Marc Wright

Marc Wright is Publisher of simply-communicate.com and Chairman of the simplygroup.

He is editor of the Gower Handbook of Internal Communication and Vice Chair of the International Association of Business Communicators, Europe & Middle East.

Steve Crescenzo

Through his work as a consultant, writer and seminar leader, Steve Crescenzo has helped thousands of communicators improve both their print and electronic communication efforts.

Recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts in employee communications, Crescenzo is the leader of four popular workshops: Strategic Employee Communication Vehicles, Integrating Print and Online Communication Vehicles, The Master Class of Employee Communication, and Creative Communications. He is also the author of his popular blog, Corporate Hallucinations, and is the host of his podcast, Creative Conversations.

Steve has been voted the number one seminar leader for IABC in the 2008 and the 2009 International Conference, and has been asked to speak in IABCs "All Star Track" for the past four years. Steve also speaks at numerous IABC chapter and district events throughout America and Europe and writes a regular column in IABC's Communication World.

Jim Ylisela

James Ylisela Jr. is president of Duff Media Partners Inc., an independent consultancy based in Chicago. He is the former president of Ragan Consulting, a division of Ragan Communications. Jim is a longtime workshop leader, an award-winning journalist, editor and teacher. 

He was a professor of journalism at Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill Graduate School of Journalism and has taught numerous writing workshops for a variety of clients, including BP, Wells-Fargo, USAA, Nokia, American Express, Lafarge, Amgen and others. In the last six years, more than 2,500 communicators have attended his workshops on writing, strategic communications planning and social media communications.

Silvia Cambié

Silvia Cambié advises international organisations and corporations on communication and social media strategies. She is the author of “International Communications Strategy – Developments in cross-cultural communications, PR and social media” and blogs at www.silviacambie.com

Silvia has designed communication programs for the European Commission, the Chilean Economic Development Agency, the Government of Tunisia, UniCredit, Unilever, the United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organisation. She has won the International Association of Business Communicators’ Gold Quill Award 2011 for the social media strategy she developed for the European Training Foundation, an agency of the European Union. Silvia is past chair of IABC Europe/Middle East and has served on IABC’s international executive board.

Euan Semple

Euan Semple is one of the few people in the world who can turn the complex world of social networking into something we can all understand. And, at the same time, learn how to get the most from it. Ten years ago, while working in a senior position at the BBC, Euan was one of the first to introduce what have since become known as social media tools into a large, successful organisation.

He has subsequently had five years of unparalleled experience working with organisations such as Nokia, The World Bank and NATO He is a one-man digital upgrade option for us all to download. This world is changing fast, but he makes sense of it because he understands that the core basics remain the same: community, learning, interaction. He is a master story-teller who offers a host of practical tales about how this new world can work for real people in the real world.

Ian Andersen

Ian Andersen is external communications adviser to the European Commission’s interpretation department. He is networked with communicators across the European Commission on a daily basis, and runs a highly successful, award-winning social media strategy to ensure the training of the next generation of interpreters for the European institutions in a situation with dwindling numbers of young people and language and interpreting students. He was head of internal and external communications at the EC interpreting service from 2000 to 2008 and one of the architects behind the Commission's internal communication and engagement strategy launched in 2003.

Prior to his current focus on communication, Ian Andersen worked for 15 years as a conference interpreter and a trainer of Chinese interpreters. He holds an MA in Chinese studies and a BA in political science from the University of Copenhagen and has worked for Danish National Television and as a business consultant before joining the European Commission in 1986. He is a member of IABC Belgium and of the National Press Club of Denmark.

Cindy Crescenzo

Cindy Crescenzo is the President of Crescenzo Communications. She has over ten years of experience in building communication and marketing strategies with both corporate and non-profit organizations.

Cindy works with clients to help them create effective communication strategies. She specializes in conducting focus groups, surveys, and executive interviews that give clients the insight they need to communicate more effectively. Using best practices in the industry, Cindy helps clients write and carry out communication plans. She also trains communicators on how to use new technologies such as blogs, podcasts and video to help with employee engagement and customer acquisition and retention. 

Cindy speaks at various conferences and to organizations on topics such as internal research, non-profit social media strategies, government communications, internal communications strategy and planning, and social media for internal communications. She also is a contributing writer to the blog, Comms Conversations.

John Smythe

John is one of the founding voices of the leader and employee engagement movement.

John is a partner of Engage for Change www.engageforchange.com a consultancy dedicated to advising on engaging leaders and everyone at work to drive change, transform organizations and raise day to day business performance. The firm’s view is that institutions that cultivate a culture of distributed leadership will create compelling work places and result in much better performance; a view confirmed by independent research commissioned by our firm.

John co-founded SmytheDorwardLambert in 1989, a consultancy which was acknowledged to be the thought leader in organizational communication, change communication/leadership and change management. The firm was sold to Omnicom in a trade sale which was completed in 2000.

His last book – CEO, Chief Engagement Officer; Turning Hierarchy Upside Down To Drive Performance was published by Gower on June 7th 2007. It has since been published in Polish. John’s next book is released Spring 2012: "Velvet Revolution at Work; the rise of employee engagement, the fall of command and control." Previously he co-wrote "Corporate Reputation; managing the new strategic asset." John speaks widely in many countries.

John speaks all over the world; in the UK, most other European countries (including Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia) USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, South Africa.

He is also quoted & interviewed by journalists on this topic.

Keith Porter

For the past six years, Keith Porter has been applying what the real world does, and what the consultants say, to communications across several multi-national organisations.

After shaking things up at Standard Chartered, Keith arrived at British Airways via Laing O’Rourke. Taking over the reins of the internal magazine, Up to Speed, the team soon won the 2010 APA award for Best Internal Communication as he set about training, coaching and mentoring communicators across the company.

Now back at Standard Chartered as Group Head of Internal Communications, he is still searching for the best employee stories, improving writing across the company, and doing everything he can to get people talking.

Keith holds a degree in Media and Communications, is a qualified teacher, former holiday park entertainer, lead singer of The Skylight Crowd, and primal/paleo enthusiast. Whatever you do, don’t get him talking about gluten...

@keithporter27 

Christoph Ruedt

Christoph is an internal communications specialist working at UBS where his current responsibilities include the firm’s global information security campaign and technology-related communication initiatives. Prior to joining UBS, he worked in corporate communications roles at Deloitte UK and Credit Suisse. Christoph holds a Ph.D. in marketing and a master’s degree in communication science. He wrote his doctoral thesis on social network analysis in online communities.

LinkedIn profile
@christophruedt
Blog

How communications can unlock the solution to information security

In today's connected world, protecting business critical information is a key challenge for most organisations. While there is an increasing number of technical systems available that aim to make organisations more secure, the key to data privacy lies in employees' behaviour.

Fostering the right behaviour can be challenging as information security tends to be seen as tedious and yet another addition to a busy task list. If communicators approach people with a waging finger listing all the things they mustn't do, there's a risk employees simply won't listen.

Swiss bank UBS has taken a different approach by joining the Think Privacy consortium and running an internal awareness campaign that highlights correct behaviour – instead of telling people what they might do wrong – making employees the solution to information security.

In this case study presentation you will learn:

• How communications and technical solutions can work hand in hand to increase information security.
• How you can bring a seemingly dry subject to life by changing the focus and making employees the solution.
• What obstacles you may face when developing a campaign across a global organisation (and how to overcome them).
• The benefits of introducing a separate brand to make your communications stand out.

Mads Madsen