Well, over the last few months, we’ve been working on getting a new site up and running, to bring our presence back into the 21st century, and also provide a platform for future development.

So, welcome to the initial release - there will be plenty of exciting new developments over the next few months - so stay tuned, come back often, or subscribe to the RSS feed here.

The session takes place on Thursday 3rd April 2008 8.30 - 10.50am, Andaz Hotel, London EC2.

Places are free to Human Resources, Recruitment, Marketing and Internal Communications Specialists, but spaces are limited.

Rob Briggs will be giving a preview of his session for the IABC New York conference: ‘How I learnt to stop worrying and love my company’. This is an innovative and engaging session using up-to-date research on employee engagement from Manchester Business School. The event fee is £40 for members and £60 for non-members.

Rob is Vice Chair of IABC Europe and Middle East Region, President of IABC Netherlands and Senior Manager for Communications RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) Wealth Management, British Isles.

LOCATION: Central London Venue - details TBC  

OVERVIEW: What are the skills that internal communicators need?

Internal Communications is an unusual profession. Many of its practitioners come to the field after success in other crafts like PR or HR. And there’s little consensus about what skills people need to be proficient.

Liam FitzPatrick and Sue Dewhurst have researched extensively the skills that internal communicators have today and have developed the most up to date framework of skills and competencies.

On 27 November Liam will talk us through these competencies and help you make a self-assessment of your own capabilities. He will also help you think about your personal development choices – be that taking a course or finding a coach.

LOCATION: Mercer, 1 Tower Place West, Tower Place, London EC3R 5BU

OVERVIEW:

“Companies spend far too much time, effort and money on internal communication and attempting to engage employees with their brand. They would be better off instead working on the fundamentals of product/service quality and leading by example.”

These are the controversial views that David Taylor, Managing Partner of the brandgym and author of 4 acclaimed branding books, will be sharing on 21st November, in what is set to be one of our most heated and thought-provoking sessions. It will be full of case examples including James Bond, Pret a Manger, The Geek Squad and British Airways. Some of the key points will be:

- What so much brand engagement is really “brandwashing”
- Why the product is king
- People will doubt what you say, but believe what you do
- What gets measured, gets done

Ticket price includes a copy of David’s latest book, “Where’s the Sausage?”, that P&G’s Rosin Donnelly, 2007 Marketer of the Year, has called “The 21st Century’s answer to “Who Moved my Cheese?”, a modern day parable of brand building”.

David Taylor is one of the world’s top 50 marketing thinkers alive today according to the CIM, and a Fellow of the Marketing Society. He is the Founder and Managing Partner of the brandgym, a network of brand coaches who help teams develop an inspiring vision and the action plans to turn this into growth. He has worked with many top companies such as T-Mobile, Unilever, Kraft, the BBC and SAB Miller.

David is the author of four highly acclaimed books on branding: Where’s the Sausage?, the brandgym, Brand Stretch and Brand Vision. He also writes one of Europe’s top 10 branding blogs at www.wheresthesausage.com. He has appeared as a branding expert on ITV’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald and is a regular speaker at branding conferences. He has written articles for publications including The Guardian, Marketing, Market Leader, Brand Strategy and Marketing Business.

He began his career in brand management with Procter & Gamble before completing an MBA at INSEAD, France. He then started and successfully grew the Paris office of Added Value, Europe’s leading marketing consultancy that is now part of WPP.

OVERVIEW:

You know you need to focus on your personal development, but your time is limited and where do you start?

Kevin Chapman will help us reflect on the different skillsets, activity and expert topic areas that we should be considering. He will help us build a picture of the different development routes we can choose to take depending on what our job actually is.

Kevin Chapman leads Hewitt’s Communications practice which specialises in advising clients on solving complex human resources issues, such as improving workforce performance; attracting, engaging and rewarding talent; and in providing tailored employee communication. He has over 15 years’ experience in the field of communication, including change management around mergers and acquisitions, the design of internal communication strategies within companies and communicating the introduction of retirement programmes and flexible benefits. Kevin previously worked as an independent consultant with companies such as BP and Britvic, and prior to this was a partner at Towers Perrin, where he led its communication consulting business.