The best way to communicate with people you are trying to lead is very often through a story.
More and more organizations are realizing that stability and predictability are no longer reasonable assumptions. In fact, the number one problem of today’s managers is the difficulty in getting their organizations to adapt to a competitive environment that is neither stable nor predictable. Yet while change is irresistible, the organization often seems immovable.
Drawing on his experience as program director of Knowledge Management at the World Bank from 1996-2000 and his work with many of the top organizations in the world, Steve Denning shows how to identify and craft a springboard story; i.e., a story that will spark action. Using a simple template, you will be equipped to get started on crafting your own springboard stories.
What you will learn:
- The importance of storytelling
- Appropriate situations for telling stories
- Why storytelling can handle leadership challenges for which conventional command-and-control techniques are impotent
- The essential ingredients of a springboard story — i.e., a story to communicate a complex idea and galvanize action
- How and why storytelling can communicate complex ideas, and why stories are so persuasive
- How to find and craft springboard stories for your organization
- How to use storytelling to ignite your career by becoming an authentic leader
- A 10-point template for crafting your stories
- Eight types of stories that you can put to work for you
- How storytelling changed the way the World Bank shared knowledge
Who should purchase:
This exceptional learning opportunity is designed for managers and professionals in:
- Corporate Communications
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Internal Communications
- Public Affairs
- Public Relations
- Organizational Development
- Human Resources
- Corporate Strategy and Development
- Senior Management
- Anyone, anywhere in an organization
It’s also an important addition to the offerings of college/university libraries and bookstores.
Instructor:
Steve Denning is the former program director of Knowledge Management at the World Bank. He now works with organizations in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia on knowledge management and organizational storytelling.
Steve is the author of several books on organizational storytelling, including:
- The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative (Jossey-Bass in April 2005).
- Squirrel Inc: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling (Jossey-Bass, 2004), a fable that elaborates seven different kinds of organizational storytelling
- The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (Butterworth Heinemann, 2000), which describes how storytelling was used as a powerful tool for organizational change and knowledge management at the World Bank
Steve was born and educated in Sydney, Australia. He studied law and psychology at Sydney University and worked as a lawyer in Sydney for several years. He did a postgraduate degree in law at Oxford University in the U.K. before joining the World Bank, where held a number of positions from 1996 to 2000.
In 2000, Steve was named as one of the world’s “10 Most Admired Knowledge Leaders” (Teleos). In 2003, he was ranked as one of the world’s Top Two Hundred Business Gurus: Davenport & Prusak, “What’s The Big Idea?” (Harvard, 2003). In 2005, his book, The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling, was selected by the Innovation Book Club as one of the 12 most important books on innovation in the last few years.
Steve is a Senior Fellow at the James MacGregor Burns Leadership Academy at the University of Maryland.
Twitter, Facebook, blogs, wikis. A lot has changed on the web in recent years. So isn’t it time you revisited your organizations’ web site content strategy? An obsolete strategy can confound your audience and keep them away in droves. A successful content strategy, however, can be the spark that ignites your web site and helps you plan for and create compelling web content that rings true with your brand, aligns with your marketing plan, and keeps your target audience coming back for more. No small trick in a 140-character world.
What You Will Learn:
- Reasons why you need a web site content strategy
- Benefits of having a web content strategy that integrates with your marketing plan
- Key questions to ask to develop a successful web content strategy
- How to write web copy that is customer-centric, not sender-centric
- Top ten tips for writing concise and easy-to-scan web copy
- Tips for organizing content on a web page
Other Questions:
- What is a web content strategy and why do you need one?
- What process should you use to develop a web content strategy?
- How can you get customers and prospects to read your web copy?
- How can you determine if web content is good or bad?
- If your web content sucks, what’s the best way to fix it?
- How should you organize content on a web page?
Presented by:
Barbara K. Mednick is an experienced and award-winning marketing communications and PR strategist, copywriter and trainer with more than 25 years of broad communications expertise. As president of BKM Consulting, Inc. in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., she provides strategic marketing communications/PR consulting and planning, copywriting and training to a variety of clients including businesses, universities and nonprofit organizations. Prior to launching BKM Consulting in 1999, she held senior account management positions at several top Twin Cities PR and advertising agencies. During her career, she has garnered a number of industry awards for successful PR and marketing campaigns conducted for clients. She is a member of Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) and an active member of the Minnesota Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) – serving on the board of directors three times. She also serves on the board of directors for Minnesota Computers for Schools and the Ramsey County Workforce Investment Board. Barbara publishes a monthly e-newsletter for clients and colleagues along with a blog (www.bkminsights.blogspot.com), which focus on the intersection of marketing communications, public relations and social media marketing. Read Barbara’s complete bio.
Lisa Graham-Peterson, MA, ABC, is marketing communications director at CHS Inc., a Fortune 100 company and the largest farmer-owned agricultural cooperative in the U.S. Lisa integrates offline and online strategic programs to support the CHS brand and mission as a diverse grains, energy and foods company. Lisa is an accredited business communicator and active with a number of professional and community organizations. She has been a guest lecturer on integrated communications topics at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, as well as St. Catherine University and Metropolitan State University, both in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area.
Business professionals are called on frequently to write messages that attempt to get people to do things: to comply with a request, to accept ideas or to provide support. This often requires overcoming resistance, swaying the skeptics, winning over the “undecideds” or motivating the apathetic.
The ability to influence an audience is critical to business success, yet most people know little about the psychology of persuasion. It is not taught in high school, rarely in college, and almost never in an executive education program.
This session taps into the field of human behavior change and attitude modification. It looks at techniques you can use when you craft messages, for a written communication or for a speech, so that you influence the reader’s thought process and increase the likelihood that your reader or listener will agree. These techniques also will strengthen the writer/speaker’s credibility in the mind of the audience.
Aimed primarily at managers and executives, you’ll learn about gaining compliance and building your credibility through the use of principles of influence. The workshop focuses on crafting written and spoken messages in such a way as to alter the reader’s thought process.
Learning Topics:
- The importance of credibility
- What it really means to analyze your audience
- How to create a strong opening
- How to package your information for maximum impact
- Principles of attitude change: five ways to influence an audience
- Helping the audience remember: tips for making your ideas stand out
Instructor:
Ken O’Quinn is a professional writing coach, who conducts workshops and one-on-one coaching in Fortune 500 companies and global public relations firms. He is the author of Perfect Phrases for Business Letters (McGraw-Hill, 2006).
He started Writing With Clarity in the mid-‘90s, following a 21-year journalism career, most of it with the Associated Press. He now works with companies such as Chevron, Campbell Soup, Visa, Intel, Eli Lilly, Raytheon, Reebok, Motorola and Sprint, and with PR firms such as Fleishman Hillard, Burson-Marsteller, Porter Novelli and Edelman. He also is a writing instructor for the National Investor Relations Institute.
Ken has been a guest speaker at the PRSA and IABC international conferences and at the American Press Institute. His writing has appeared in major U.S. newspapers and in such publications as the Harvard Management Communication Letter and the Employee Communication Management Journal.
There’s a new social media world order and its tentacles are reaching inside organizations.
Employees expect to connect and have conversations with coworkers as easily as they do with old high school chums on Facebook. Meanwhile, corporate communication, HR, IT and leadership are struggling with how to unleash social tools in a way that amps up communication, collaboration and employee engagement.
Dan Pontefract, head of Learning & Collaboration at TELUS, believes strongly that traditional management styles are obsolete and that organizations need to adopt a collaborative, open leadership approach, one that engages and empowers all employees. This inevitably means social software.
In this webinar, you will learn from someone who’s paving a trail through this new terrain. Pontefract, author of the new book, Flat Army, will give us a tour of the TELUS intranet and tell how he has driven a philosophical and cultural shift in the way TELUS communicates, collaborates and learns.
What You Will Learn:
- The importance of social tools to an organization’s culture, leadership programs and learning model
- How leaders can provide context, content and a vehicle for conversation through social tools
- Specific examples of social tools in leadership action
Who Should Attend
Social business is a team sport. Business leaders from many disciplines have a role to play and should attend this webinar, preferably as a group:
- internal communications, HR , learning, marketing, corporate communications, public relations, customer service, legal and media relations.
Presented by:
Dan Pontefract is a passionate leader in social business, Enterprise 2.0, learning, leadership and collaboration. He is author of Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization.
As head of Learning & Collaboration atTELUS, Dan championed the introduction of the TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP), an open and collaborative-based leadership framework for all 40,000+ TELUS team members. He further championed the use and deployment of collaborative technologies to complement both the learning and leadership frameworks. In 2010, Pontefract was acknowledged as a Vanguard Award winner and is a two-time winner of the Corporate University “Best in Class Awards” for the Leader of the Year. In 2012, SkillSoft awarded him the “Learning Leader of the Year” for his work at TELUS. Pontefract holds a Masters of Business Administration, a Bachelor’s of Education, and multiple industry certifications and accreditations. His first book, Flat Army: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization publishes in March, 2013.
Practical techniques any manager can use to motivate new behaviors and deliver better business results
Why are managers employees’ preferred source of communication? Because employees crave information that affects their day-to-day lives – information that only their managers can provide. Andy Szpekman, president of AHS Communications, outlines what managers can do to meet employee expectations, become better communicators and be more successful managers.
You’ll learn the four competencies every manager needs, the type of communication employees demand, and proven ways to change people’s attitudes and behaviors. You’ll leave the session with a solid understanding of what separates outstanding managers from the rest, as well as useful tips and simple tools any manager can apply immediately on the job. Whether you manage others or advise those who do, this teleseminar will help you engage your organization’s employees to deliver their best work.
Learning Topics:
- Six things every manager needs to do well
- What to look for when gathering employee feedback
- How to deliver a tough message effectively
- Stupid ideas about communication
- How to convey information, field challenges and brainstorm solutions – in under 15 minutes
Andy answers real-world questions on:
- Companies that are doing a good job at training their managers to be better communicators
- How to effectively measure whether a manager is communicating well
- advice and techniques to help managers be more open and forthright in their communications, even when they may fear repercussions from their management
- Specific advice for how to handle situations in non-public organizations, where laws prevent communications to be less timely than we would like it to be
- How to focus on listening rather than figuring out what you’re going to say when the other person stops talking
- the “huddle technique” to brainstorm solutions right after the change or problem has been communicated to employees
- The 360-degree survey technique to assess the effectiveness of manager communications
- The wisdom of setting up regular employee communication time
Who should purchase:
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Line managers
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Functional managers
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Internal communicators
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Corporate communicators
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HR managers
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Change managers
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Internal marketers
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College/university libraries and bookstores
Instructor:
Andy Szpekman provides HR and communication research, strategies and tools to improve business performance. His clients include Bank of America, BC Hydro, Cardinal Health, McKinsey & Co., Microsoft, News Corporation, Scholastic and Wachovia.
Earlier in his career, he led HR communication at Bank of America, served as communications manager for a global division of Warner-Lambert, and was a senior HR and communication consultant with Brecker & Merryman, Inc.
Andy is active in the Council of Communication Management and a former officer of the Metropolitan New York Association of Applied Psychology. His work has been featured in national news and business publications and leading trade journals. He holds a B.A. in psychology from William Paterson University and an M.A. in organizational psychology from Columbia University.
Can you prove the value of your communication, marketing and PR programs? It’s a simple question, and your bosses rightfully expect concrete answers. How you respond affects the objectives you set, the programs you embark on and ultimately your career success.
Join “Unleashing the Power of PR” author and PRIME Research CEO, Mark Weiner, and SVP of BurrellesLuce, Johna Burke, as they walk you through the current communication measurement landscape in a way that makes new sense. Moderated by award winning journalist, communicator and president of Communitelligence, John Gerstner, Mark and Johna will answer — and sometimes debate — the most important and challenging questions every communication professional needs to know to prove the value of their internal and external communication programs.
This won’t just be a 5,000-foot fly-by of the topic. You’ll gain practical takeaways and actionable advice. Don’t miss this special webinar designed to amp up your skills in measuring PR programs and proving your worth. Did we mention this stuff is critical to your career?
Audio Excerpt
Some of the questions that will be answered:
- What kind of metrics should PR people be measuring?
- Why are clear, concise terminology and metrics so important when executing a public relations research and evaluation system?
- How can research be used to set better objectives
- What are the Barcelona Principles and what do they mean to me?
- How does research and measurement help to guide business decision-making?
- How can research and be used to avoid catastrophe?
- How do you foster a culture for communications research within the team? Among executive leadership?
- How do conduct research and measurement with little or no budget?
- What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative research? How do you know which to use and when?
- What’s critical to know about measuring social media programs?
Presented by:
Mark Weiner is the CEO of PRIME Research in North America. PRIME Research is one of the world’s largest public relations and corporate communications research and consulting providers with offices in Western Europe, North and South America, Eastern Europe and the Far East. Since 1993, Mark has devoted his career to helping many of the world’s most respected organizations and brands to demonstrate and generate a positive return on their investment in corporate and brand communications. He is the author of “Unleashing the Power of PR: A Contrarian’s Guide to Marketing and Communication” published by John Wiley & Sons. Weiner is a member of the PRSA, IABC and the Institute for Public Relations for whom he served as Trustee and Chairman of the Research and Measurement Commission. He is an editorial advisory board member of PRSA’s Strategist and PR News. A frequent provider of provocative public relations content, Weiner is a recurring conference speaker at international and domestic events, and a prolific author, having published more than one hundred articles.
Johna Burke has 23 years experience working both as a public relations practitioner and a provider of services that are vital to the successful performance of communications professionals. For 11 years, starting in 1989, she was associated with U-Haul International, ultimately becoming head of public and investor relations. Ms. Burke joined BurrellesLuce, in its Phoenix office, in 2000. She served as West Coast regional vice president, a corporate vice president in 2008 and October 2009, was appointed senior vice president-marketing. Ms. Burke is a highly rated speaker who is often invited to talk about best practices in media relations and monitoring, including the measurement of PR effectiveness; her written views have appeared in a variety of PR industry outlets and she is a regular contributor to Fresh Ideas, the incisive blog produced by BurrellesLuce. Ms. Burke is immediate past chair of the Southern Region of the International Association of Business Communicators and current chair of its Nominations Committee.
Employee Engagement: Mobilizing For a Cause
Laura Rodormer, Director of Corporate Citizenship, McKesson
Mobile is changing everything, including what employees expect from your intranet and internal communications. As employees increasingly see rapid improvements in their mobile user experiences on the open Internet, they’ll demand it from their organizations as well. Now Google has further emphasized its commitment to ‘Mobile First’ with the acquisition of Motorola Mobility. This could be a major game changer as other companies react to this challenge.
Now is the time to position your organization to take advantage of mobile technologies in 2012 to make better connections with employees working away from their desks for extended periods. Join Martin White, noted intranet and mobile expert, and Terry Pulliam, Director of Communications at Sprint, in this webinar to help communicators, HR and IT professionals start mapping out a sensible mobile strategy. Hear what’s working, how one leading intranet is tackling the challenges of mobile, and what you should be thinking about right now.
What You Will Learn:
- What mobile isn’t (the desktop only smaller)
- Where to start – what do employees really want?
- Making a business case for investing in mobile
- Who should own mobile service development inside the enterprise
- The technology and governance of mobile collaboration
- Why mobile intranet design is only the tip of the iceberg
- The trade-offs between web apps and native apps
- Key considerations when choosing your mobile strategy
- Lessons to be learned from best-practice mobile intranets
Presented by:
Martin White is a leading European authority on intranets, workshop leader, columnist, book author, professor and Managing Director of Intranet Focus Ltd. Over the ten years has undertaken assignments in North America, Europe and the Middle East as well as in the UK. He has extensive business experience in the USA, having first visited in 1975. In the early 1980s he worked for Creative Strategies International, Cupertino, and from 1984 to 1989 he was a senior manager at International Data Corporation, Boston. He has keynoted a number of US conferences, including the Enterprise Search Summit in 2004 and in 2008. He is the author of The Content Management Handbook, Making Search Work, and Successful Enterprise Search Management (with Stephen Arnold).
Terry Pulliam is communications director at Sprint, where she guides the strategic direction of the company intranet and social media sites, employee communications editorial strategy and creative media services.
Terry and her team have received numerous IABC Gold, Silver and Bronze Quill awards, and her work has been recognized in industry forums including “Intranet of the Year” from the International Quality and Productivity Center, and CIO “50/50 Award” for top 50 intranets. She is a past president of the Kansas City chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.
Previously, Terry was director of internal communications for Sprint’s wireless division. She has also worked for a national association and advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia.
Who Should Attend
- Intranet managers, internal communications, IT, human resources, public relations, corporate affairs, media relations, and issues management.
“Great overview.”
“Provoked thought on avenues and alternatives I hadn’t considered for addressing security concerns.”
Internal communications measurement is fast becoming a critical skill for communicators and the profession as a whole. Knowing the basics of research, analysis and reporting are essential to the ability of internal communication to deliver business results that drive corporate performance. Using research the right way will help you continuously improve programs and earn the respect of leadership.
Recognizing that this is not a shallow topic, and measuring internal communications is different than measuring PR, Communitelligence has invited two of North America’s premier experts to walk us through the most critical insights and tactics that all communicators need to know. This webinar won’t make you an instant measurement expert, but it will school you enough to shift your role and amp up your department’s output to the next level.
What You Will Learn:
- The new normal: how leading companies are measuring and reporting their internal comms programs today
- Starting with the basics: how to set measureable objectives
- Moving the needle: a scientific approach to isolating the effect of communication on employee behavior
- How to conduct research and plan your goals and program accordingly
- Aiming for the holy grail: some simple ways to measure communication’s effect on employee engagement
- Asking the wrong questions: the 10 biggest measurement mistakes
- How to analyze basic data to find actionable insights
Presented by:
Angela Sinickas ABC is author of How to Measure Your Communication Programs (now in its third edition), and chapters in several books. Her 140 articles in professional journals can be found on her website. Her pioneering work in measuring the effectiveness of organizational communication has led to consulting assignments and speaking engagements in 29 countries. Her work has been recognized with 17 international-level Gold Quill Awards from IABC, including two for her website, and a Bronze Anvil from PRSA for her measurement newsletter.
Claire Watson, ABC, APR is president of Words with Wings . . . where strategy meets inspiration, and a master communication strategist with a passion for excellent communication. Her work has earned 30 international and over 150 national and provincial awards of excellence. She has managed multi-faceted communication programs for the federal and provincial (Saskatchewan) governments, and for private sector companies. Teacher, speaker, author, mentor and a consummate professional, she has taught Public Relations and Communication Management for the University of Regina. Her broad range of experience includes the full range of integrated employee, marketing and communication activities. Claire has worked with IABC at the chapter, regional and international levels for 17 years. She was the recipient of the 2012 IABC Chairman’s Award for global leadership in communication and service to the Association.
“Participating in this webinar was a wonderful experience that is worth a repeat!”
PR & Marketing Is Changing – Are You? Online PR provides the means to reach target audiences directly, with or without participation of the news media. Internet marketers have been doing that for years, but public relations professionals have been slow to get on board. No PR professional can afford to ignore online PR or outsource it to specialists; it is an essential part of the skill set all PR professionals must have. It’s as fundamental as writing, pitching and building relationships.
So, what must you know to thrive in this ever-changing online environment? If you’re like most public relations pros, you need a broader knowledgebase, greater online skills – and perhaps, a new mindset. PR pros are doing a better job with social media than keyword research and SEO, which much change. To define online PR simply as social media is short-sighted and will lead PR pros astray. This jam-packed webinar will give you a critical understanding of the basic online PR skills you need to master fast, for the sake of your clients, employers and your career.
Learning Topics:
- When SEO meets PR: how to write effectively for sites, releases, articles and newsletters
- When PR meets social media: which sites, what to monitor, and how do you know it’s working?
- How keyword research for Online PR differs from online advertising
- Online PR best practices for your website
- Optimizing online press releases—what’s most effective now
What You Will Learn:
- 4 results-driven SEO techniques for online PR
- A 10-minute keyword research method that always yields insights
- The right and wrong role websites play with Online PR
- 3 proven ways to write copy for both humans and search engines
- Traditional vs. online releases: the real data may surprise you
- An overlooked yet powerful method to gain consistent web site traffic
- The Online PR Social Media blueprint: it’s not what you think
- Buzz and reputation monitoring: recommended tools and tactics.
Presented by:
Jim Bowman has broad experience in all functional areas of public relations and corporate communications, with an emphasis on media relations. As Vice President of Corporate Communications for Nokia Inc., he was part of the global team that established Nokia as one of the world’s top 10 brands. Jim’s strategies and creative thinking have helped build the brands and images of some of the world’s most respected companies and get small companies known. As owner and President of J. R. Bowman and Associates, LLC, Jim now concentrates on serving small-to-medium-size businesses. Jim’s ability to diagnose PR problems and suggest solutions earned him the name, “The PR Doc®” among his associates. He has launched http://www.theprdoc.com to help small agencies and individual public relations practitioners get affordable access to PR tools and expert help from senior practitioners. Jim was recognized by his peers with election to the Arthur W. Page Society, a selected-membership organization of senior public relations executives, and appointment to the client advisory board of the Council of Public Relations Firms.
Mike Moran, is author of the acclaimed book on Internet marketing, Do It Wrong Quickly, on the heels of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Mike Moran led many initiatives on IBM’s Web site for eight years, including IBM’s original search marketing strategy. Mike holds an Advanced Certificate in Market Management Practice from the Royal UK Charter Institute of Marketing, and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He also writes marketing columns for Internet Evolution and Search Engine Guide. Mike frequently keynotes conferences on Internet marketing for marketers, public relations specialists, market researchers, and technologists, and serves as Chief Strategist for Converseon, a leading digital media marketing agency. Prior to joining Converseon, Mike worked for IBM for 30 years, rising to the level of Distinguished Engineer. Mike can be reached through his Web site (mikemoran.com), which is also home to his Biznology newsletter and blog.
Marc Harty is CEO of MainTopic Media, Inc., a strategically focused, values-driven, marketing consultancy and training company. Ever the entrepreneur, Marc has owned an ad agency, a web development firm, and a search marketing firm. A marketing strategist with over two decades of distinguished service, Marc has won over 200 local, national and International awards, including two Clio’s and “Best Of Show” from The Dallas Ad League. Marc speaks regularly on Online PR, Thought Leadership, Social Marketing and Internet Business Transformation. His true passion? Developing proven marketing programs that can help anyone get the visibility and results to successfully manifest their life purpose.
Executive communications success truly rises and falls on how well you are able to “get into the heads” of your executives and earn their trust. Your ability to put great words in their mouths has as much to do with interpersonal communication as executive communications. Whether you’re a natural extrovert or spend your days cowering in your cubicle, this session will help you enhance your relationships with executives. You’ll leave with a list of techniques that you can start using immediately.
What you will learn:
- Blueprints for creating rapport and camaraderie with the CEO, no matter your station, without seeming unctuous or overly eager.
- Specific strategies on how to seen as a strategic communicator, not just a scribe. This will include thoughts on how to make sure the CEO sees you as smart … but not a smart @ss.
- Tips for managing senior executives and all of the other staff members that will either help ensure your success or doom you to failure.
- Tactics that will help you better understand what it’s like to be a public speaker. There’s nothing like a little empathy to improve job performance.
- Plans to turn the annual list of random speeches into a coherent communications strategy.
SESSION LEADER:
Christine Solie, VP-Financial and HR Communications, The PNC Financial Services Group, has more than 20 years of public relations experience with Fortune 500 companies. She has had two speeches published in Vital Speeches of the Day and earned two Silver Anvils for work not related to speechwriting.
Are you the same journalist with the same skills you had five or 10 years ago? When you sit down to write, do you visualize your piece the same way you did then? And what about your publications? Are they keeping up with the times or looking tired and ponderous? What has the Internet taught you about how to produce your publications in such a way that readers can access information more effectively and efficiently?
The Internet has changed forever the way people receive, expect to receive and process information. It’s a “click-here” world in which readers are completely in charge. They want and expect information NOW. So how do you ensure you’re giving them what they want?
Learnings/takeaways:
You will learn how to think verbally and visually and save your readers time. You’ll also pick up practical tips that will help make your text easy-to-read and ensure the information you provide is consistently legible and user-friendly.
The course explores:
- Five characteristics of a good Web site and how to apply them to your publication
- Three principles for writing on the Web and how to apply them to print
- 10 rules for writing on the Web and how to apply them to print.
Best of all, you’ll be able to put these tips to work immediately and see instant improvement in your publications.
Instructor:
Don Ranly is professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he taught for 32 years. He has an M.A. in journalism, an M.A. in speech from Marquette University, a certificate in film, radio and television from New York University and a doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Don has conducted more than 950 seminars for organizations, corporations, associations and publications. He is co-author of News Reporting and Writing (8th ed.), Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media (2nd ed.) and Beyond the Inverted Pyramid and author of Publication Editing.
In 1995, he received a University of Missouri-Columbia Faculty-Alumni Award and was named the O.O. McIntyre Distinguished Professor of Journalism for 1995-1996. In 1998, he won a University of Missouri Gold Chalk award for outstanding service in the training and mentoring of professional students. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the International Association of Business Communicators. In 2003, he became a William T. Kemper Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and, in 2005, won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Business Publications Editors.
He is a former executive director of the Missouri Association of Publications, which he founded in 2004.
This learning opportunity is ideal for:
- Writers
- Editors
- Designers
- Publishers, print and electronic
It’s also an important addition to the offerings of college/university libraries and bookstores.
Today’s readers are better described as skimmers and scanners; the story is the last thing and the least-read thing they read. Writing effective headlines, captions and blurbs must be an integral part of the writing and editing process — from the beginning, with everyone involved.
More about this seminar from Don Ranly:
“In this seminar, we’ll talk about what makes good headlines or titles and the techniques for creating them. We’ll discuss various kinds of heads — those strictly for news, those for features and those for advertising. What they all have in common is that they must grab readers. They must sell the copy. And EVERYONE must be involved in creating them. We will discuss the creative process that goes into coming up with the best heads.
“Blurbs, break-outs, pullquotes, whatever you choose to call them, grab attention. They stop readers and make them try to find other interesting things in the copy. We’ll discuss what kinds of things to put into blurbs and how to construct them.
“Captions are the most neglected element in most publications. Some photos go without any captions — which is inexcusable. People read captions, so they are a good place to deliver important information and to hook readers into reading the story. Other captions simply explain what’s going on in the photo. People can usually see that. We’ll discuss content of captions and their proper length, as well as typeface, etc. We’ll give you 10 rules for writing them.”
Learning Topics
Underestimating the intelligence of your audience is just one of the 10 major mistakes to be reviewed in this teleseminar. Others include:
- The techniques and importance of brainstorming
- How and why to use literary and poetic techniques
- Four characteristics of brighter, more attractive heads
- How to write summary blurbs that give readers the benefit
- The power of the word “how”
- The importance of tips and of quantifying the benefits
- How to write internal blurbs that tease and coax
- How to write captions that complement and inform
Instructor:
Don Ranly, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he taught for 32 years. He has an M.A. in journalism, an M.A. in speech from Marquette University, a certificate in film, radio and television from New York University and a doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Don has conducted more than 950 seminars for organizations, corporations, associations and publications. He is co-author of News Reporting and Writing (8th ed.), Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media (2nd ed.) and Beyond the Inverted Pyramid and author of Publication Editing.
In 1995, he received a University of Missouri-Columbia Faculty-Alumni Award and was named the O.O. McIntyre Distinguished Professor of Journalism for 1995-1996. In 1998, he won a University of Missouri Gold Chalk award for outstanding service in the training and mentoring of professional students. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the International Association of Business Communicators. In 2003, he became a William T. Kemper Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and, in 2005, won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Business Publications Editors.
He currently serves as executive director of the Missouri Association of Publications, which he founded in 2004
Learn the seven keys to communication credibility and to a more professional you.
Whether you like it or not, how you present yourself in person or in print does more than leave an impression. For yourself and those you represent, it establishes your basic credibility. That quick note, that dashed-off e-mail or that hurried newsletter may be all your colleagues or clients know about your competence — or how much you care. Learn seven keys to credibility and to a more professional you.
In this seminar you will learn the importance of being:
- Correct (get it right – grammar, spelling)
- Consistent (follow a stylebook)
- Clear (use simple words, short sentences, short paragraphs)
- Concise (save people time)
- Coherent (think structure, organization)
- Complete (answer the questions)
- Creative (be interesting, don’t bore)
Who should purchase this webinar:
- Writers
- Editors
- Designers
- Publishers, print and electronic
It’s also an important addition to the offerings of college/university libraries and bookstores.
Instructor:
, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he taught for 32 years. He has an M.A. in journalism, an M.A. in speech from Marquette University, a certificate in film, radio and television from New York University and a doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Don has conducted more than 950 seminars for organizations, corporations, associations and publications. He is co-author of News Reporting and Writing (8th ed.), Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media (2nd ed.) and Beyond the Inverted Pyramid and author of Publication Editing.
In 1995, he received a University of Missouri-Columbia Faculty-Alumni Award and was named the O.O. McIntyre Distinguished Professor of Journalism for 1995-1996. In 1998, he won a University of Missouri Gold Chalk award for outstanding service in the training and mentoring of professional students. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the International Association of Business Communicators. In 2003, he became a William T. Kemper Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and, in 2005, won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Business Publications Editors.
He currently serves as executive director of the Missouri Association of Publications, which he founded in 2004.
Email is now so embedded into our daily lives that we think nothing of it. We need to, however, because the Internet’s original “killer app” is starting to kill employee productivity and focus. Consider these findings:
- The average business executive spends two hours a day on e-mail
- 70% of employees react to emails within 6 seconds of them arriving
- The number of e-mail messages sent is rising dramatically — by some estimates, by more than 20% a year
- Almost one in five emails was copied unnecessarily to staff members other than the main recipient
- The use – and, particularly, the misuse – of email costs businesses up to $16,000 per employee per year
This webinar is aimed at arming attendees with the insight and ideas to help them get a lot smarter about using email, for themselves and their organizations. Don’t miss this rare chance to learn the latest thinking and best practices from two of the foremost global experts on this topic.
What you will learn:
- The state of workplace email today, and why communication professionals need to get activated in the battle
- Why this problem is so hard to solve, and what you must do to overcome the hurdles
- How to develop a centralized strategy to minimize internal communication emails
- How to launch an effective email etiquette program that will make everyone in your organization happier about their inbox.
- Tools, tips and tricks to outsmart your inbox
“I learned that the biggest levers we can pull to change our email situation are behavior based, not technology based.”
“I didn’t realize how much research exists on this topic.”
Who should attend
Anyone who would like to learn how to better conquer their daily email war, and help their organization feel less pain and angst from their inbox. This webinar is especially suitable for professionals in the areas of internal communications, marketing and public relations.
Presented by:
David Grossman, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, is both a teacher and student of effective communication. He is one of America’s foremost authorities on communication and leadership inside organizations. A much sought-after consultant and speaker, David is often quoted in media, providing expert commentary and analysis on employee and leadership issues. Most recently, he was featured on “NBC Nightly News” about e-mail overload, and in the Chicago Tribune. David is Founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focused on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communications. His most recent books are You Can’t NOT Communicate: Proven Solutions That Power the Fortune 100, (now in its second edition), and its follow up You Can’t NOT Communicate 2: More Proven Solutions That Power the Fortune 100.
Nathan Zeldes is an independent organizational consultant, a role he has adopted in 2009 after a 26 year career at Intel corporation. A physicist morphed into an organizational change agent, Nathan is recognized as a global thought leader in the search for improved knowledge worker productivity. Having enjoyed a long career as a manager and principal IT engineer at Intel, he now helps organizations to solve core problems at the intersection of technology and human behavior. His experience includes initiating and leading optimal corporate technology adoptions in the domains of Information Technology, Internet applications, Innovation Management, Remote and Distributed work, and Knowledge Management. A key component in Nathan’s work is mitigating the problem of email and information overload which is harming the productivity and quality of life of Knowledge Workers everywhere. He had identified the problem 17 years ago, and since then he’s developed and deployed original solutions at Intel and other companies, and has founded the Information Overload Research Group to further its study. He is also active at present in the areas of Social Media adoption, Technical Leadership development, and the multi-generational workplace of the future. Nathan’s blog is Challenge Information Overload.
Universal search changes everything! The advent of Google’s Universal Search has been called “the most radical change to its search results ever.” So, how do you take advantage of Google’s new approach that blends listings from news, blog, video, and image search among those it gathers from web search? In other words, how do you get found in all the right places? Purchase this CD and learn strategies and tactics for expanding the audience for their content through Google News, Yahoo! News, Google Blog Search, Technorati, Google Image Search, Flickr, YouTube, Yahoo Video and a growing variety of other sites.
Learning Topics:
- How to optimize, distribute and measure press releases, RSS feeds, images and video files
- Pick your target keywords for news, blog, image, video and web search engines;
- Position your keywords in crucial locations;
- Create original and unique content of genuine value, including text, images and video;
- Avoid search engine stumbling blocks;
- Build inbound links intended to help people find interesting, related content;
- Just say no to search engine spamming;
- Submit your Sitemap, RSS feeds, and videos to search engines and directories;
- Verify and maintain your listings; and
- Go beyond web search engines to include key vertical search engines.
Presented by:
Greg Jarboe is the president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization firm and public relations agency with offices in San Francisco and Boston. He is also a partner in Newsforce, developer of an integrated suite of press release SEO tools.
Greg is a frequent speaker at Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld’s PubCon, and public relations conferences. He is also the news search, blog search and PR correspondent for the Search Engine Watch Blog.
Greg has more than 25 years of experience in public relations, marketing, and search engine optimization at Lotus Development Corp., Ziff-Davis, and other companies. He graduated from the University of Michigan, attended the University of Edinburgh, and worked on his Masters at Lesley College.
Can you speak the language of management? If not, here’s what you’re missing:
· The ability to add value in financial discussions with your boss and other top managers
· The skills needed to get your latest brainstorms adopted by key financial decision makers
· A plethora of financial tools that can help you make better business decisions
· An understanding of how your company’s financial performance affects its most critical asset: the workforce
In just 90 minutes, you’ll gain a new skill set¾and a potential ticket to the management table
Before you take a seat at the management table, you’d better have a solid understanding of key financial terms and accounting concepts. If not, you won’t be able to converse with those seated around you, because finance is the only language they speak.
Overcome the financial language barrier — for good — by attending this audio seminar. Using an easy-to-follow format, James Cole will demystify financial terminology, translate the accounting jargon and illustrate how communicators use financial information to increase their effectiveness.
Don’t miss this vital training event, designed to give you the skills and knowledge you need for holding your own with those who hold the company’s purse strings.
Key learning objectives:
· What’s at stake: Why every communicator should have a solid understanding of finance
· How a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement are used to analyze a company’s performance
· What management accounting tools CEOs use to monitor a company’s fiscal health, including EBITDA and pro-forma earnings
· How to cut through the jargon to translate complex financial data into meaningful and useful concepts
· Which financial terms are “must haves” for boosting your business vocabulary, including expenses, assets, capitalization, cash, accrual transactions and many more!
Audio Seminar Bonus: Understand the basics of financial decision-making
James answers real-life questions on:
- What communicators can do to help their organization’s employees better understand how their business works, with the objective of improving performance
- Tips to better communicate financial concepts to a lay audience
- Learning from the mistakes made by Enron
- The best tools to measure financial performance
Your audio seminar leader
James Cole is director of development for the Masonic Home of Virginia. His 25 years of professional experience include roles as auditor, founder, officer and consultant with numerous organizations throughout the U.S. He regularly speaks on such topics as financial reporting, taxes, accounting, fundraising and board development. He was a featured speaker at IABC’s 2005 International Conference in Washington, D.C., and Financial Communication Conference in New York.
No one has to tell you what a great speech is, right? You know one when you hear it.
Well you’re about to hear a bunch of them—and you’re going to learn from them, guaranteed.
Vital Speeches of the Day editor David Murray presents “Speechwriting Jam Session 2010,” 75 entertaining, inspirational and instructive minutes that will have the hair standing up on the same arm you’re scribbling notes with. We’ll discuss, even debate, what makes these great speeches great.
Through dramatic readings from winners of the 2010 Cicero Speechwriting Awards and highlight reels from the Vital Speeches YouTube site, Murray will help us reawaken the giants within us by sharing together excerpts from speeches contemporary and classic, famous and rare. (In the true spirit of an improvisational jam session, you’ll even have a chance to nominate some of your own YouTube favorites, so come prepared!)
You’ll come away from this session with:
• Concrete examples showing how leaders are addressing the issues of this particular moment in business, politics and society.
• A stockpile of examples—video and text—to show reticent speakers: rhetorical tactics that have passed the test and been pulled off by the best.
• Renewed enthusiasm and an expanded sense of what’s possible in leadership communication.
• And a goose bumps, guaranteed.
SESSION LEADER:
- David Murray writes and speaks about communication—business, political and personal. He’s editor of Vital Speeches of the Day, a monthly collection of the best speeches in the world. He writes about sports, people, politics and travel for magazines, newspapers and websites. publications and websites. And he discusses the communication life at his popular personal blog, Writing Boots.http://www.vsotd.comhttp://writingboots.typepad.com/writing_boots/profiles/http://writingboots.typepad.com/
An engaged workforce is a cultural transformation which must stand the test of time, in both boom and recessionary times. This presentation reinforces the key steps necessary to sustain an engaged culture, improve business results, maintain credibility with employees, while also reinforcing that success involves the “mutual commitment” of both leadership and employees. Bob’s 10 essential steps of engagement are culled from his years of experience working as an internal practitioner, leading engagement initiatives that transformed corporate cultures. These best practices will help firms minimize disengagement while also putting in place steps to maximize employee engagement – the key to capturing discretionary effort. Having been in the trenches in other economic downturns, the presenter will reinforce the need to stay the course, while reminding all that “employees are watching” and “words” alone will not foster an engaged workforce.
- “I learned a lot and got some great ideas. It was very thought provoking.”
- “Good information that I can share with my colleagues.”
- “Good tools and resources sited. Good to hear of a systematic approach.”
Learning Topics
- 10 Key Engagement Steps To Drive Business Results
- Specific Data to make a Business Case for Engagement
- Practical Tools to help in your engagement efforts
- How to show a ROI on your Engagement Efforts
Questions That Will Be Answered
- How can leaders deal with the growing ranks of the disengaged
- How can I convince my leadership team that we need to focus on employee engagement
- How can I prove that employee engagement drives business results
Who Should Attend
- HR and OD professionals, along with other key individuals responsible for human capital development
- Communication professionals
- Key executives and other professionals responsible for “leading people’
Presented by:
Bob Kelleher is the founder and CEO of The Employee Engagement Group (www.EmployeeEngagment.com), and is a noted speaker, thought leader, and consultant on the subjects of Employee Engagement, Workforce Trends, and Leadership, and often travels the globe giving presentations to and consulting with leadership teams. Having been an internal practitioner for many years, Bob’s practical approach and willingness to share best practices (“been there / done that”) have proven to be a winning formula for audiences throughout the world. Before opening his own consulting business, Bob was the Chief Human Capital Officer for AECOM, a Fortune 500 global professional services firm, with 45,000 employees located in 450 offices throughout the world. Before joining AECOM in 2005, Bob worked for ENSR International, a Massachusetts based 2,300 employee environmental consulting firm with 70 worldwide offices, and now a subsidiary of AECOM. While at ENSR, Bob was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and spearheaded ENSR’s award winning Employee Engagement programs and initiatives. Bob actively participates in various industry roundtables and associations, and is often a guest speaker on Employee Engagement, Workforce Trends, and Leadership at industry conferences and annual strategic planning meetings. He is a featured “Thought Leader” on Boston.com / Monster.com within the area of Employee Engagement. He holds a BS in Education and an MBA.
Stop repeating these 10 proven mistakes when dealing with the media and managing your media relations program!
Ever since outlaw Jesse James wrote and issued the first news release, media relations practitioners have steadfastly refused to learn from the mistakes of their forebears.In James’s case, he didn’t take into account the suspicious and questioning nature of the reading populace, who viewed his bombastic news releases as early American “spin control.”
Learning Topics
Underestimating the intelligence of your audience is just one of the 10 major mistakes covered in this session. Others include:
- Not being a student of the media, keeping up with their changes needs and trends
- Confusing media output numbers with bottom-line outcome measures
- Annoying editors with misdirected and/or badly-prepared materials
- Not routinely evaluating your media relations programs and management
- Trying to substitute media relations for communication
Wilma answers real-world questions on:
- Holding the media accountable and keeping them from allowing bias or half-truths from creeping into news coverage, so that what is reported is straight, honest and fair
- How recent college graduates — with no contacts — can build relationships with the media
- The most effective ways to pitch
- Dealing with a less-than-objective journalist
- The best way to get to know a editor, writer or reporter
- The most important and effective tools in media relations
- The best day/time to pitch stories
- The least offensive way to bring a reporter’s error to his or her attention – and how to ask for a correction
- Pushing the envelope: How persistent you should be in making your pitch
- Teaching senior management the difference between a subjective, self-serving news item and a legitimate, content-rich press release
- Measures practitioners should routinely implement to measure results on the fly – especially during a crisis
- The biggest changes in media relations over the past 10 years
Presented by:
Wilma Mathews, ABC and IABC Fellow, works for Arizona State University as director of constituent relations. She also conducts media relations seminars, provides media training for corporate executives and is co-author of On Deadline: Managing Media Relations (4th edition, Spring 2006). Her background includes corporate communications and international public relations for AT&T/Lucent; nonprofit communication for two chambers of commerce and a medical center; and writing/editing for a newspaper and magazine. A national and international speaker, Wilma also contributes articles to trade publications and lectures on PR and media relations at ASU.
Have you ever watched your client on television and thought: “Oh, my! Look at how many chins he has, and what’s that terrible glare coming off his shirt and forehead? I never noticed in our meetings that he was that heavy. He also looks scared to death – and why does he keep licking his lips?” You tried to coach him on his message. In fact, you did all you could do to help him develop sound bites, and now you can hardly concentrate on the message with the way he looks, because he is doing so many distracting things.
This CD will teach you how to effectively coach your clients and colleagues for appearances on TV, both live and prerecorded. It will teach you when and how to offer praise and criticism without being offensive. And it covers how interviewees should dress, posture themselves and provide effective message delivery. Your purchase also includes a slew of extras – at no extra cost!
Learning Topics:
- The tricks of the trade to help people appear calm and confident on camera, even if they are not
- How to look natural — from make-up to body language and movements
- Tips and techniques to help prevent some of the unexpected distractions that can prohibit your true message from getting out to your audience
- How to motivate your clients and colleagues to improve their media performances
- How to tactfully and effectively learn to stress the need for “rehearsal”
TJ answers real-world questions on:
- Suggestions to get your boss to undergo some training
- How to convince your CEO to talk to the press
- Techniques to overcome annoying speech tics
- How to keep your answers concise and to the point
- How to provide constructive feedback in a jiffy
- How not to come off as though you’re dodging a question—even if you are
- What your executive should bring into a television or radio interview
- How to prepare an executive for the hard questions
Instructor:
TJ Walker, president of Media Training Worldwide, is one of the world’s leading authorities on media and presentation training. With more than 20 years of media training experience, TJ has trained thousands of CEOs, authors and experts, including Nobel Peace Prize winners, leading government officials in the United States, European prime ministers and African diplomats. He is producer and host of daily audio and video Speakcast broadcasts, covering media and presentation training tips and techniques. A leading corporate trainer, he has personally trained top executives at Unilever, Bank of America, Hess, Allstate Insurance, Charles Schwab, Akzo Nobel, US Trust, Dun and Bradstreet, The Hartford and EMC. He is also the official media trainer of the Miss Universe Organization.
TJ is the world’s most widely published and produced media trainer, with more than 50 books, training videos, CDs and software programs to his credit. He has also been a media columnist for Investor Relations Magazine. Additionally, Walker is known internationally for his many years as a political commentator for the Voice of America Radio Network. More than 65,000 readers subscribe to his weekly Media Training Tips Newsletter, including most of the Fortune 500 corporations. He is a frequent news commentator and has appeared often on MSNBC, Fox News Channel, Court TV and Bloomberg TV. He also has been a syndicated TV and talk show host, appearing on or hosting more than 2000 TV and radio shows. He has also hosted talk radio shows on seven different networks and has been featured in the New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, CBS radio and most major radio news outlets.
Walker was a merit scholar at Duke University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He has lectured or conducted trainings at Yale University, Columbia University and Princeton University. He is also co-leader of the Communitelligence Media Training community and posts a daily video clip on the site.
Who should Purchase:
This practical, information-packed learning opportunity is ideal for public relations professionals, as well as professionals in:
- Corporate Communications
- Internal Communications
- Public Affairs
- Public Relations
- Marketing
- Webcast Marketing
- Anyone who is associated with television broadcasts
- College/university libraries and bookstores