Saturday, June 14 -- My IABC conference wrap-up story
IABC conference a good career investment, and lots of fun, but the
association needs to attend its own event and learn from the session
content
This morning I told Jana Schilder, a Toronto PR woman who works in
the communications part of KPMG, with one set of toes dipped into the
HR department -- the quintessential qualifications for IABC membership
-- about the conference. But she's lapsed.
And she asked me, "What would I have learned that I did not
already know.?"
Good question, and the quick answer, since she’s experienced in a
broad range of PR and the communications side of HR, was that she’d
have reinforced and validated her knowledge, seen that others had the
same problems she has, and perhaps learned how they had overcome
obstacles blocking good PR.
She teased me about the jargony "validated" but the point
was that other PR people did the same things she did, or wanted
agreement to start doing, and they too felt these things were
successful, and thus she has another arrow in her quiver when she goes
looking for clearance. She can go to people and say "we can agree
to try to whatever because Ajax Widgets did a similar whatever,
and told me at the IABC conference there were some doubts about it
beforehand from the non-PR people, but they are now happy they
agreed." Along similar lines, other people at the just-over IABC
conference can go back to work and use real world examples of
organizations doing what these people want to start doing, to help
convince the approvers that the ideas really work.
Two common examples –
1/ Smart communicators know that print is not dead, and is
genuinely needed, but bosses, IT staff and CFOs argue the internet is
free, so use it instead. Shel Holtz, an internet consultant, and
Russell Grossman, the BBC’s internal communications chief, both said
at the conference that they support the "print is still
important" arguments.
2/ Many PR people face opposition when they want to push media
relations activities down into an organization. Bosses want control
above all else, and PR people want good exposure. Laurie Bauer of Best
Buy provided some arguments for the push-down theory, telling how she
makes sure store managers are trained to do local interviews, city
after city after city. For many bosses, having her
"validate" an idea for their own PR people makes it easier
to get a "let’s do it" decision.
Here are a few highlights, subdivided by level.
Juniors –there were not enough of them
I couldn't find out of town students and I couldn't find any sign
of plans for low-cost billeting with local Toronto members, no sign of
using university residences to keep costs down, no sign of charter
buses from US border-state colleges and universities with PR programs.
In contrast, the Canadian Public Relations Society conference in
Prince Edward Island later in June has a $175, meals included, fee for
students and professionals in their first year of post-university or
college work.
But, for entry-level or junior communicators, those in their first
couple of years in the profession, whether on the PR side or the HR
side of the house, they probably got the most out of two aspects of
the conference.
There were some careful, detailed, explanations of tactics, and the
processes that support tactics, that fall within the roles of juniors,
and which often their bosses don’t have time to teach, and may be
left out of school.
Suzanne Salvo, who runs the customer relations side of a
photography business with her husband Chris, who takes the shots,
based in Houston, presented a session, along with one of her clients,
Christie Rixon McGee on annual reports and corporate brochures.
Suzanne’s tips on the managing and pre-production of photography,
and Christine’s on managing the paper flow of drafts and approvals,
are all useful to juniors, making them not only more valuable, but
impressing their bosses, both within and outside of the communications
departments.
Hints – on the photo side
- Tell the subjects how to dress, (don’t have anyone stand out
like a sore thumb in a group photo);
- Get their hair cut several days before the shoot,
- Take pictures early in the day while the subjects are fresh,
- Bring clothes to work on a hanger, rather than getting wrinkled
while you wear them
- Make sure the locations are neat and tidy and none of the light
bulbs are burned out.
- Double check that you still have reserved the meeting rooms and
other locations you need
Hints - on the words side
- Provide approvers with information on how and why good, friendly,
easy to read words matter.
- Juniors can collect annual reports that sing, and use these to
help bosses support the argument for clear writing.
- Organize an approval meeting -- here’s how that works. Send out
the draft to those who need to approve, have them think about what
they want to alter, then bring them all into the same meeting and
let them sort out, under your guidance, which changes are in
and which are out, rather than having the professional communicator
try to reconcile the alterations.
- Before your copy deadlines, and when you are still waiting for
input, send a nice note saying that "since we have not heard
from you, we assume you are in agreement, and the words will runs as
is." That gets their attention.
The Salvo - McGee session had a lot for intermediates, too,
responsible for the content of the projects.
Intermediates -- the majority of the audience, and
they seemed satisfied to me
The conference audience, as far as I could tell, was mostly
intermediates, as defined by either age and experience, or
responsibilities. That's reflected in the participants list where
"manager" was the most common title.
"Strategy" and "tactics" each continue to be
defined in a multitude of ways, but regardless of their personal
definitions, intermediates could not help but learn why strategy
matters, and get some idea of how to set a communications strategy,
whether with a PR or an HR focus.
Earlier in my conference columns I threw up my hands and wrote that
I think strategy is overblown and I’d be happy with some good
tactics.
Robert Holland, an old friend from the early days of internet
forums on PR and the host of an IABC Hyperspace lunch at the previous
IABC Toronto conference years ago, wasn’t at the show, but he read
one of my columns, and wrote to make several observations, including:
"I strongly disagree with your view that strategy is
overrated. The problem is not with strategy -- the problem is with
communicators who are too lazy to do the work of developing a
communication strategy while also tending to the tactics and who
are too impatient to follow strategic planning through to the end.
The problem also is with business leaders, too many of whom never
have and never will understand how communication can be strategic
and therefore are unwilling to commit the time, energy and money
to communication planning."
The truth is, I generally agree with Robert. But if they -- PR
people all over the place -- won't or can't create the strategy, I at
least want them to handle the tactics well.
I'm going to come back in a few days to other points of his message
to me. He challenges my point that "being responsive to the
media" is a strategy (I was saying delegates who adopted this
"strategy" would benefit from American Airline's Gus
Whitcomb's presentation about his media relations set-up.)
If you’re willing to buy a definition of strategy that includes
the IABC Research Foundation RFP proposal evaluation, you’ll see an
example of how some intermediates made a major contribution, and how
other intermediates will gain as a result of the strategy adopted by
the RFP committee. An earlier column mentioned how impressed some
Research Foundation RFP meeting participants were at the session run
by Texan turned Brit Gloria Walker. One of the features of the meeting
was the inclusion of not only long-time Research Foundation leaders,
but some new blood, at various ages and levels of experience, from
IABC chapters, including several from Toronto. And if you call this
tactics, well, intermediates will still benefit.
If IABC's Research Foundation manages to make sense out of
manager-employee communications (all it really requires to make sense
is some clear writing) intermediate level IABC members all over the
world will be ahead.
Lots of INTERNATIONAL in IABC this year
And the "all over the world" idea is another big benefit,
particularly for intermediates who have to implement programs, but it
matters to senior practitioners who approve the budgets and programs,
too.
Although overseas members made up only about five percent of the
delegates, (55% Canadian, 40% US) those from overseas made a big
impact. Russell Grosman from the BBC: Sandra Macleod from Echo
Research (London, New York, Paris); John Smythe from England; Glenn
Bryant from Johannesburg: the new IABC chair, Stephanie Griffiths,
also from South Africa.
One of the pre-conference speakers was Ed Bernacki, a Canadian who
is just back from 12 years in, New Zealand and Australia: and there
was Cliff Shaffran, an Australian who lived in Asia and now is in
Monterey, California: a team of people from Melcrum Publishing in
England; Kenford Nedd, MD, from Antigua apparently but now living in
British Columbia; Tim Walmsley, from France; Juan-Andres Rincon
Gonzalez from Mexico; Pragnya Ram from India; David Kirchoffer from
South Africa; Katie Macaulay from England; Mark Drewell from South
Africa; and Bill Quirke from the United Kingdom.
I believe they all spoke. Two international speakers who were
scheduled could not make it; Berl Francis from Jamaica and Bish
Mukherjee, who would have been representing Australia, with an Indian
component.
Couple this with the US / Canadian exchanges of ideas, insights and
experiences north and south, and the export of ideas from North
America to the countries represented by the other delegates, and it
was truly international.
Most delegates are intermediates
For intermediate PR practitioners, and for those in the human
resources departments, learning that things are very different
sometimes, and not all that different sometimes, will help them
perform their day to day duties from a more worldly perspective.
I think of intermediates as executors. They can’t help but
execute better when they return home.
I really hope an IABC staffer was in Charles Pizzo’s presentation
about how to use web sites for media – and for other audiences –
relations. It is in desperate need of help. Other organizations will
start putting some news, instead of boring yet flashy show-off stuff,
on the opening pages.
Media relations managers will take insights from the Angela
Sinickas, the Fraser Likely – Sandra Macleod tag-team presentation,
Tamara Gillis' research foundation lunch talk, and other research and
evaluation presentations, back to the office and start redesigning
media relations programs (and other parts of their PR programs, too)
to get higher impact, and more bang for the buck / pound / Euro /
Rand, etc.,
On Wednesday, and in e-mails and telephone calls and the occasional
drink in a bar, I’ve been getting feedback on the dine-arounds,
where a local host took 10-20 delegates to a restaurant and everyone
got to chat with practitioners they’d never met.
One restaurant owner told me she was not well briefed, nor told of
final numbers so ended up with some IABC people seated far away from
others, -- you’d think IABC hosts, being professional communicators
and all, would know enough to confirm reservations and give head
counts – but she said her guests certainly had a good time
regardless. Another group traveled to the edge of town on a streetcar,
making the trip itself a highlight according to Russell Grossman, who
thoroughly enjoyed Toronto.
And what about the senior folks?
I reviewed the participants list carefully, looking for people
holding senior level posts in major organizations, i.e.
vice-presidents and higher, with the proverbial seat at the management
table, at companies I'd heard of.
I found very few in the participants list and only a few more in
the speakers list. So by this definition, not much senior level
turnout.
Broadening the definition so that, for instance, it included me,
the senior level included consultants like Fraser Likely and agency
owners or executives – think of Anne B. Forrest, who was named an
IABC fellow and is with Golin/Harris Forrest in Hong Kong, Pat
McNamara from Toronto -- , and the bosses of firms that supply our
business – Lou Williams from L.C. Williams and Associates; Sandra
Macleod from Echo, and the senior list grows.
I’m a former corporate PR department head, a long time
consultant, a former Burson-Marsteller Toronto management committee
member, etc. with my own firm for 17 years, and when you add other
consultants with long time backgrounds, the senior lists grows, but it
is still pretty short.
Some seniors only caught a few sessions, and spent most of their
time talking to old friends, but usually about business. When I wanted
to talk to Lee Hornick from New York , I knew I could usually find him
holding court with a half dozen people, at all levels, exchanging
ideas. Twenty minutes with Hornick in the lobby was as good as forty
minutes in a lecture hall.
I’m sure some senior people went home thinking, "How'd I get
this far, without paying more attention to …." Where the dots
represent some communication concept featured in a presentation, and
"Geezzz I’d better get my people to fix the web site before any
of these delegates come to visit and see what I missed."
But I think more of the senior corporate PR people will get back to
the office and will send their staff a note. I certainly hope they
will do this. And the note will say, "We’re having a meeting
for all of you to debrief me on the IABC conference. Come prepared to
ask me about, and challenge our department’s thinking on, our web
site, our media relations program, our use of photography, our
relationships with our colleagues in other countries, our
relationships with senior management other than the CEO, our overall
image evaluation, and our relationship with the advertising
department. And that’s just the start."
The senior people on the agency and consulting sides should –
this is a note to myself – call up some clients and invite them to
lunch, saying, "I’m just back for a great International
Associations of Business Communicators conference, it’s got me
thinking of a lot of things about our projects and teams work, and we
should have a long leisurely lunch that won’t appear on my invoice
to you, and talk about communicators."
Here are a few comments from some of the people at
the conference.
Charles Pizzo, talking about Dim Sum Sunday morning with about
30:
Dim Sum - "yes, all good. Thanks for arranging. I think it's
helpful to get together with a group before conference and bond. Once
the conference starts, the schedule zooms.
From Sharon Bond , Chicago, and a former IABC chapter
president: A great time was had by attendees I talked to, and it’s a
real shame so many people chickened out. The Malcolm Gladwell talk was
a highlight, as was the SARS panel. Overall, I give the conference a
"B+." Grade would be higher if one of the sessions I
attended hadn’t been awful!
From Steve Crescenzo, one of the speakers on at the same time
as Pizzo and Grossman. That All Star panel, while good from a
marketing perspective perhaps, is a dicey proposition. Why take a
bunch of speakers whom you KNOW are probably going to attract
attention and put them all on at the same time?
I wish I had some perspective to give you on the conference, but
sadly I wasn't there enough.
From Suzanne Salvo, a Gold quill winner from Houston and a
board member.
"I’m surprised at the lack of photography used at the
conference, whether in promotion of the events or in the
presentations. Good images boost excitement and are tailor-made for
international audiences, since photographs are always understood and
never get lost in translation.
Presentations that use photography stand out, and I hope a lot of
delegates realize the reason some of the presentations were so good is
because real people, in real places, doing real things, jumped off the
big screens.
Presenters that use just text slides and then, god forbid, read
them word for word, should be banned for life from presenting at
conference.
I think the IABC program committee should insist that potential
speakers submit some description of their presentation format (podium
talk only? text slides only?, photos? video clips?, etc.). Or maybe
provide some guidelines or suggestions for improvement. Visuals ALWAYS
help!
More from Pizzo, about the conference itself. He was world-wide
IABC chairman three terms ago.
"The opportunity to network and hear from speakers all over
the world is unparalleled. IABC presents an opportunity for any
ambitious person to take all the knowledge and contacts they can grab
and carry them back home as useful intelligence.
Would it be possible to package and inject all those benefits into
the heads of those who don't attend? That transcends the limits of
technology, and frankly, fosters the myth that you can get everything
you need just sitting in your office. In any profession, getting out
and into professional development opportunities is the only way to get
ahead.
Travel and conference fees are wise investments I choose to make in
my own career. Sure, I could sit back and cry that all the benefits
should accrue to me for free, but I know that's unrealistic. No one
ever got fit sitting on their duff (if so, I'd be SuperMan).
Russell Grossman of the BBC made a point of doing business in
Toronto while he was here, instead of running for the airport. He
queried the number of concurrent sessions, and said he'd be happy to
present his seminar twice, so people had more opportunities to hear
him.
Echo Research's Sandra Macleod had at least three client
meetings the day after she spoke. She queried the number of extra-cost
sessions, mentioning specifically that Wednesday's wake-up session by
Kenford Need was so could that all delegates should have been there,
but many were not because of the extra cost.
Overall, after talking with dozens of delegates …..
From a content point of view, the conference was very, very
worthwhile. For a tourist-in-Toronto point of view, every out of
towner came despite the worries of family and friends back home, and
learned that those worries were overblown and unjustified.
Work needs to be done within IABC
From an IABC association-serving-members point of view, the
conference demonstrates, to use the jargon of the associations own
members, the need for significant strategic development, culture
change, and public relations and corporate communications program
tactical development and implementation.
IABC brought together members from all over the world to talk about
communications, one of the most important topics in business,
political, and social life, and did not even bother to bring the
public relations manager to the conference. If the association
does not believe in PR, why should members believe in the association?
But I'm glad I went, most delegates are glad they were there, and
those who stayed a way missed a good show.
Thursday, June 12
Wednesday at IABC's Toronto 2003
"Worth the whole conference fee" and "Bring him back
next year!" IABC delegates found value in the sessions.
About ten minutes into Russell Grossman's presentation "A
human approach to cultural change" he mentioned journalists as
one of his internal audiences at the British Broadcasting Corporation.
He is the BBC's head of internal communications, up to his ears in a
cultural change program. Ten minutes later I stood up at the front of
the room, interrupted him, said I was a journalist, and needed to
interview his audience. My question: "Has this been interesting,
and useful, and have you already learned things you'll take back to
the office next week, and do you expect this to continue to the
end?" The room erupted in applause, shouts of "yes" and
raised hands.
Later, people told me the session was worth the whole price of
admission to the IABC Toronto 2003 conference.
From there, I head to a concurrent session by Steve Crescenzo, a
consultant who edits Ragan's Internet Report, counted the house --
pretty close to 200 -- and noted that his slides had real pictures of
real things, and the text slides were big enough to read. Then I
headed next door to hear Charles Pizzo, a New Orleans PR man who used
to be chairman of IABC, talk about PR on the net, focusing on web-site
news rooms, using the internet to communicate with editors and
reporters, etc.
After fifteen minutes there, I asked Pizzo's audience the same
question as at the BBC session, and got the same answer. Later,
several people came up to me to make the point that Pizzo's show was
worth the whole conference fee.
Dan Ranly -- he makes them laugh as they learn
I walked by Dan Ranly's room several times, where he was
discussing writing for business, with laughter flooding out of the
room, but I did not hear much content and did not have time to go in.
Later, because of my new name tag (see yesterday's story) people knew
I was writing for you, and came up to make sure I told you how good
Ranly's presentation was. He was a professor at the University of
Missouri School of Journalism for 29 years.
And at lunch time, just gabbing with delegates, two told me about
how happy they were to attend Christie Gay's "Are your employees
playing to help you win?" session, which I missed.
Too much choice
If you were a PR person, (as distinct at IABC events from being a
human resources person) all four Pizzo - Crescenzo - Grossman - Ranly
sessions would have been worthwhile, but IABC keeps dividing the
audiences.
And if you were an HR type the Grossman - Gay - Ranly sessions
would have been worthwhile.
And Wednesday morning the presentation-choosing conflicts were even
worse than usual, with IABC billing Wednesday morning as
"All-Star" sessions. IABC knew everyone would be excellent
and still stacked them all at the same time.
Before coffee break, you had to choose from five, and it would have
been six except for a cancellation. After coffee break, it was a bit
easier to choose, from only four scheduled after a cancellation of the
fifth, but Canadian Business executive editor Scott Steele's
presentation, rescheduled from Tuesday, was added.
Because of overlaps. I couldn't get to, and no one told me anything
about, two sessions. One was Karen Susman's networking and related
subjects session. You get the idea from one part of her bumf, which
says, "How to become the CEO of your career"
After I know nothing of long-time IABC speaker and friend of the
association Angela Sinicklas' measurement seminar called
"Calculating the ROI on your communications."
A session by Marylee O'Neill, one of those change-HR- strategy
"consultants" was canceled. I put consultant in quotes to
indicate my preconceptions of her, based on hearing her name in years
past. I'm not sure All Star is the phrase, but maybe I'm wrong.
What I did see was good. American Shel Holtz, a technology-oriented
communicator who speaks all over the world, often at IABC events, and
who sill knows the value of paper, packed a room and brought a sense
of reality and balance to those parts of technology that have been
over-hyped for years.
Media relations always matters
Canadian Business executive editor Scott Steele had only nine
people in his audience, because of IABC's inability to get the message
out that the session was rescheduled. And because of the competition
he faced. He made the same three points always made by editors, and so
often forgotten by PR people.
- know the publications before you pitch the stories
- only pitch stories that make sense for the magazine, newspaper,
or television station
- keep in touch with the editors and writers because, if you
follow the two points above, they want to keep getting ideas and
making connections.
And he added some insights into how business journalists are
educated. As reporters learn more about business and thus cover it
better, I suggest PR people need to keep pace in their general
business education, too.
At the annual general meeting Tuesday morning, outgoing IABC chair
Annette Martell talked about the IABC media tour in Canada. In fact,
there was not much coverage, and what there was seemed off-topic as
far as I'm concerned, except for a good story in Steele's magazine by
Thomas Watson, a writer who has been in both the journalist and PR
camps. You can find that Canadian Business article on the IABC web
site, www.iabc.com, if you search hard enough. Hint; "click on
"Information."
And South African Glenn Bryant, senior communications advisor at
Standard Bank in Johannesburg, accomplished two things. To a room of
about 150, he brought an international perspective to the conference,
and taught people about some of the differences between the PR and
business worlds of South Africa and those of North America.
And he provided insights into the actual practice of public
relations in a giant consumer organization. I think his session was
mis-labelled. It was in the "Employee Communications" stream
but it was in reality much broader than that, of interest to people in
all parts of the public relations profession, whether generalists or
employee communications specialists.
By noon my feet hurt and my brain was full and since IABC had not
given me a ticket to the extra-fee lunch speaker, I found myself stuck
in a comfortable chair in the hotel lobby, with people coming and
going and giving me some thoughts on the conference to pass on to
you..
Dozens upon dozens were checking out, standing in line for the
airport bus, and putting together groups to share cabs.
Have more sessions for the person, not the profession
And among those thoughts were two comments, one from Bermuda and
one from England, raving about the breakfast time wake-up session
about creating positive energy and happiness in the workplace, by
Kenford Nedd, MD, an Antiguan. His new fans said this session really
was of more benefit to themselves that to their firms, and thought
IABC needs more non-business content, without going overboard.
Conference ended before it was finished
For all intents and purposes the conference was over,
notwithstanding that there was a lunchtime presentation from Dottie
Bruce Gandy, up from Texas and the author of "30 Days to a Happy
Employee." And there were some more extra-cast post-conference
sessions.
But there was no final general session, no "thanks for
coming" rally, no pledges of "together, we'll take on the
challenges or 2003" and not even a "Goodbye, and thanks for
coming" from the IABC president, whose salary is paid by the
conference delegates and other members.
And then I left the conference hotel, adjourned to an outdoor patio
in the Toronto sunshine with a few delegates from far, far away, and
tried to talk about something other than public relations, employee
communications, culture change, and so on. We hid our name tags, but
we failed in our objective. To the people there, their careers are
such an important, and satisfying, part of their lives that even talk
about how great Toronto is for tourists slid into discussions of how
the media covered the SARS scare.
Wrap-up column coming soon
My final thoughts will be in a wrap-up column you can read here in
the next few days. It will speak to some comments O'Dwyer's and BAK's
Report readers have sent me, and conference delegates have brought up.
Just a hint -- they talk about my attitudes to research, strategy, and
the position of public relations within an organization, and they have
an internationalism component, too.
The wrap-up will talk about the highlights of the conference, and
what I learned, or had reinforced, about IABC, its structure and
management, and the need for culture change in parts of the
association, perhaps even more than at the BBC.
All in all, value for money, value for your career
But, bottom line… If you were there, it would be impossible not
to have picked up valuable information to either change the way you
work, or reinforce that you've pretty much got it right already. It's
up to you what you implement back at the office.
My favorites, based on those I got to, the enjoyment of attending
the presentations and the value I thought the content provided to the
audience? Randall Grossman of the BBC on culture change and Charles
Pizzo, of P.R. PR in New Orleans, on using the web as a media
relations tool. You can read the presentation at http://www.charlespizzo.com/iabc2003/
because, of course, Pizzo knows how to use the web for media relations.
If you were not at IABC's Toronto 2003, you missed many good
sessions and, even more importantly, many good conversations with your
fellow communicators.
Wednesday, June 11
Tuesday at IABC's Toronto 2003
A day of good ideas, and a new name tag for the
O'Dwyer's reporter.
Partly through the IABC Research Foundation lunch today I wrote a
note and put a star beside it and slid it over to be read by the woman
next to me. She read it and nodded in agreement.
It said "What is the value (and you can't measure it in
dollars) of the knowledge someone brings back to work from the IABC
conference?"
It was inspired by an excellent speech by Tamara Gillis, from
Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, where she discussed the idea
that good communications, however you define communications, is an
intangible asset in business, but nevertheless a genuine asset.
She was speaking at an (unfortunately) extra-cost event that had
too sparse a crowd considering the value of the information.
The study is in the draft stage, and IABC will be offering it for
sale, probably in the fall.
As I said to her afterwards, research that agrees with my
preconceptions is research I like. Lou Williams, the man who stepped
in to reorganize IABC after the departure of Elizabeth Allen and
before the arrival of Julie Freeman, and a research expert himself,
pointed out that this is a legitimate use of research. But what I
liked was that this new research seemed to draw attention away from
what I think is silly -- assigning a dollar value to communications.
For years, I've been echoing a beer commercial: "You know it when
it's right" and saying you can't put a dollar value on, for
instance, a press clipping or a reputation as a good place to
work.
Another conference speaker, Sandra Macleod, Chief Executive of
Echo, The Communications Research Group, (London, Paris, New York)
raised an eyebrow at my beer slogan, saying, "you know it
when it's right, but what about people without your experience,
including people in management who are not communicators?" She
has a point, and we're in agreement there are measuring systems that
work. At a conference her organization ran a few months ago in London,
the intangible asset concept was advanced by one of her guest
speakers. And we agree it's a mug's game to try to match the cost of
an ad with the value of an article
Valuable as Tamara Gillis' research is, we have to wait until the
fall for full details.
Pizzo is a friend of research
At the same lunch, Charles Pizzo received a special award
recognizing his contributions as a friend and supporter of the
Research Foundation. In his acceptance speech, (noteless, right out of
his head) he emphasized the work everyone else did, and thanked them
for providing him with the research.
Earlier in the day, Annette Martell, the elected chair, and Julie
Freeman, the paid president, spoke at the annual general meeting,
outlining the activities and achievements of IABC over the past year.
And there were lots of achievements, as it tries to get control of
itself and its money. Cost savings and new financial reporting
structures were discussed, and there appeared to be great pride that
the auditors, Deloitte and Touche, approved of IABC's financial
management. The financials discussed are eight months old, for the
year ended September 30, 2002, and only a few numbers were given out.
The ones that caught my ear were that membership declined 7.4 percent
two years ago, and "only" 6.7 percent last year. Estimates
for this year are 3 percent growth. Which really is a big turnaround
from a 6.7 percent decline, but, if the 3 percent increase is
achieved, membership will still only be 89 percent of what it was four
years ago.
And there's a huge change in the number of directors at IABC,
reduced from 26 to only 12. Apparently IABC current executive and
staff did not think individual members needed to be involved in this,
and I was told by several people that no copies of the draft by-law
were sent to individual members. Maybe chapter leaders were supposed
to "cascade" the information.
One director asked at the AGM what she could tell members who are
not affiliated with chapters but want more from IABC. I thought the
answer was one of those that sounds good, but does not stand up to
analysis. i.e. the electronic directory sounds fine, but everyone gets
it, and lots of members don't use it much.
That observation, of course, leads to another comment from a
different member, who said, "members do have an obligation to
work at getting the benefits of membership, You only get out of it
what you put in."
One senior delegate sat down beside me and volunteered the comment
that she hoped this session would be better than the ones she had
attended. And another, visiting from overseas, expressed
disappointment that some of the sessions she had traveled so far for
were canceled.
That got me thinking about the sessions I'd been at, which were
all, I thought well done.
And that evolved into another discussion about the volume of
choice. Two women at lunch said they liked having to choose from among
five, six or seven sessions, but other people were upset that they
missed sessions they wanted because they were forced to choose, and no
sessions were repeated. And several people said there were too many
employee communications sessions, but on the other hand, they
attracted sizable audiences.
Rolling all these opinions together, it seems like the wise course
for the future would be lots of choice, but separated not only by
"track" (employee communications, HR support, Public
Relations, etc.) but by seniority.
I learned nothing much (see American Airlines below) about the
areas of communications I'm active in from any of the speakers -- I
could have learned technical stuff from Shel Holtz if I'd stayed in
his session longer)-- but I've been in the public relations business
forever. What I thought was so good in most of the sessions I attended
was that less experienced delegates could go back to the office primed
for implementing good tactics. But it did leave me wondering about
what's there, other than visiting with old friends, for the sharp 50
year olds. Will this be strategic development, or some string of
letters theory?
I'm growing to believe strategy can be overblown and even
over-rated. Excellent execution of the basics will solve most
problems, without weeks or months of strategic planning while nothing
important happens.
And there were tactics galore, at intermediate and senior levels
of complication.
For instance once you establish a strategy that requires good
research, you'd benefit from the presentation of Fraser Likely, from
Ottawa, and Sandra Macleod, from England, who met one of my criteria
for success.
If the strategy was "be responsive to the media" lots of
people would benefit from adopting the tactics of American Airlines. A
dozen delegates came up afterwards and discussed his presentation with
American Airlines executive Gus Whitcomb, who told about his airline's
crisis programs, detailing 9/11 and the crash shortly afterwards in
New York. And he taught a simple lesson that was new to me.
- After you finish speaking, and when people come up to get your
card, leave a pile of cards on the table for those who want
contact info, but don't have the time to chat.
Kit Jenkins, the new chair of the Research Foundation, talked about
multicultural communications to twice the audience she expected, and I
caught half of it before leaving for another session. She provided a
quick exercise to see how "international" the group was, and
says she was pleasantly surprised to see the scope of knowledge in the
room.
The formal day ended with a cocktail party -- paid bar, good free
food -- in the exhibit hall. Talking with several exhibitors, they all
seemed happy with the way IABC used the exhibit hall for a reception,
for tours, for an internet café, and were pleased by the traffic
flow.
New name tag for me
And, I'm pleased to report, IABC's reading this column. At lunch I was
presented with a new name tag, with my first and last names nice and
big and easy to read.
Tomorrow's the last day, and by the end of the week I'll put
together a sort of highlight reel with a list of good ideas and
interesting insights.
Tuesday, June 10
Monday at IABC's Toronto 2003
By Brian Kilgore
SARS Panel fills hall for a conference highlight, some sessions are
very practical with lessons that can be used immediately.
If you had picked the right sessions, you'd have found a lot of
excellent communications lessons, well taught, at the IABC conference
in Toronto. But not all was perfect.
The IABC exhibit hall is a mixed blessing, according to several
people I talked with, who commented that there were fewer exhibitors
than in the past. But I found those in attendance were, for the most
part, interesting. I talked with Deloitte and Touche, where two people
explained that their part of D&T was quite removed from the
accounting practice of the firm, and completely removed in cases where
audit work and consulting work might overlap. The D&T people at
the conference compete more with Mercer and Watson Wyatt, in the
"HR Consulting" sphere, they said. Most of the exhibitors at
the show seemed to be aimed more at HR departments than public
relations and corporate communications departments, and some straddled
the field. I was impressed with the latest technology from companies
that sell fancy television systems and intranets so companies can keep
employees up to date on the latest news, whatever that news may be.
When it comes to bulletin boards, now they are plasma screens
controlled by computers run by either professional communicators or
human resources people.
Cottage, Rolling stone jacket, pet toys
But the best part of the exhibits was the live display of many of
the items in the IABC auction. IABC's auction is up head to head
against a PRSA internet auction, which has almost all brand name
consumer products or services, while IABC's got items with a more
direct link to the conference and its members, and reserve bids that
are proportionally much lower than at PRSA. You can learn about the
IABC auction by trying to find the hardly-evident link at www.IABC.com.
IABC's planning a mass e-mail to members on Wednesday, to build some
interest. Bidding to midnight last night was very, very sparse, and
I'm betting most items will only get half a dozen bids at best. We'll
see.
Best items? A weekend at a cottage north of Toronto on a private
lake, and a Rolling Stones denim jacket with a jeweled tongue pattern
on the back.
Too much choice, audiences too small?
IABC's decision to run many concurrent sessions means some speakers
prepare a full presentation for only a tiny audience. Ann Couvoukian,
PhD, the Ontario government's privacy commissioner, managed to attract
under 15 people to "The Privacy Imperative; Earn customer's trust
or lose them (and their friends) forever. Down the hall, long-time
IABC speaker Shel Holtz was filling in for a cancellation. He had four
times as many, and in the few minutes I caught, was explaining the
computers, internets and intranets should never replace print
entirely, because there are times and places and messages where
print's effectiveness outweighs the latest e-technology.
At the same time, John Santoro of New York was talking to more than
200 people about communications and the executive suite.
But I wanted to listen to most of a show rather than dart from room
to room, and settled in, with more than 100 others, to listen to Best
Buy's Laurie Bauer talk about public relations and its media relations
subset at Best Buy. In addition to having a great fake Valley Girl
delivery style - she used it in a great story about how KFC missed a
PR opportunity, and turned it instead into a PR disaster -- she made
many good points. Here are five that are very valuable.
-- Provide media training for your senior people at all your
branches, plants, operations, not just to people at headquarters.
-- Expertise is more important than title, so when reporters come
calling, have an expert available, even if not the top local
manager.
-- Set a culture company wide that reflects your communications
strategy. Best Buy is open and welcoming to reporters, everywhere.
It's not a location by location decision.
-- That said, store managers (remember, these are senior business
executives running $40 million and greater businesses) have the
final say on whether they, or someone else, will do an interview
-- There are times, and speaker training is often one, where
bringing in an outsider to ask hard questions and criticize
management is much better strategy for a PR person than being
negative yourself and embarrassing, annoying or alienating your
bosses.
IABC's major event of the conference should be the Gold
Quill Awards. This is where the best of the best of the 13,000 members
around the world have their names read out, as winners. Some even
pickup awards. But IABC has decided to organize the event so
attendance is awful, and today only about 280 of the 900+ delegates
bothered to buy an extra-cost ticket. Two out of three delegates did
not think it was worth the price.
I was there, and I went to take a photograph of IABC chair Annette
Martell, and discovered my $2000 digital camera was busted. I listened
for a few minutes to a tedious, conventional, PowerPoint presentation
about the awards process; (not about the awards themselves) and then
departed to see if I could get the camera fixed (no, it's back to
Nikon) and then went back to my office for a replacement camera. Snide
remarks ensued from IABC headquarters when I said my camera was broken
and I couldn't send IABC a few free pictures today. IABC's got another
official photographer there, but apparently it takes a long time to
get his pictures to San Francisco IABC headquarters. So I missed the
presentations, but several people told me the show was dull and
without show-biz, and plans are already underway to make next year's
program much, much better.
Skipped some sessions and talked to people
I spent a chunk of the afternoon talking with various delegates,
about a variety of IABC topics.
One woman observed that IABC headquarters doesn't really offer
anything tangible in return for membership, except the opportunity to
buy high priced items. It was up to the chapters to deliver the real
benefits, notwithstanding you were always paying and paying.
Another member observed students were not involved as delegates at
IABC's conference to anywhere near the extent that they are at PRSA
and Canadian Public Relations Society conferences. Lack of involvement
was viewed as a negative.
There was a lively discussion about advocacy -- how good a job was
IABC doing in convincing business and other organizational leaders
that business communications is important, should be led by someone at
the executive ranks, and deserves to be at the proverbial management
table. I was told by one delegate that IABC does a better job than I
know of, so as I'm writing this story, I looked into IABC's clip
report on the web site. Only seven of 25 articles listed are in
publications aimed at audiences outside the communications world, but
these are not all the articles written last year, of course. And of
the seven, most are tiny mentions.
But, things are looking up. And the top of the list buried at
www.IABC.com in "Information" is a piece from the DesMoines
Register, based on an interview with IABC paid president Julie
Freeman, that actually proves my long-time point that IABC simply
needs to use PR techniques for itself, and it will get positive
coverage. It's a pretty good story, although she could have picked as
her example some storyline other than what young enployees think of
bringing food to parties.
We talked about how Annette Martel, IABC's elected chair, went to
Regina, among other cities, and no effort was made to even talk to the
local media. One delegate, not from Regina, said that business and
government leaders in Regina already understand and value business
communications, so there's no need for media relations on the visit by
who I call "the most important communicator in the world"
because she represents communicators in so many countries.
Doubting that Regina really understood business communications and
PR, I double-checked by asked a true Reginian. "Baldersah"
was the reply. (Honest, that's the actual word)
I talked about both the Gold Quill Lunch, and Regina media and the
business community with Clair Watson, ABC, APR. She's a busy woman,
taking responsibility for making the Gold Quill ceremony next year
sing, and she's looking for suggestions and advice, asking several
members for e-mails with ideas.
And, about local PR, she explained that IABC Regina has an active
program to draw leading communications speakers from around the world.
When they get to Regina, they do a full range of media interviews.
Jillian de Beer, a New Zealand consultant, was all over the local
media, for instance.
But perhaps the most important observation was from New Yorker Lee
Hornick, a long-time IABC conference goer.
While IABC was expecting 1600 and only got around 950 in Toronto,
Lee points out that most of those 950 are courageous, coming to this
city perceived to be dangerous because of SARS.
He thought a story headline should be something like "950
delegates display courage." (I'm paraphrasing.)
And he has a point, because people all over the world are
frightened of our city (I live in Toronto). I've talked to dozens of
delegates who came despite the objections of, or after discounting the
fears of, family or friends. No-one has said to me "Everyone said
I was doing the right thing." Many have phoned home to say
everything is OK.
So, I'm willing to agree, to a point, and write this subhed:
Almost 1000 demonstrate courage and attend IABC Toronto 2003; most
attend SARS panel discussion.
It was a wonderful panel, to a packed auditorium, organized at the
last minute, combining general interest, some serious examination of
crisis communications for PR people, and the occasional laugh.
The smoothest, best delivered, presentation I've seen at any part
of the conference came from Dr. Sheela Basur, the Toronto Medical
Officer of Health, who laid out the sequence of events, provided some
definitions, and set the stage for presentations by Craig DuHamel. He
represents the provincial government.
John Bozzo, the head of public relations at Sunnybrook and Women's
hospital, gave an insider's look at how to run crisis communications
in a genuine life and death situation.
His main lesson? Get your PR crisis program ready now, and it
will be useful for the first hour or so of a crisis, but at least will
establish the infrastructure. Included in the infrastructure is the
ability to setup a web site immediately; getting fax and e-mail
systems in place, organizing telephone lines, cell phone available,
photocopies and security.
The panel ran late because it was so fascinating and the details
just kept on coming, but no-one seemed concerned they were missing
part of the cocktail party.
The wine and cheese reception was another request for IABC members
to reach into their wallets for extra money, over and above conference
registration. (The Gold Quill lunch was, as mentioned above, extra
cost, too, as was the evening at the Hockey hall of Fame that ended
the evening's official activities.)
The reception featured some of the most important association
announcements. Anne B. Forrest of Hong Kong was named as an IABC
fellow. Lane Stockbrugger from SGI/Brown Communications Group in
Regina, picked up the Jake Wittmer Award he won with Maureen MacCuish
from Saskatchewan Government Insurance, who was not there.
Pattie Overstreet-Miller, VP of corporate at Dade Behring in
Deerfield, picked up the Business Issue Award, she shares with Jim
Reid-Anderson, the company's president and CEO.
Monday night, delegates who bought extra tickets (again) visited
the Toronto Hockey Hall of Fame. No tickets were given to the media,
and I came back to my office to write this and watch the Stanley Cup.
Tuesday morning starts early, with the IABC annual general meeting
at 7:30. I'm guessing 150 people out of 900 will attend. I'll report
back. The Research Foundation is giving out awards at another
extra-fee event. Winners will be listed here tomorrow.
Summary of the day: great sessions, well presented. Too bad
turnout was so low for the two special events where the best of the
best were honored. Those who chose to come to Toronto got excellent
value for money, in the sessions and exhibit hall.
Monday, June 9 (very early) - replaces a story posted Sunday.
IABC's extra cost opening sessions began Sunday afternoon,
followed by "The Tipping Point."
I picked up my IABC conference kit Saturday afternoon, and it
contains some good news and some bad news. Just how professional is
the International Association of Business Communicators. Does the
association communicate professionally?
The name tag in my kit is awful -- look at the bottom of
O'Dwyer's PR Daily for a story about name tags -- but the kit
includes a participants and speaker list full of interesting news,
and many speakers have supplied some, most or all of their
presentations. Let's look quickly at the kit, in order. It's in a
nice black cloth case, courtesy of Towers Perrin.
The name tags fail
It
would be simple to make readable, useful, professional name tags.
Tags with first name, last name, organization name and hometown nice
and big, so we could all look across a table, look into a group, and
read the words on the tags and identify the people with whom we want
to, in IABC-speak, "Network." But when my tag says
"Brian" nice and big, no one knows which Brian I am, (in
fact, no Brians are registered, and I'm not in the directory) where
I'm from, and they can't even try to get me to include their name in
O'Dwyer's PR Daily. Good name tags are simple professional
communications execution, and IABC fails. Again.
At sessions and two receptions Sunday afternoon and evening I was
continually frustrated being unable to read tags and know who I was
talking to, past a first name. More important, it makes it very hard
to find those to whom you want to go introduce yourself. It's fine
for IABC big shots who already know each other, but for the rest of
us ….
Next, the registration lists.
Any thoughts about communications, pr etc. being a velvet ghetto
are reinforced here. I added and counted, page after page, and
probably missed some numbers, so this is in broad terms, but you'll
get the idea. If I didn't know if Pat or Terry or Lesley was male or
female, I just left them out of the equation. My rough count shows
550 woman delegates, 225 men, and 66 names I could not categorize.
But the ratio changes with the speakers. About 50 men for sure,
30 women for sure, and three with names I could not categorize.
Adding speakers to delegates, I got about 920 people at the
conference, about 580 women and 275 men, plus the 70 unknowns. There
is no clear cut-off date in the registration list, although the
handouts included were all submitted before May 13. I hope to get
more accurate figures on Monday.
No students are listed in the directory, but maybe none want to
attend. I'll investigate. Students from Centennial College and
Humber College in Toronto are acting as volunteers, and I'm told
three hours as a volunteer gets a student into a session. One
delegate, from Nova Scotia, is going to the Canadian Public
Relations Society conference in Prince Edward island later this
week, where student registration, including meals, is discounted to
$175 because CPRS sees students as its future. IABC apparently
hasn't noticed.
Who are the people that are here? IABC members who work for
themselves or in very small firms are not very interested in
attending. Only about 50-60 of the 900 are small shop people, as far
as I can tell. Not enough value for the fees, I surmise, confirmed
by several who came and paid anyway. Several told me they are
looking for business, and are disappointed at the poor turnout,
meaning fewer prospective clients. And several report that looking
for business at earlier conferences had paid off. Of almost a dozen
single-person shop people I talked with, most were skipping the
extra-cost lunches and receptions.
Lots of delegates from governments or non-profits, lots from
corporations, but the biggest groups are from consulting firms that
sell to HR departments of businesses. And there are some insurance
companies, and, to my surprise, ten from one Big Four accounting
firm, Deloitte and Touche, although one delegates says, "They
have an HR consulting operation that flies under the radar."
There are four from Ernst & Young, two from PWC, and none from
KPMG.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police sent four women.
And the long-distance travel numbers are bad. About 200 of the
900 in the directory we all received are close enough they could
drive to the conference every day. Planes to Toronto are almost
empty, people tell me. One delegate, flying from Atlanta, shared his
full size Delta jet with 26 people, plus crew. A tourist from
Houston (not at the conference) told me there were 20 on his
airplane, one from Boston had six on his plane, and another delegate
from western Canada said fewer than one in three seats was filled.
These terrible travel figures have many reasons; it's not all
because members don't care about the conference. SARS continues --
unfairly and with no reason -- to terrify. There's an American
Airlines participant at the conference. If I can spot him; it's Gus
Whitcomb, -- see the name tag comment above -- I'll ask. Many
delegates told me Sunday they faced worry and opposition at home,
from friends, family and employers worried about SARS. About 30
delegates had Dim Sum today in Chinatown, organized by Charles Pizzo,
Mark Towhey and me. We are all fine.
Countries represented are the USA and Canada, plus Denmark (Anne
Bove-Nielsen and Karina Porcelli) India, Switzerland, Barbados,
France, South Africa, England, Australia, Belgium, Jamaica, Finland
(Jorma T. Laakkonen), Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, and Uganda.
The North Americans who traveled the furthest are probably Canadian
Peter J. Watt from Hay River, in the Northwest Territories, and
American Neil R. Hagadorn, from Juneau, but perhaps it's Gerald L.
McDaniel, who works at the American embassy in Kingston, Jamaica. If
we count ex-pats, the Canadian may be Sandra McLeod, who now lives
in England and is expected Monday.
Speakers are, give or take a few last minute changes, almost 50
Americans, 20 Canadians, five from the United Kingdom, three
Australians, two South Africans, and one each from France, Jamaica,
Mexico, and India.
So, it's true that it's the INTERNATIONAL Association of Business
Communicators.
The Presentations Handouts binder is thick, very helpful, and
scary, too.
Included in the registration kit, it contains info on 37
presentations. Some of the preview is very useful, in essay or point
form. Suzanne Salvo includes checklists for photo shoots and letters
to send to make sure everything is ready when the photographer
arrives. Gerard Braud's laid out his handouts so you can use them
easily to make all the notes you need. Shel Holtz' re-written his
slides so they make sense on the printed page. David G. Kirchhoffer,
a South African, has a prose abstract that frees you from note
taking. Just sit back and listen and absorb.
Jim Lukaszewski, who runs web based seminars, and you can bid on
one in the IABC silent auction at www.IABC.com,
has impressed some of my readers with his sessions, and his notes
are equally well written and presented. And there are some other
handouts that show thinking, clear communications, etc. Charles
Pizzo's, I believe.
And that's what I expect from professional communicators
lecturing to other professional communicators who spend a lot of
money to attend.
That's why other handouts are just plain scary. They show
unreadable slides, type too small to see. Charts that make no sense,
boxes and circles and triangles that will only confuse. Arty layouts
-- bad arty layouts, by the way -- that get in the way of
communications.
For years I've been advocating that audiences walk out when they
can't read a presenter's slides. To me, it just means the speaker is
insulting them and wasting their time, and proving he or she is a
bad communicator, but today there were delegates saying slide
quality, unreadablilty, doesn't matter.
People are going to waste their money sitting through poor
presentations, some by famous names in the IABC world. Several of
the terrible handouts are from Toronto, and embarrass me just
because I live here.
I'll report back later this week on whether the presentations
sang, or soured.
First sessions were at 1 p.m. Sunday, but cost extra. About 70
participants paid $100 to hear Roger d'Aprix, -- he needs graphic
design help -- and Karen Horn of Cisco, who I was told made an
excellent presentation. She has an exhibit, and I'll learn more.
Ed Bernacki, Cliff Shaffran and Pat McNamara, each ran sessions I
attended for a while, along with about 15 delegates each. Thus a
total of about 115 went to the pre-conference sessions while the 800
and some others probably went to the top of the CN Tower or toured
Harbourfront or visit the Art Gallery of Ontario, or just went
shopping.
Sunday's first "free" event, Malcolm Gladwell's general
session keynote address Levers of Change, was be a highlight.
Gladwell wrote "The Tipping Point" and his talk was
spot-on for Toronto, suffering from the tipping points that caused
people not to travel, and to be afraid of SARS. While many keynote
speakers use the same text for any audience, Gladwell, originally
from Toronto, made his speech apply to the IABC professionals.
Several delegates asked how I'd report on the first day to
O'Dwyer's PR Daily readers, worried or just curious about how
negative I'd be.
Not very negative. My response to one long-time IABC leader was
simply that I found it run by shoeless cobblers' kids. Since he
looked quizzical, I expanded, saying that I just could not see the
adequate professional application of business communications tools
and techniques. Unreadable name tags, outdated registration lists,
three sessions with only 15 people at each, a dull speech to open
the show -- but Gladwell was great -- left me wishing for better.
Conversely, three of the four presentations were good, some of
the delegates seemed to like the forth, the opening cocktail party
had good food, and the little entertainment there was fun and all
that was needed. And IABC got some sympathy, but there's much
unhappiness too, from delegates over the extra fees charged for many
of the events, including the major awards ceremony. And, to end on a
positive note, several delegates to an IABC Research Foundation
planning session said it was the best-run meeting they'd been to in
a long time. Gloria Walker, a Texan transplanted to England, gets
the applause for this.
Saturday, June 7
IABC will probably announce a return to a
chat/message/discussion board on its international web site, sometime
during the conference. IABC's last international effort was a
disaster, and it will be interesting if policy -- the real problem
last time -- is being dealt with as effectively as technology. IABC
Toronto has one, with really, really lousy participation, and terrible
promotion.
Delegates are arriving, and the conference staff and some of the
elected officials are already hard at work in formal meetings. This
afternoon the Research Foundation is reviewing ideas for major
research projects, and the conference registration desks are set up.
Niagara Tours, running the trip to Niagara Falls today, was
expecting about customers, and even made arrangements to pick up one
couple at their B&B, on the way.
And the part of the conference I think matches some of the more
folrmal sessions in value -- sitting in a bar and talking about
communications with people from around the world -- is underway,
followed by some delegates ending up in a Chinese restaurant lat
night.
About 940 people, including spouses, educators, and full members, are
expected at "Toronto 2003" -- the straightforward name the
13,500 member International Association of Business Communicators has
given to its annual conference starting this upcoming weekend. A little
over half are Canadians, about 40% from the USA, and the rest from
overseas.
Formal conference activities start on Sunday, but there are already
about 50 people booked for a tour to Niagara Falls on Saturday morning.
Tourism's replaced by more brain-powered action on Sunday, with some
extra fee sessions starting at 1 p.m., $150 local money extra, to hear
Roger D'Aprix and Karen Horn, or Ed Bernacki, or Cliff Shaffran. There's
a session aimed at entrepreneurs, presented by Pat McNamara, president
of Toronto's Apex Public Relations and an old friend and professional
colleague of mine. Her advice for entrepreneurs is guaranteed, by me, to
be good. Plus Pat keeps winning awards, so she knows how to play the
IABC awards game while keeping her clients' interests in mind. She's
promised me her slides will be readable, too.
IABC leaders and voting delegates have a session where they get to
learn more about the proposed changes to IABC's governance structure
that will be put forth for a vote at the Annual General Meeting on
Tuesday
And while there's a cocktail reception on Sunday evening, the most
valuable part of that day is going to be, if my guess is right, the
"Levers of Change" presentation to be given by Malcolm
Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point. See www.gladwell.com
That tipping point phrase has worked its way into both business and
social discourse with the speed of a computer virus. Gladwell's presence
in Toronto at a SARS -devastated conference brings the contents of the
best selling book into the real world of an auditorium only half full
because a tipping point was reached. Not a disease tipping point really,
but an avalanche of negative news stories, not necessarily wrong, that
built upon each other to create a completely misleading impression of
danger when added together.
With barely 60 percent of the delegates anticipated, 940 registered
last time I heard, down from 1600 predicted only a couple of months ago,
Toronto 2003 is proof there really is a Tipping Point, and it can be
good or bad. I'm not all that convinced, by the way, that the poor
attendance is all the fault of SARS, but it does play a big part. IABC
reports that for every cancellation it is getting currently, it's
picking up three registrations. You can just show up at the Sheraton
Centre in downtown Toronto, pay a penalty fee of $30us/$45cdn because
you are late, (is that late fee an incentive?) and register, by the way.
There are lots of hotel rooms available in Toronto at good prices, too,
so it's not too late to decide to attend. Enough sales pitch.
Toronto, which is internationally famous for Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome, certainly has seen the tipping point in action and today we
read The Dixie Chicks have postponed a Toronto concert they'll wait
until the crowds will come to the show) and The Lion King is closing
early, although it's had a three and a half year run. IABC has lost
conference speakers, (Pat McNamara is a replacement for a cancellation)
but which cancellations were "tipped" by SARS and which
canceled because some always cancel, is unknown.
IABC, on the ball, has added a panel discussion with some of the top,
most public, most respected, medical people coping with SARS in Toronto.
But it's left off the people that really matter. These are the PR
people, the tourism professionals, the business executives who can't get
clients or suppliers to visit, the politicians and the marketers
responsible for rebuilding Toronto's reputation, and all the non-medical
people who face a much larger, although not life-threatening, crisis.
Almost all the sick will recover, those few that don't are tragic,
but pneumonia kills all the time anyway. But the loss of confidence in
the government, the loss of not only tourism jobs but of investment
opportunities and business deals and more, spread the pain away from the
few hundred sick, and the few thousand quarantined, to tens of
thousands, all across the country. People can't pay their rent, can't
make insurance payments, have trouble feeding their children, as the
decline in tourism hits so many low-paid hospitality industry workers.
Air Canada is in bankruptcy protection, with salaries slashed. And, of
course, IABC members will "pay" in various ways via the low
conference registration, cut by SARS. Will the conference have lower
profits because of SARS, or will it have a bigger deficit?
The SARS panel will be a fascinating session, planned for late Monday
afternoon and is the conference session most likely to get on TV. One
panelist is Sheela Basrur M.D., Medical Officer of Health for the city
of Toronto. She received a standing ovation when she was introduced at a
Blue Jays ball game a few weeks ago, back when Toronto thought it had
SARS licked.
On Tuesday, those members who care about governance will be rubbing
the sleep out of their eyes and listening to speeches by IABC bosses,
elected and appointed, at the annual meeting at 7:30 in the morning.
That's followed by what I call the "I Hope I'm Wrong"
general session called "E-mail marketing and privacy -- Building
relationships and profits." I hope I'm wrong because I think this
will be boring, but those up early for the annual meeting may be able to
snooze. The panelists are legit, the topic is important, but it's the
only session on at that time slot, so delegates have no choice but to
go.
Conversely, sometimes there's too much choice. Much of the overall
Toronto 2003 program is designed to force you to skip two, three or four
or more interesting presentations, and pick just one out of many
concurrent sessions. The worst time slot, or the best if you like
choice, has delegates choosing one session from eight concurrent
performances, while presenters get, on average, only one in eight
delegates. And IABC's decided that if you miss a session, that's it. No
one gets to present twice, and no delegate gets too chances to see a
performance. My daughter's an opera singer. She can sing the same songs
twice, two nights in a row. Why can't a communicator with a set of
PowerPoint slides and some wisdom share it twice, too?
Wednesday morning should be good. IABC calls it the All-Star
sessions, and there will be sessions led by men and women who have
presented before at IABC events, and got the best ratings from their
audiences. Let's hope they've updated. I'm going to "PR on the net:
The top ten tips and threats you must know" for a while at least,
because it's presented by Charles Pizzo, and I know it will be fun while
packed with useful, updated, information. I'll be sure to pass on some
of the tips to O'Dwyer's readers as this series of columns progresses.
But I also want to hear from Glenn Bryant / Gauteng, South Africa,
about employee communications, and get a feel for how things are
different, and not so different, so far away from me and most IABC
members.
Another speaker I want to hear is Russell Grossman / United Kingdom,
the head of internal communications at the BBC in London. His topic, the
program says, is "Creating lasting cultural change means matching
where your organization wants to go with where your employees want to
take it."
An issue or so ago, IABC's Communications World magazine had a very
confused story about "culture." It appeared some respondents
thought "culture" related to whether you ate grits, Dim Sum or
haggis, and others thought it referred to whether you worked for a 'take
no prisoners" organization or in a "consensus-based
environment." IABC's notorious for slippery definitions (what's a
"business communicator" anyhow?) and it will be interesting to
learn what it is like inside the BBC. I know IABC members in several
countries who tried to watch much of the war in Iraq via the BBC, in
part because of its values and the values of its staff.
Overall, the conference offers vast choices. We'll see what we -- me
the writer, you the reader -- can get out of it.
Over the next few days, I'm writing a series of columns, and my
guidelines to myself are fairly simple.
First, I want O'Dwyer's readers to get hints and advice you can use
as PR people yourselves -- or "business communicators" if we
knew what that meant -- so that you benefit from the work the speakers
went to getting prepared, without you registering for the conference.
Those that worked hard deserve a bigger audience than some part of 940.
If you a Toronto 2003 delegate reading this from the conference,
maybe I'll cover sessions you missed.
And second, because I want you to read to the end of each column,
there will be opinion and commentary, along with the reporting, (and
some gossip) to make these interesting. My Toronto 2003 stories will not
be unbiased "news only" columns; they'll be the editorial page
merged with the news stories. I'll be honest and accurate, but you'll
learn what I think, too.
Come back to O'Dwyer's PR Daily Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday for on-going coverage of the IABC Toronto 2003 conference.
They'll be more conference photos at www.BrianKilgore.com too.