Articles
The International Association of Business Communication (IABC Canada) Conference held in Halifax, Oct 16-18, 2005
October 2005
by Barry Duncan
The International Association of Business Communication (IABC Canada) Conference held in Halifax, Oct 16-18, 2005
by Barry Duncan
This was the first conference in which I had presented in which the primary audience was made up of media professionals, not educators. It was a revealing, refreshing experience. These business communicators and public relations people need a diversity of skills - social, political and commercial to do their work effectively. There are many lessons for us in their approaches.
I was on a panel entitled "Communications or Propaganda?: the State of "Truth" in Communications Today." The panelists were Bruce Wark, a journalism prof at the University of King's College, and Scott Reid, deputy chief of staff for Paul Martin and myself.
As a Paul Martin spin doctor, Scott Reid was skillful in putting on a happy face to the Liberal party gaffes. (At the beginning I suggested to him that "he was already tap dancing.") He presented his philosophy to his job extremely well. I made the case for nourishing a media literate public and Bruce Wark urged us to learn how to understand the constraints on reporting the news and doing in-depth stories today. The audience was lively and brought to the discussion their own definitions and examples of propaganda.
The workshop sessions I attended were excellent. Author Shel Holtz, an author and prominent speaker showed how business communicators can use blogs, podcasts and social networking to enhance their reputation and their brand.
The highlight was Ed Power from Edelman Canada who presented a session on "Brand Care"a PR-centric approach to Branding". He showed why McDonalds and Coke have been in trouble and suggested some ways they could get out of their slump. His detailed example was on Uniroyal Tires and how they gained a successful brand personality through careful massaging by his PR/advertising people.
The participants were eager to learn new strategies. (I didn't hear about the dark side of public relations: propping up dictatorial governments, rationalizing the war in Iraq and minimizing the impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.) In this regard the luncheon speaker, Christopher Bennett, a dynamic thirtyish looking man was an ideal spokesperson. He asserted that we were losing sight of what's relevant and becoming too reactive to the news cycle and not proactive enough in leading it. Furthermore- hold your breath- he suggested that to stay in touch with people out there in the malls and streets that everybody should tune in to pop culture happenings for 30 minutes a day and, no surprise, advocated acquiring in-depth media literacy skills. It took my breath away.