Day
The opening of the pan-Homenetmen PR Conference began with the singing of the Aremnia, Artsakh, and Homenetmen anthems. Attending the official opening ceremony were Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau member Lilit Galstyan; Hamazkayin Central Executive Chairman Zakar Keshishian and Central Executive member Dickran Babikian; former Homenetmen Central Executive member and Co-Chairman of the Central Executive of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia Stepan Der Bedrosian.

Homenetmen Central Executive member and PR committee chair Viken Avakian welcomed the attendees. In his remarks, Avakian noted that the congress is the first of its kind in the history of the organization and is tasked with answering three main issues—the future direction of the organizations public relations efforts; who will lead those efforts; and how to harness Homenetmen’s international status for the success and development of its PR efforts.

Then, the conference began its work with a roundtable, the topic of which was “Youth, Values, Accessibility and Publicity of Homenetmen’s Activities in Armenia.” The roundtable was chaired by Artur Mgrdichian, a member of the Homenetmen Central Executive’s PR Committee. The panel included journalist, public figure and public relations specialist Astghik Avetisyan, the Chairman of the Homenetmen Central Executive’s PR committee Dr. Kevork Hakobjian, and Homenetmen-HASK member Anoushik Panossyan.

First Day Sessions
The session included panel discussions on the following topics:

• “Homenetmen’s Advocacy Yesterday and Today,” with a presentation by Viken Avakian. The session was moderated by Astghik Achekian, a member of the PR committee.
• “Homenetmen’s Involvement in the World of Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity,” with a presentation by Jirair Beojekian. The session was moderated by Kevork Hakobjian.

The Congress also heard, in a separate session, a status report on the current PR efforts by the organization’s various regions, based on a previously sent questionnaire, with relevant evaluations, and proposals and ideas for the future. The report was presented by Kevork Hakobjian.

Visit to the National Library
That afternoon, the participants of the conference, visited the Armenian National Library, where they were introduced to its 107-year history. They visited its various departments and had a meeting-discussion with the Director of the National Library, Anna Julyan.

On this occasion, copies of Homenetmen literature were donated to the library in the names of the participants of the conference. Homenetmen Central Executive member and editor of its official newspaper the Marzig, Viken Avakian presented to the library’s management the digitized copies of the complete collection of the publication, spanning more than 46 years and including 441 issues.

Then, the Chairman of the Homenetmen Central Executive, Hagop Khacherian, presented the Homenetmen emblem as a memento to the library management. He said that the National Library and Homenetmen are doing a great job of preserving the Armenian identity and that the two can develop cooperation that can be of great benefit to the younger generation in general and Homenetmen in particular.

On Tuesday, conference partipants visited the Yerablur national cemetery and met with the participants of the scouting program. During the day, the participants also visited the National Archives of Armenia and “Yerkir Media” broadcast offices.