CommaKazi Speek Podcast

Communication Planning in Times of Turmoil: How to Plan and be Nimble

Karen Horn, Principal, Horn Communication
Communicators know that planning is a fundamental resource in their proverbial toolkits. Are you and your team disciplined in your planning approach? When was the last time you updated your plan template?

Listen to this brief interview of communication strategist Karen Horn, as she discusses some of the points she planned to deliver on Nov. 18 during an IABC/Chicago lunch seminar. Karen was interviewed prior to the lunch seminar by IABC/Chicago member Julia Winn.

Arguably no one had a better view of turbulent times than Karen Horn, who led Washington Mutual’s communication team through the good times and as it spiraled into the largest bank failure. With access to the C-Suite executives and Board of Directors, Karen and her team made a positive impact during the most challenging of times. Moreover, they worked their plan knowing that the changes would affect them as well as the other employees.

Lunch seminar attendees:

1. Walked away with a model for employee communication planning—and listening—to use as a foundation for any major company change.
2. • Heard how to embrace new social media approaches in the planning process.
3. • Learned how to build trust with front-line employees through disciplined planning and strategic use of blogs and town hall meetings.

Karen Horn is known throughout the world in organizational communication as one of the gold standards in the profession. At GE, she created the first communication toolkit for managers. At Cisco, she designed an on-line strategic communication tool, now available to communicators worldwide through IABC.

In a 14-minute interview on the final day of the Sept. 22-24 Strategic Communication Management Summit 2009 in Chicago, Tom interviews Claire Leheny, Melcrum Director, North America.

They discuss:

1. Findings from a recent Melcrum global survey of communication professionals
2. How the current economic market is impacting internal communications, and
3. Changes within Melcrum, including the reason behind Melcrum's recent relocation of its headquarters from Chicago to Washington, D.C.
   

Show theme, "Rollin'" by Barry McCabe  is available from the PodSafe Music Network. 

In a 16-minute interview a few days prior to leading an IABC/Chicago lunch seminar, Tribune Company communication executive Gary Weitman spoke with Tom Keefe about journalism, public relations and the changing landscape for communicators and media companies.

If you are in the Chicago area on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, attend the IABC/Chicago event to join in a frank and revealing discussion with Gary. Here is information about the event.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

"Crisis Communication in a Changing Media Environment — A Conversation with Tribune Company"

Public relations and communications veteran Gary Weitman, SVP/Corporate Relations at Tribune Company, will guide you through a series of crisis events and communication solutions implemented over his tenure at Tribune. Sharing his war stories will provide you with tools to combat your next communication crisis. You've heard about it in the news, now consider what you would do if faced with:

• Selling the company and taking it private,
• Chapter 11,
• Selling the Chicago Cubs and
• PR/communications when you own the media.

Gary will explain how his team handled these situations and how a constantly changing media environment applies to real world communications.

11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Maggiano's Little Italy

516 N Clark St (at Grand)

Chicago

Register Now

Even if you cannot attend the presentation and discussion, enjoy this interview. I also will post a link to a video interview of Gary that will be recorded on the day of his presentation in Chicago.

00:00 Intro and Opening Comment
01:00 Gary Weitman's professional background
01:45 Advice to students considering a journalism career
04:15 Students getting practical experience
06:00 Understanding content generation
07:15 Journalism skills transfer to many professions
09:00 Importance of context and the world around you
10:00 What trend encourages Gary when he thinks of the future of public relations?
12:00 Challenges of managing internal communications in a media company
13:30 The evolution of Tribune Company
15:00 Come with no preconceived notions about Tribune Company

 

Show theme, "Rollin'" by Barry McCabe  is available from the PodSafe Music Network. 

Gary Weitman
Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations
Tribune Company

Why would a company pay Infoble (http://infoble.com) to create and/or manage the distribution and tracking of podcasts? Because Infoble can overcome many of the barriers facing corporate podcasts, including bandwidth, information security, measurement of ROI, searchable archived content and more.

Listen to a 20-minute conversation with Bob Freer, Infoble VP business devclopment, and Julie Baron, Principal at Communication Works, an Arlington Heights, IL, communications strategist.

00:00 Intro
01:50 Evolution of social media within companies
03:20 Clients using the Infoble podcasting service
04:45 Past the ‘fear factor’—time to ‘do it right’
06:30 Segmenting audience messages
07:00 Popularity of podcasting
07:30 Two big ‘use cases’ for podcasting
08:30 Why pay for the Infoble solution? Bandwidth, security
11:25 Measurement
13:35 Search archived content
14:25 If the CFO wants to read the quarterly numbers…
15:00 Making podcasts interesting
16:20 Who reads when podcasts are recorded?
17:20 Faster, better with Infoble
19:45 Also works well with video!
20:50 Example of a selective use of Q&A for internal/external audiences

 

Show theme, "Rollin'" by Barry McCabe  is available from the PodSafe Music Network. 

 

Bob Freer
VP Business Development
Infoble
Phone: 1-312-933-3931
Website: http://www.infoble.com
Email: bob@infoble.com

Julie Baron
Principal
Communication Works
101 N. Hickory Ave., Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Phone: 1-847-818-0782
Email: jbaronworks@aol.com

 

Robert Swan, OBE, is a polar explorer, environmental leader and special envoy to the director of UNESCO. As the first man to walk across both the North and South Poles, Swan witnessed firsthand the damage to the polar regions. Over a five-year period, he removed and recycled more than 1,500 tons of waste from the Antarctic Peninsula. He is a noted speaker at global environmental summits, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador for Youth and a visiting professor at the School of Environment at Leeds University. In 1995, Swan was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

On June 10, he delivered a powerful message to 1,200+ communicators gathered at the IABC 2009 World Conference in San Francisco. He also asked for help.

Listen to this 1-minute interview to hear what amazing challenge Swan announced at the IABC World Conference, and how you can help.

 

These Quick & Dirty podcasts are unedited MP3 recordings made with my portable digital recorder at the IABC 2009 World Conference at the SF Marriott in San Francisco.

#3 was recorded on Monday, June 8, 2009 following a presentation by Lynn Patterson, director of corporate responsibility at RBC Financial Group, Ontario, Canada. Lynn's presentation, "The Suite Spot: Transforming your corporate responsibility report into a communication suite," included ideas for moving away from a focus on corporate responsibility reports so that communicators instead can provide a "suite" of communications tailored to key audiences across appropriate media.

Our discussion covered the reasons to move in the direction of CS communications suites, examples of how it is done at RBC, and the possibly surprising thought that CSR departments may one day disappear--but the work won't.   

These Quick & Dirty podcasts are unedited MP3 recordings made with my portable digital recorder at the IABC 2009 World Conference at the SF Marriott in San Francisco.

#1 was recorded Saturday morning, June 6, 2009 in a cab. The interview is with Stacey Thornberry, IABC 2009 Conference Manager, as we headed to the Ocean Beach cleanup event. 

Subsequent podcasts will include interviews with IABC World Conference session presenters and attendees. Stay tuned!   

These Quick & Dirty podcasts are unedited MP3 recordings made with my portable digital recorder at the IABC 2009 World Conference at the SF Marriott in San Francisco.

#2, recorded Sunday morning, June 7, 2009 in my room at the Marriott.

Summary of the events in which I've participated since arriving here on Friday afternoon:

Meetup with Mike Zimet of the IABC SR Committee and two IABC IT staffers, Isaac and Tonia.

Community service event (beach cleanup).

Walking tour of Union Square / Chinatown. The above photo shows the two SF Chapter hosts, Molly Walker and Janet Bailey (seated, wearing black shirts) and Russell Grossman (standing to the left).

Bumping into IABC leaders and colleagues.

Subsequent podcasts will include interviews with IABC World Conference session presenters and attendees. Stay tuned!   

Show 21 Commakazi Speek

Jason Ryan Dorsey, the Gen-Y Guy (tm)

An 8-minute interview with author and speaker Jason Ryan Dorsey, who shares some information about the Gen-Y generation that isn't the typical points covered in a "Generations in the Workplace" seminar.

Social Responsibility—A Discussion with communications expert Roger D'Aprix. Commakazi Speek Podcast, Show #20

Sept. 28, 2008

Show Notes:

00:00–00:45  Roger D'Aprix out-take re: social responsibility (SR)
00:46–02:10  Intro / Show Theme
02:11–05:45  A broad look at SR
05:46–07:10  Is SR a good career path, or just a fad?
07:11–08:00  The SR / employee engagement link
08:01–09:45  Senior leadership must connect with employees
09:46–13:40  The Credible Company, Roger D'Aprix's new book
13:40–13:53  Outro

Recorded on Sept. 22, 2008 at the Melcrum Strategic Communication Management Summit in Chicago.

Show theme, "Rollin'" by Barry McCabe