Linda Johannesson » communications

The Digital Story of the Nativity

Linda Johannesson — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:36:44 +0000

Merry (digital) Christmas to you and yours!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Blogging – a language all it’s own

Linda Johannesson — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:12:57 +0000

With the adoption of emerging advancements and the use of new tools comes a resulting lexicon.

Here’s a great post from the fine folks at HubSpot explaining some of the terminology associated with blogging.

Question of the day:

What other terms have you learned/coined through your blogging efforts?

IABC 2010 world conference thoughts, themes and take-aways

Linda Johannesson — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:32:47 +0000

In addition to the fabulous people, professional sessions, terrific networking opportunities and heaps of fun,here are a few of my views about this year’s conference…

The future looks fabulous!
As communicators we’re a lucky bunch! Our future looks fabulous. It promises to be dynamic, challenging and rewarding. But, to take advantage of the opportunities that await us, we’ll need to actively embrace this dynamic future. In order to remain strategic and relevant we’ll need to better understand our own skills and strengths, we’ll need to embrace new skills, tools and technologies and add them deftly to our tactical toolkits. We’ll need to willingly embrace and respond to the expanding demands that require us to be consultants, change advocates, educators, coaches, publishers, conversation agents and story tellers. And, for those of us who do, we’ll have one key advantage. We’ll actually have a future.

There’s action required
A repeated theme of this conference for me was around Gandhi’s mantra of “Be the change you want to see”. The TorontoTalks was proud to have the opportunity to do just that with our Unconference session. We had an idea, we pitched it and we delivered it. We took action.

Many of this year’s sessions stressed a focus on action. Of course, feedback is fine, dialogue is necessary, but action is what makes the real difference. It creates change. Action is tangible.
Whether it’s everyone focused on achieving one action, as Craig Kielburger’s minga example, or the action is distributed through lots of people, each doing their share to create a small part of something larger, action by one or by many is a what gets things done. As communicators we need to realize that dialogue is great, but dialogue that creates action is better.

Great communications require great courage
We need to have the courage to break out of the traditional communications mold. We need the moxie to venture down new paths. We have to have confidence to challenge the status quo, to champion change, to create new tools, processes and solutions. We need to flex our strategic muscles and stand up for what we believe in, what we know to be good communication practices, to quote Guy Kawasaki, “don’t let the bozos grind you down” – have the courage to rise above them.

Trust has never been more important
As a profession, we’re still juggling the residual implications of the GFC, the challenges of Boomers, Gen X and Gen Ys working alongside each other trying to establish some common vocabulary and practices. Our ongoing reality includes an enduring lack of job security. We’ve faced dramatic change and had to do more with less.

There’s an expectancy for greater transparency in communications. There are more channels to choose from and faster ways of delivering your message. Everyone can have a voice and a broadcast platform,

We are at the highest level ever of distrust within organizations. There are rampant challenges to employee engagement.

To deal with these issues and move productively beyond them, we need to trust. We need to trust our employees, our managers, our leaders, our stakeholders and we need to earn, keep and treasure the trust once it has been established. Organizational engagement, productivity, innovation and evolution all depend on it.

The conference offered lots to applaud, lots to consider and lots to do…

Question of the day:

What were your conference thoughts, themes and takeaways?

An interview with Shel Holz from FIR about the UNconference

Linda Johannesson — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:34:05 +0000

TorontoTalks is grateful to Shel Holz for this recent blog post and podcast that explains a little more about how the UNconference came to be and what you can expect. Christopher Swan and I were interviewed by Shel just yesterday. Have a peek and a listen!

Questions of the day

Have you attended an unconference? Where? When?

Meet the TorontoTalks Crew

Linda Johannesson — Wed, 12 May 2010 10:00:03 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

An Invitation from the TorontoTalks Crew

Linda Johannesson — Fri, 07 May 2010 23:23:37 +0000

For all you IABC-ers out there…As outlined in the IABC 2010 World Conference program, there’s an “UNconference” session entitled Emerging Communication Channels scheduled for Sunday, June 6^th from 2- 5pm. We want as many of you to join us as possible. Your facilitators, aka The TorontoTalks Crew (TTC) are Jeremy Schultz, Christopher Swan, Bryan Person and me, Linda Johannesson.

So, what is an “UNconference” anyway? An UNconference:

Taps into wisdom of the crowds
Provides an opportunity for passionate people to share
Facilitates learning through conversations

It’s different from most conference sessions where you’d have one or two leaders speak and the audience listens, here, it’s the opposite. It’s the audience who has the floor – participants decide the topics – the content is determined by the wants, needs and desires of those in the room that day. You can participate as much or as little as you like in the discussions. The UNconference session will be a place for you to exchange your challenges, your victories, your concerns and your lessons learned with a diverse global audience of your IABC peers.

The session is free for conference attendees and will take place over a three hour time period, but feel free to come and participate for however long suits you.

A format skeleton for the session can be found here but, remember, the content will be up to you!

So, at 2pm Sunday afternoon grab your laptops, your mobile phones, ipads (if you’ve got’em), digital cameras, flip video cameras – come equipped with your case studies, your best resources, your stories, your burning questions, your best practices, your challenges and join us for the Unconference. It should be UNique learning opportunity and we hope that you’ll join us to enrich the experience .

In the meantime, if you have questions for the UNconference facilitators, ideas for discussion, want to share your stories, your experiences with other UNconferences, indicate your interest in attending, volunteer to lead a discussion, or just want to join in the conversation, you can find us online at grou.ps page , twitter, and on facebook.

I truly believe we can find wisdom in crowds, strength in communities and insight through conversation. So, join us in Toronto for our UNconference session and experience all three!

We are grateful to IABC for the opportunity to bring you this session. This kind of experience offers the entire membership another chance to “Be heard”.

We can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

‘Nuf Said

Linda Johannesson — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:49:18 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

A Milestone in Conversations

Linda Johannesson — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:47:35 +0000

There it was. In print. The brochure arrived.The annual event that I look forward to year after year.

Finally in 2010, after 20 years of membership in the association, I’m achieving a milestone. I’m on the agenda for the 2010 IABC Word Conference, taking place in my home city of Toronto. I won’t be playing the role of sage on stage. I won’t be at the microphone talking at an audience for an hour. Instead, I’ll be joining three others in facilitating a conversation. An approach that I think is far more fun!

I’m both honoured and excited to join an international crew Bryan Person from Texas, Jeremy Schulz from Arizona and Christopher Swan from California in facilitating a three hour Unconference Session, entitled Emerging Communication Channels

Beyond a love for warmer climates, we all share sense for what’s possible, a passion for marketing and communications, an interest in social media, and an obvious infatuation with technology and new ideas. It was these that brought us together at last year’s IABC World Conference. The four of us first met online through the conversations that took place through the outtathegate campaign. That was the start of a great collaborative experience. We continued our conversations long after the 2009 conference, brainstormed some ideas and then pitched a few to IABC for this year and… tada…this session was the result.

I think this is a prime example of how a conversation between strangers with something in common, backed by the power of social media can lead to an incredible exchange of ideas and the creation of something wonderful.

Just how wonderful? You’ll have to be part of our unconference session to find out!

We’d be honoured if you join our conversation…

The Future of Publishing

Linda Johannesson — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 09:11:36 +0000

Some messages should just be shared. And, then shared again. Pass it on…

Click here to view the embedded video.

What Matters Now (A Montage of Ideas from 70+ Great Minds)

Linda Johannesson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:18:53 +0000

What Matters Now is the latest free e-book from Seth Godin and friends -it’s provocative, insightful, inspiring and just plain powerful!

Download it, read it, live it….just trust me on this…this IS what matters now.