More Summit thoughts

It's been another big morning at the Strategic Communication Management Summit in Sydney. The big theme this morning has been social media, with some fantastic case studies from Sensis and Telstra showing how they are using and managing the impact of social media on their internal and external communication strategies.

Karina Keisler from Sensis had some interesting words of wisdom. She was asked if she agreed that the decision to take on social media depended largely on your organisation's culture and readiness. Her answer? No. Conversations about your company are happening whether you're aware of it or not - and whether you're ready for it or not. Her pithy advice was "you're crazy if you're not part of it."

Lexie Whitwam from Telstra I'm sure had many people in the room green with envy over some of the employee communication channels and programs she showed. Telstra is, I guess, fortunate in that it is the provider of many of the technologies that are needed to really make the leap into a true internal Web 2.0 experience for employees. But you certainly couldn't say that they are letting that advantage go to waste. MMS video messages streamed to employees' mobile phones, guerrilla-style instant videos for store openings and employee blogs were just a few of the elements of Telstra's "inside out" comms strategy that she demonstrated. And I have to admit that her touching stories about employees helping each other through forums and discussion boards brought a little tear to my eye (but then, I am a sook).

The morning began with an interesting discussion on the use of storytelling within Astra Zeneca, and I'd certainly like to hear more about how the company used stories and anecdotes to bring a leadership development program to life.

That's it for now - must go soak up a bit more of that sunshine before heading back into the conference room for more....