Talking Internal Communication...

'Podcasting Perfection' workshop in Birmingham

If you're interested in podcasting as an internal communication channel, you might want to come along to an event my CIPR Inside colleagues and I are running in the West Midlands early next month.

Taking place at the University of Birmingham's excellent Media Centre on Tuesday 3 June, this one day (1000-1600) workshop will focus on the often overlooked structure and content side of podcasting.

We figure that, because the technology is so accessible and easy to use, many internal podcasts end up being poorly produced - with the focus firmly on the medium rather than the message. I see a parallel here with the early days of desk top publishing, when everyone started producing beautiful yet hollow publications.

That's why we're momentarily turning our backs on the technical side to revisit the art of good content, structure and flow.      

To help us we've hooked up with a BAFTA award-winning producer, Natasha Carlish, so there should be some very interesting insights in store.   

The event also combines as the AGM for CIPR Inside, which should see me pick up the baton as Group Chair for the next 12 months. I don't promise any Obama style speeches, but I will no doubt touch on a few key themes for my 'premiership'. 

I hope to see some of you there. The workshop costs £95 for CIPR members, £125 for members and £85 for representatives from charities and NGOs. Click here for the event booking form. 

New events and training courses

If you take a look at the Talking IC calendar (via the link on the right) you'll see that I've added a stack of new events and training courses over the past week or so. 

Melcrum (website down for maintenance at time of writing) has recently launched a plethora of one and two day training courses designed to help communicators hone their tactical and strategic skills.

These courses,which build on the success of Melcrum's broader Black Belt programme, cover just about every topic imaginable - from communicating the financials to brand engagement.

They have lined up a diverse range of course leaders and, from what I've seen so far, the content looks rock solid (I'd expect nothing less from Melcrum).

It's great to see more of these sorts of 'nuts and bolts' courses available - it's fair to say the choices have been limited and the quality pretty varied until now.

If you do participate in one of these new workshops over the next few months please let me know - I'd love to include your review here on the Talking IC blog. 

CIPR Inside, the organisation I'll be chairing from the summer, has recently announced its first event of 2008. Called "What Makes the Best Stand Out?", it takes place in London on Monday 10 March. This short seminar features Paul Inglefield and Ashley Wilcox from Camden Council's award winning comms team and Pamela Mounter, the CIPR’s own award winning editor of “Effective Internal Communications”.

PR Week's Engaging Internal Communications is coming up in April and don't forget the Ark Group's Elevating the Status of Internal Communications, which takes place in London this Wednesday and Thursday.

As always, you can access full details for all these events via the calendar - just follow the links.

Romance or one night stand?

Last Friday Simon Wright and I spoke at the CiB Central event, The Rules of Engagement, in Stratford-on-Avon.

Our topic, rather appropriately for an event based near the birthplace of the man behind Romeo & Juliet, was client/agency relationships – or rather the trouble and strife that sometimes characterises these business ‘marriages’.

After a fun start - which involved the audience splitting into client and agency groups before having a mass snowball fight - we talked about the potential ups and downs of these relationships and provided our own simple recipe for success, whichever side of the fence you happen to be on. The key points are captured in this abridged slide deck:

Download cib_rules_of_engagement_presentation_abridged.pdf

There’s no rocket science here – no magic bullet or words of wisdom we can offer to ‘revolutionise your business relationships’ (though that sounds like a great name for a training course!) No, like so many things in life, it’s down to some basic principles and habits.

For us there are eight basic ‘golden rules’ for effective client/agency relationships:  

1. Find the right partner in the first place
2. Adopt a long term perspective – think about “us” not “me”
3. Talk often and regularly review the relationship
4. Build trust by being open and honest
5. Communicate your needs and expectations clearly
6. Treat your partner with respect
7. Avoid complacency
8. Tackle problems early

Of course, that’s assuming you get the basics right in the first place – that you’re good at what you do, know your stuff and deliver on time and to a high quality.

They look a little quaint when written down like that, but I know from experience that these things really do matter.

Between us Simon and I have spent upwards of thirty years working in house – and during this time we’ve hired and fired a fair few agencies, freelancers and other suppliers.

We’ve experienced many of the frustrations and challenges that come with the territory – the budget pressures, the sceptical board members, the turf wars and so on. And today we operate with that experience very much top of mind. Indeed, we think this is one of the things that makes Gatehouse, our communication agency, special.

The slide deck contains a number of references to David Maister, a guy who is very well known in the professional services sector. If you haven’t already come across him, be sure to check out his excellent website – there are some excellent articles to download – and his classic text The Trusted Advisor.

Special thanks to my good friend Nick Andrews at CG Business Communications for recommending us in the first place, to Jasbinder Bains at Engage Group for the hilarious ‘client affliction’ cartoons (I haven’t included them here as I’m not sure who owns the copyright), and to all of you who emailed me with your stories and anecdotes.

Wanted - your client/agency horror stories

I need your help.

Together with my fellow director at Gatehouse, Simon Wright, I am speaking at a one day Communicators in Business (CiB) conference in a few weeks' time on the subject of client/agency relationships.  The event is the Rules of Engagement conference, which takes place in Stratford upon Avon on 1 February 2008.

Our brief is to discuss the dynamics of the client/agency relationship and to provide some pointers to help both sides get the most out of the union.  We've been asked to do this as communication consultants who, before setting up Gatehouse, had spent most of their working lives (combined 30 years+) in house - the idea being that we can empathise with both.

It is, of course, a subject that comes up time and time again in our line of work - and for many it's a love/hate relationship. We want to use the session to explore what factors make for a fine romance and what actions lead straight to the divorce courts.

So, whether you're a client-side person or an agency staffer, we're keen to hear any stories or anecdotes that we can use to illustrate our talk and, hopefully, inject a little humour and colour into the proceedings.  Whichever side of the divide you stand on, we want to hear your horror - and success - stories, and your views on what factors guarantee a marriage made in heaven.

Please feel free to comment here (make sure you change names to protect the innocent or not so innocent) or email me direct at lee.smith@gatehousegroup.co.uk.  It goes without saying that any stories we use during our session will be strictly anonymous. 

Thanks!

Communicating the hard stuff

If you're kicking around London on Monday afternoon and have a few hours to spare, why not head over to Hill & Knowlton's office on Soho Square at 1500 for the latest CIPR Inside event?

'Communicating the hard stuff' will look at the vital role internal communicators play when their organisation or client is under siege. 

Based around a series of high profile case studies delivered by senior communication practitioners, it will explore what happens to your communications when you become the focus of media attention, your organisation is under close public scrutiny or when you need to deal with unexpectedly tough situations.

This is a great opportunity to see how well you handle pressure, as well as a chance to network with like minded professionals.

Speakers include Katharina Auer, Head of Global Internal and Management Communications at Shell International; Robert Nuttall, Head of Internal Communications at Marks and Spencer; and Janet Croissant, Head of Group Internal Communications at Transport for London.

To book a place email ciprinside@ntlworld.com or simply turn up on the day.

Hot new events added to Talking IC calendar

I've just added a number of exciting new events to the Talking IC calendar, which you can access via the right hand panel on this blog.

If you're a UK communicator and you haven't yet subscribed to this free service, why not do so now - just click though to the calendar and select 'subscribe' at the top of the page. It's that easy.

The events:

• CIPR Inside is running an fascinating afternoon/early evening event in London on 12 November. Entitled 'Communicating the Hard Stuff', it features case studies and speakers from Shell and M&S.
• IABC has just unveiled three great new events for November - an early evening session on personal development takes place on 6 November, there's a seminar on brand engagement on 21 November, and Liam Fitzpatrick is running a session on communication competencies on 27 November.
• The Institute of Communiation Ethics is running a one day international conference on communicating diversity for academics and practitioners in Leeds on 16 November. 
• Hawksmere has added new events on Communicating Corporate Vision & Values (6 December 2007 & 24 June 2008), Making the Most of Your Internal Communication Channels (28 February 2008) and Managing Internal Communications (2-3 July 2008).

To find out more on any of the listed events, or to book, simply follow the links on the calendar. You can also quickly and easily add the event to your PC calendar (e.g. Outlook) and forward details to your friends and colleagues.

New Talking IC events listing

The latest Talking IC events listing is out today.  If you don't already receive it, just click on the calendar link to the right of this post and select the 'subscribe' button. You'll then receive a free bi-weekly update on UK based events for internal communicators.

Since the last update we've added three new events...

• CIPR Inside is running a fascinating event on employer branding and internal reputation on 22 May. With speakers like Darren Briggs and Richard Mosley, it promises to be thought-provoking stuff. At £65 for CIPR members it's a bargain too.
• The team at Melcrum are putting the finishing touches to a new social media workshop for communicators. It will take place in London on 21 & 22 June and will be led by Hill & Knowlton's David Ferrabee.
• Finally, Simply Communicate and Ragan are hosting a FREE virtual webinar on 3 May featuring former BBC man Euan Semple.  He will explain how social media tools caught on at the BBC.

To find out more click through to the full listing and simply follow the links. Remember, you can also quickly and easily add the event to your PC calendar and share details with your friends and colleagues.

PM Forum event resources - Making social media work for your firm

In my role as chair of PM Forum in the West Midlands, I helped organize an interesting event recently in Birmingham. Entitled 'Blogging & podcasting - making social media work for your firm', it explained why professional services firms should embrace Web 2.0 tools. It was led by social media expert and founder of Custom Communication, Matthew Yeomans.

As well as running Custom Communication, Matthew organizes the excellent annual event Blogging 4 Business. The 2007 event, which is due to take place on April 4 at the Grosvenor Marriott in London, will showcase how top companies are using social networks, blogs, podcasts and other Web 2.0 tools to reach their customers and employees.  

If you're interested in going, we've negotiated a special 15% discount for PM Forum members and colleagues. Simply follow this link  to register and enter the code 'b4b07'.

Finally, follow this link to download Matthew's slides from the event, which containing some fascinating links.

Chewing on Crescenzo’s nuggets

I’ve spent the last two days at the Steve Crescenzo Masterclass at London’s Kensington Close Hotel. Organised by Simply Communicate, the event saw one of our profession’s leading voices visit London for the first time. And what a debut it was.

No stranger to our peers across the pond, Steve has spent the last 15 years working with Ragan Communications in the US. During that time he’s seen, read and digested more internal publications than anyone else on the face of the planet. But he’s much more than a print guy. Through his consulting practice he’s worked with some of the biggest brands in the States. And he’s a prolific and respected blogger and conference speaker.

This guy knows what he’s talking about and his seminar was rammed full of practical examples of what’s currently working (and, hilariously, what’s driving employees nuts) in the US. Over two days he took us on a whirlwind tour of traditional channels and the new social media. We covered print, face-to-face, e-newsletters, blogs, wikis and podcasting, to name a few. There were so many nuggets of wisdom I’ll be chewing over them for weeks (I’ll regurgitate some of them here over the next three or four days).

Steve is not like most internal communicators you’ll come across; at least not here in the UK. While there’s no doubting he’s a savvy ‘strategic’ thinker, he doesn’t waffle on like a wannabe Harvard professor and, refreshingly, didn’t once present a four box matrix. Instead, he focuses on sharing dozens of practical ideas which you can take back to base and implement. I like that. I’ve been to too many dull and worthy communication sermons recently.

His style is very different to those who frequent the UK conference circuit. Where they often appear to run on low voltage, Steve sends sparks flying. He’s passionate, opinionated and very funny. If he wasn’t in internal comms he’d probably be a stand up comedian or a celebrity chef. But this straight-talking, no bullshit, son of a Chicago homicide detective is a real breath of fresh air for our profession. He's also a really nice guy.

For my part, the event was a wake up call. Fed on a diet of ‘strategic’ case studies, white papers, reports and articles over the last few years, I’d started to believe that tactics were the dirty end of internal comms, best left to junior team members and those who just can’t ‘do‘ strategy. That’s crap. Done right, channels and tactics can revolutionise organisations. It took Steve to remind me of that.

If you get the chance you should go see Steve speak, particularly if you're feeling a little jaded about channels and tactics. Thanks to Simply and Ragan, he'll be back in the UK in May (I'll post details on the calendar as soon as they're finalised). If you can't make that they at least sign up for his blog and forthcoming podcast.