On May 23 the Public Relations Department of LOMO PLC celebrated its 10th jubilee. It is one of the first PR-services of industrial enterprises of St. Petersburg.  It’s possible to consider this date as the beginning of transformation of confidential for public defence factory into the modern public company.

   The Public Relations Department was founded in 1994. LOMO has become one of the first Russian enterprises, set foot on the road of informational discloser for public. PR-practitioners were forced to master new sphere of activity on themselves. Higher educational establishments began preparing specialists in this sphere only in 1993, and the first PR-specialists appeared only five years later.

   The term “Public Relations” till now hasn’t one-digit interpretation. There are nearly 500 scientific definitions of PR. PR-specialists of optical firm consider that they work for the following purpose - that different groups of public, including international, admit, respect and trust LOMO. Without favorable image, high reputation of the company in business is very hard. No one firm won’t have neither qualified personnel, nor clients, partners and good relations with different levels of power without it.

   From the moment of foundation the PR-service of LOMO has realized the whole row of successful projects. Organization of the external communications system of the firm is one of such works – the service co-operates with correspondents of more than 60 media. Thanks to publication of factory newspaper “Panorama of LOMO” (from 2000) effectiveness of the internal communications system has grown. In 2002 book about LOMO -  “LOMO through the prism of time” was created. It contains a lot of new information about the company, which hasn’t been published before. The project, connected with photo-camera “LOMO-compact”, has also become a very important work.  Thanks to it the Lomographic Society International exists now, which unites hundreds of thousands amateurs of the Russian photo-camera from more than 50 countries of the world. It furthers to active promotion of trademark of LOMO. Very few enterprises of Russia has so mass and multi-national club of amateurs of their production.

   For the period of work the Public Relations Department of LOMO helped to prepare decades of PR-specialists – these are probationers and students, who passed practice there. Employees of the service conduct lectures and master-classes in the sphere of PR at the St. Petersburg State electro-technical University, the St. Petersburg polytechnic University, the Nevsky Institute of language and culture and others.

   Professional achievements of the PR-service of LOMO are marked by the row of awards in the sphere of PR. These are Diploma “The most open company of 1997” from the editorial office of newspaper “Delovoy Peterburg”; the first reward of the professional contest “PRobe” for the project “Return “LOMO-compact” to the Motherland!” (2000); Diplomas of the winners of the contest “PRobe” for factory newspaper “Panorama of LOMO” (2001) and for the project “Book is the best gift”, devoted to the creation of new book about enterprise (2002); Diploma of the National award “Silver archer” “For PR-campaign in protection of interests of the Russian manufactures” (2000); Diploma for the level of informational disclosure in annual report in the annual contest of annual reports and sites of companies, which conducted by magazine “The market of securities” (2003).

   PR-specialists of LOMO try to show by their everyday work, that PR it’s not the dirty technologies, but activity, directed to the achievement of harmony and mutual understanding between organization and public. Estimating the results of work, PR-command of LOMO can say: 10 years passed with purpose.