Turning the Politicians and the Public

Circus

 Before the last parliament elections in Iceland, universities, research and science seemed to be totally forgotten as the issues for the politic campaigns started to head in to the high light.

An inventive campaign was therefore run by the University of Iceland to turn the politicians and the public towards this important issue. The aim was to get the universities and science into the political and public discussions and into media and on top of that to increase budget for the universities in general and to get research funded appropriately.

Results were dramatic.

 
Speaker: Jón Örn Guðbjartsson, Director of marketing and communication of the University of Iceland.

jon_orn_gudbjartsson_mark_sam

Jón Örn Guðbjartsson is director of marketing and communication of the University of Iceland. He holds an MA degree in public relations and business communications and an MBA degree from the International University of South Europe, Barcelona and an MA degree in Icelandic literature from the University of Iceland.

Jón Örn has considerable experience in utilising integrated communications tools as well as PR and crisis management. He was a marketing and PR director in the software and business consultancy business from 1993 to 2005 and is an experienced television host and a news reporter as well as a journalist. For the last decade, he has been rebranding the University of Iceland with notable results.

Together with his colleagues at the University of Iceland, Jón Örn received a nomination for Gold Award at AFO film festival Olomouc in 2014 for their science film series broadcast in Iceland, Finland and Sweden. He also obtained a “Stellar Speaker Evaluation” at CASE conferences (2013 and 2015) and, together with the communication team of the University of Iceland, he received the Icelandic “Science Media Award” in 2012 and the EUPRIO Award for the “Best Science Media Project” in 2012.