Next Auckland networking meeting - 12th Feb 2008

The topics for the next meeting are:

1. Cross Cultural Communications presented by Mariska Mannes and followed by a group discussion
2. Discussion and decision by vote as to whether these networking forums should become part of PRINZ

Details of the meeting are as follows:

When: Tuesday 12th Feb
Time: 5.30pm – 7pm
Venue: Auckland Regional Council, 21 Pitt St, Auckland. Committee Room 2
Cost: $5 per head to cover wine, soft drinks and nibbles - pay at the door
RSVP by: Friday 8th Feb

Moving this group under the PRINZ umbrella

If you have an opinion you would like to express, please do so via the comment function

Group Thoughts on the ‘Ideal’ Internal Communications Summit.

The discussion around what worked and what didn’t as well as notes about the ‘ideal summit’ are available here.

Last meeting of the year – 20th November at 5.30pm

We will be presenting highlights from the Internal Communications Summit in Wellington. Also, Paul Dryden from PRINZ will be coming along to talk to us.

Presentations from 9th Oct meeting

Available here. Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting, especially David and Graeme. It’s wonderful to have such high calibre speakers with fascinating content.

Agenda for the Auckland Meeting on the 9th October

Available here. It looks like we are set for another informative evening. I hope to see some of you there!

N.B. Any Communicators not on our circulation list who happen to be in Auckland are also welcome to attend.

Next Auckland Networking Meeting - 9th Oct 5.30pm

Looks like we are in for another great meeting...

David Pearce, the Group Manager HR Communications & Engagement at Fonterra, will be sharing some of his experiences and insights both from Fonterra and Unilever

and

Graeme Colman, the Communications Manager at the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, will be talking about communicating sustainability, policy development and advocacy

Plus, of course, we will have the Communicators Clinic where the group can brainstorm specific issues individuals are facing.

Details of the meeting are as follows:

When: Tuesday 9th Oct
Time: 5.30pm – 7pm
Venue: Auckland Regional Council, 21 Pitt St, Auckland. Committee Room 2
Cost: $5 per head to cover wine, soft drinks and nibbles - pay at the door
RSVP by: Friday 5th Oct (ideally but feel free to just turn up too!)

Presentations from Sept. Auckland Networking Meeting

Thank you to everyone who participated in the last get together making it another really interesting and stimulating session. Sharon’s presentation on the “Culture at Auckland City Council” is now available here. Philip’s presentation on “Ethics in Communication” is also available here.

We are Communicators, a public relations and communications/marketing recruitment network who specialise in identifying communications talent in the marketplace for a client base that spans a broad range of sectors and includes some of New Zealand’s most high profile and successful companies.

Currently we have a number of full and part time internal communications opportunities and are keen to hear from candidates who are looking for new career challenges.

You can visit our website for most of these roles but as new opportunities arise regularly and may not appear on our website, we would like to hear from you even if it’s just for a general career discussion.To contact us email

info@communicators.net.nz and we will be in touch.

Next Auckland networking meeting on the 4th September

5.30pm – 7pm at the Auckland Regional Council, 21 Pitt St, Auckland. Committee Room 2

Click here to view the agenda

2nd Annual Internal Communications Summit

29th & 30th October 2007, The Duxton Hotel, Wellington.

The PDF brochure for this is available here

Who’s up for a National Networking get together?

At our recent Auckland meeting we decided that it would be great to have a national meeting to coincide with the upcoming Internal Communications Summit. We are planning on having it on the evening of the 29th Oct somewhere in Wellington – outside of the conference venue – meaning that people who are not attending the conference feel comfortable in coming along too.

Please click on the comments link below and register your interest in attending. Please also include a note about whether you prefer dinner or just drinks.

Once we have numbers, I’ll get onto sorting out a venue and perhaps some sort of loose agenda.

Cheers,

Sarah

Our recent Northern meeting

Wow! What a great meeting with really interesting content... It was almost too much for me to absorb at 5.30 after a glass of wine (!) so I will certainly be revisiting the content which is available as follows:

Click here for a PDF summary of Sue’s presentation on Reputation Management

Mariska’s presentation on the Role of Internal Communications is available here.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 4th September at 5.30pm at our usual venue.

Topic for the next meeting are:

Culture and Values at the Auckland City Council – Sharon Coombes,
Ethics in Communication – Philip from Senate

Hope to see some of you there,

Sarah

Internal Comms Group in Wellington

Just thought I'd post an update for everyone on what we're doing down here in Wellington. Following last year's conference I was "elected" coordinator of the Central Group. I got everyone's email and in December attempted to organise a meeting. Unfortuntely the group was rather light on the ground and then it was Christmas. Since then I've tried to organise another meeting and Victoria Dew tried as well and uptake was small.

So, three of us (Jen Andrewes, NZTE, Victoria Dew, Audit NZ and I) met at the beginning of this month to try and figure out what we did next and we decided we'd put in a bit more time to try and get the group off the ground as it's a useful community. I'm still coordinator of the main list and the next meeting but we contacted as many different organisations as possible and tried to get in touch with their IC people so now I've got a database of around 35 people. We've also decided to have a monthly meeting (so that if you can't make one there isn't too long in between each one) and get a "guest" speaker and just have general discussion and drinks. Jen Andrewes has also organised to get us a meeting room at the Chamber of Commerce on the delightful 28th floor of the Majestic Centre.

Therefore our first meeting is next Wednesday 1 August at 4pm. Our speakers for this meeting are Annabel and Lindsay from Powerhouse People and they are going to look at the current market etc for the industry in Wellington etc. Plus we'd like to discuss the upcoming Internal Comms Summit in Wellington (October) and our relationship with PRINZ and IABC Wellington Chapter.

Anyhow if anyone's in Wellington and would like to come along to our meetings the dates have been set for the rest of the year and are as follows:

• Tuesday 4 September


• Tuesday 2 October


• Thursday 1 November


• Tuesday 4 December

We are still on the prowl for speakers so anyone is welcome to drop me an email with suggestions or any comments.

Cheers
Amanda (amanda.cosgrove@wcc.govt.nz)

Job in Hamilton

This role was forwarded onto me so I thought I should post for everyone to read...

My name is Joanna Long and I work with BridgesOne which is an executive
search and recruitment company based in Auckland. I came across your
website on the freelance writers website, and thought, on a long shot,
you
may be able to help with a role we are currently trying to fill.

The role is an Internal Communications and Marketing Executive for a
large
and complex organisation based in Hamilton. We're looking for someone
who is maybe 3-4 years out of a degree (journalism, public relations,
and
communications) with industry experience. The role could be contract or
permanent. Is there anyone you could put me in touch with who may be
able
to help? I'm happy to talk on the phone if you prefer.

Kind regards,
Joanna

Joanna Long
Research Associate
BridgesOne

jo@bridgesone.com
D: +64 9 522 1300
M: +64 21 1477 193

Thanks for coming tonight!

This is a demo of the blog site click here

Web 2.0 – YouTube clips I think you’ll find interesting...

Cool definition of web 2.0 and its impact

and here’s some light relief (“Supermarket 2.0”)

Agenda for the 24th July meeting

Click here for the meeting agenda. Looks like it’s going to be another good meeting!

Has anyone joined Melcrum's internal comms online network?

I joined a few weeks ago and I've just been looking at some of the groups and stuff on there and thought it looked quite interesting. If you don't receive Melcrum's emails then go and have a look here: http://www.communicatorsnetwork.com/

I'd be interested to hear what others think (and yes I know it's very American).

Next meeting scheduled for the 24th July

For those that were able to attend on Tuesday, thanks for a very enjoyable evening! Particular thanks to Geoff and Bee for their informative presentations and to everyone for their contributions to the Communicators Clinic.

Bee Pears from Waikato DHB presented highlights from an intranet workshop she attended presented by James Robertson. More details are available on his site http://www.steptwo.com.au/

Geoff Timblick from Vodafone gave a presentation on Internal Communications measurement and how Vodafone were addressing this.

Details of the next meeting are as follows:

When: Tuesday 24th July
Time: 5.30pm – 7pm Venue: Auckland Regional Council, 21 Pitt St. Committee Rm 2
Cost: $5 per head to cover wine, soft drinks and nibbles - pay at the door
RSVP: Friday 20th July

The topics for the next meeting are:

Reputation Management – Results from a new survey of top 50 companies and discussion of how this relates to Internal Communications –Sue Milne from Senate Communications

Role of Internal Communications and how to ‘get a seat’ at the executive table – Mariska from Deliquo

Plus, of course, the Communicators Clinic where the group can brainstorm specific issues individuals are facing.

Hope to see you there!

Clarifying Values

Last night's meeting and discussion highlighted that some senior managers seem to be confused about corporate values, vision and mission statements, so thought the following might be a useful reference for fellow ICN members:

Corporate values - capture and define the way an organisation does things. ie risk averse or risk takers, conservative or entrepreneurial, pragmatic or creative etc. However to succeed they must be based on reality and be true reflection of the business or organisation. Not to be confused with brand values that are really brand attributes or personal values that are important to people on an individual basis.

Vision statement - a long term vision of what you want your business to be/aspire to in the future.

Mission statement - says what you are going to do to achieve the vision.
Hope this is helpful.

Networking meeting on 12th June at 5.30pm

The agenda for this meeting can be viewed here. Some of you will have attended the PRINZ conference, so, at the beginning of the meeting, we will review the agenda and amend accordingly with regard to what people want to spend the time on.

If possible, please RSVP to help us organise the room set up and volume of nibbles. However, if you have not sent an RSVP and want to come along on the night, you will be most welcome!

For managers: How (and why) to show employees you really don't care all that much – a video clip to brighten the day…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH1MuJcKUJk

I found this hilarious video clip on www.myragan.com.

I’m still evaluating www.myragan.com “Where Communicators meet”. I’ll blog more about this once I have finished my evaluation. It looks really interesting and is definitely worth checking out. Does anyone have any thoughts, experiences or insights they want to share regarding this site?

Networking meeting, 1st May

Thanks to everyone who attended the networking meeting. It was a great opportunity to share some ideas and get together.

The date for the next meeting is 12th June at 5.30. Same venue, same format as it seemed to work.

For the next meeting, it was agreed that everyone should bring an example of an elevator pitch or alternatively a short description of their job for use in the pub (for when people ask ‘What do you do?’). We’ll spend some time sharing and discussing these ‘pitches’.

The notes from tonight’s elevator pitch presentation are available here.
Karen and Geoff will also be presenting the highlights from the PRINZ conference.

Look forward to seeing you on the 12th June.

Kate Ali-Dawson is looking for a couple of talented intermediate internal comms people to join her team, as well as a couple of people to join the intranet team.

A number of the roles will be advertised externally over the coming weeks, and are currently on the BNZ website: https://careers.bnz.co.nz/. Search the careers site using Internal Communications as the key words.

Feel free to pass on Kate's email to anyone you know who might be lookingfor an exciting new comms role. Kate_Ali-Dawson@bnz.co.nz

Networking meeting on 1st May

The draft agenda for the next Internal Communicators networking meeting can be viewed here

Notes from the 20th March 2007 networking meeting

Karen Duncan from ARC has asked me to post the meeting minutes from the Internal Communicators networking meeting. Click here to view them.

If you would like to receive an invite to the next Auckland meeting (1st May at 5.30pm), please email me at sarah.perry@snapcomms.com and I’ll add you to the circulation list.

Internal Communicators Elevator Pitch

At our next meeting, the idea is to refine an ‘elevator pitch’ for Internal Communicators.

Having had a bit of a think about this, I’m personally coming to the conclusion that Internal Communicators do so much that it’s hard to boil it down to one sentence. The solution could be to have a ‘menu of options’, then, depending on the audience and their ‘hot buttons’ we can select from a list of options.

Here’s a few I came up with, please add to them and we can discuss at our next meeting

CEO / COO
"There’s strong evidence showing the link between effective internal communication and better business performance. My job is to help our company achieve better financial results. We can do this in lots of ways, for example, aligning people to our brand and values and drawing a clear line of sight between jobs and business outcomes".

- Watson Wyatt’s research shows that organisations with effective internal communications have a 19.4 % higher market premium and deliver 57 % higher share holder return.

HR Manager
"There’s strong evidence showing the link between effective internal communication and employee engagement and retention. My job is to ensure that people are aligned to our brand and values, feel involved and enthusiastic and have all the information they need to do their jobs".

- Watson Wyatt’s research shows that firms communicating effectively are 4.5 times more likely to report high levels of employee engagement and 20% more likely to report lower staff turnover than their peers

Line Managers
"My job is to help reduce information overload and confusion and to ensure that people have all the information (and the right attitude) to do their jobs. It is also to make sure that you are informed and up to date so that you can manage your teams effectively".

Of course we can end all of these statements with specific examples or "I’d love to spend some time with you filling you in a bit more, have you got time for a coffee later this week….?"

Please feel free to blog or comment with your thoughts, that’s what this site is for…

What's a blog, then?

Here's three articles you might find intersting if you're new to the wonderful world of blogging:
-The Corporate Weblog manifesto - Robert Scobles, Microsoft Blogger
- Corporate Blogging
- Blogs Will Change Your Business - Business 2.0 magazine

Some examples to give you an idea of what blogs actually look like:
- PublicAddress – NZ blog with several contributors
- 43 Folders – personal productivity blog by Merlin Mann
- BoingBoing – the world’s most popular blog covering anything and everything geeky
- Gladwell.com – the zany-haired, ubiquitous author of Tipping Point and Blink!

This is NOT an interesting blog

Books for Internal Communicators

At our recent get together, the idea came up for creating a list of books for internal communicators to put on this blog.

I’ve read “Making the Connections” by Bill Quirke which was great in terms of strategy but not up to date in terms of the latest technology available to communicate and the issues relating to these technologies. I’m assuming this will apply to any book that is older than a year or two…when I started to look for books published in the last 2 years with good reviews…there were slim pickings!

The best of the lot would appear to be “Engaging Employees: How To Create A Communication Culture That Delivers” by John Smythe but it isn’t published until June 2007…..I’m pre-ordering this one so can bring it along to a meeting when I receive it.

Others recent books are listed below:

“Hands-On Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting: Emerging Media Tools for Business Communication” (Hands-On Guide Series) by Lionel Felix and Damien Stolarz (Paperback - April 24, 2006)

“21 Strategies for Improving Employee Communication by Staff of Davis & Company” (Paperback - Dec 15, 2005)

“Effective Internal Communication (PR in Practice)” by Lyn Smith and Pamela Mounter (Paperback - Sep 1, 2005) - Illustrated

“Best Practices in Employee Communication: A Study of Global Challenges and Approaches by ABC”; Michelle Mahony, MA; Jamen Graves, Ph.D Christie Gay (Paperback - Aug 15, 2005)

“Light Their Fire: Using Internal Marketing to Ignite Employee Performance and Wow Your Customers by Susan Drake, Michelle Janette Gulman, and Sara Roberts” (Hardcover - Jun 1, 2005)

If you have read a particular title, please feel free to give a quick book review via a comment.


If you’re interested in finding out about older books with relevant strategic content, a good book review can be found on Rodney Gray’s web site http://www.employee-communication.com.au/templates/page.jsp?id=72

Welcome to the Internal Communicators Blog

Hi there, Sarah here.

The team at SnapComms thought it would be useful to set up a blog for the Internal Communicators network. This way, we can share ideas and ask questions with other Internal Communicators across the country (we'll invite the groups from Central and South to participate too).

We'll also include links to any useful information, related research etc that we find.

I'd welcome any comment and thoughts.....

Pod casts relating to internal communications

I was the lucky recipient of an Ipod at Christmas complete with a Itrip to allow me to listen in the car. So I’ve been putting it to good use.

There are some pod casts relating to Internal Communications and PR that you can down load for free from the Itunes store (www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcasts.html)

It’s great to listen in the car. Some of the ones I have come across so far are:

“For Immediate Release – The Hobson and Holtz Report”
“For Immediate Release is co-hosted by Neville Hobson, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Shel Holtz, based in Concord, California, USA. Hobson and Holtz are two seasoned communications professionals who believe they have something to say”

“More than Talk Pod cast” – A pod cast “dedicated to improving executive communications”

“Comsscafe.com” – “The better desirable roasted communications café”


“Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer” - is a podcast focusing on all aspects of communications -- from public relations to journalism. Farrell Kramer is founder and president of Farrell Kramer Communications, LLC. Before entering public relations, he spent roughly a decade as a reporter, writing investigative, business and general-interest stories, most recently for The Associated Press. Kramer brings this experience from both sides of the communications business to the podcast, which features interviews with journalists, communications professionals, marketers and others with insight into modern-day communications.”

Useful resources on the internet

Most of you probably already know about these sites, but in case you don’t, I thought I’d mention them as useful links

http://www.simply-communicate.com/

A UK based portal for internal communicators. You need to sign up (and pay 125 UK pounds) to gain access to all articles but there is some stuff there for free.

http://www.internalcommshub.com/

Another internal communicators portal that allows you to sign up with a UK or US bias. There are loads of useful articles although they don’t seem to be updated regularly enough to justify paying the fee of USD$395. You can sign up for a weeks free trial. I have to admit that when I’ve wanted to access something, I’ve just signed up for the trial (using different email addresses – my work one and then my personal one)

The internal comms hub is run by Melcrum publishing. You can click their link at the bottom of page and visit their site. There you can access research, training and journals relating to Internal Communications

How to blog

Hi, Sarah again,

If you would like to blog on this site, just post a comment with your email address and I'll add you to the list of authors. Alternatively, drop me an email at sarah.perry@snapcomms.com.

Happy blogging!