Linda Johannesson » iabc

#IABC10 World Conference feedback – compliments, suggestions and criticisms

Linda Johannesson — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:34:50 +0000

… and now for the compliments suggestions and criticisms
Applause, Applause – What #IABC10 Did Right
1.   Great location
2.   Warm and welcoming staff and volunteers to provide assistance throughout the conference
3.   Fabulous opening ceremonies and Gold Quill Award ceremony
4.   Engaging keynote speakers who challenged us to think beyond the business of communications
5.   Well orgainized tourist support and dine around options
6.   Great pre-conference tours
7.   A worthwhile community project
8.   Wide variety of global speakers to provide a diversity of perspectives
9.   Good selection of topics within each stream
10. Addition of another interactive component (UNconference)
11. Attracted a fabulous group of delegates

Suggestions for #IABC11
1.   Repeat unconference concept – expand it to include ANY communications topics and increase the time allotted to it – perhaps the whole first day
2.   Provide free wifi everywhere – wifi is the contemporary communicators oxygen (frankly, I’m tired of excuses, if four people running an unconference can arrange for Rogers to step in and provide wifi support with a couple of phone calls and emails a week before the conference, then the conference committee should be able to come up with a viable solution over the course of the next year – and when you do, make sure it’s advertised heavily as it’s lack of availability can be a deal breaker for some delegates)
3.   Have online or smart phone app of the conference schedule
4.   Embrace a revised format for the conference brochure – it’s old tired and time it was retired
5.   Redesign delegate name tags – include email, twitter names, etc….in the delegate name tags, speaker profiles, etc….
6.   Continue to provide ways for delegates to connect beforehand (further in advance)
7.   Include a greater concentration of hands-on/workshop type sessions
8.   Don’t run out of things that are supposed to be included – like coffee and lunch – you know how many people are in attendance, plan for them. Include one for each and if there are leftovers, donate them to a food bank, but don’t run out!
9.   Better utilize social media tools to promote the conference AND make it easier for us to promote it to our respective networks– (great start this year though)
10.   Add a “Minga” to the agenda- have all delegates concentrate on one key communications issue or world problem and create a number of solutions for it
11.   Have opportunities for people to provide feedback at the conference – a speaker’s corner type booth – feedback ambassadors who gather video or audio feedback as sessions finish and in the halls of the conference – give us more opportunities to share our thoughts about the experience or schedule a formal debrief/feedback session (we held one of our own)
12.   Provide online feedback forms as well as hard copy forms for session evaluation
13.   Record/podcast sessions and share them with conf delegates so that we can see sessions we missed and/or share these ideas with our colleagues back at the office.
14.   Needs to encourage a greater sophistication of speaker presentation material – powerpoint with bullets is not engaging and frankly communicators should know better – this approach is powerpoint-less!
15.   Create a short video to honour the Gold Quill Winners and play at the closing ceremonies, post it on the web, feature it on YouTube to further promote these folks to the greater IABC community
16.   Better promote/communicate the community projects in advance – perhaps even to local media
17.   Would love to see a visual at start of the conference showing how many people from what cities in what countries we have attracted to the conference – really show our global diversity
18.   Like to see videos/photos/presentation put together that summarizes each conference and gets used from chapter to chapter to encourage attendance the following year – need to have some additional energy demonstrated in marketing this great conference

Question of the day

What would you add?

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.

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…

outtathegate summary presentation

Linda Johannesson — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:02:09 +0000

I recently presented this to the IABC NSW chapter, sharing the highlights from the outtathegate campaign designed to extend the IABC 2009 World Conference conversation.

If you’re interested in a similar campaign for your next meeting, conference or summit, I’d be happy to discuss your specific needs.

Outtathegate Presentation

View more presentations from lindajohannesson.

Audio Boo – IABC 2009 World Conference

Linda Johannesson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:03:03 +0000

During the recent International Association of Business Communicators 2009 World Conference in San Francisco, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Bryan Person blogger, podcaster, community and event organizer, speaker and social media evangelist at LiveWorld, Inc, a company that builds, operates, and moderates social networks and online communities. In the audio Boo I shared some thoughts on the conference, the levels of adoption of social media in Australia, Canada and the US and I had the opportunity to introduce the “outtathegate” social media campaign that was designed specifically for the conference. (more on this in the “outtathegate” post)

Thanks Bryan for my first audio Boo – you can bet it won’t be my last!

Listen!

Question of the Day

How are you using audio Boo?