Meetings, meetings, meetings

I feel as if I've spent the last two weeks at conferences and meetings.  Probably because I have.

Last week was Melcrum's Strategic Communication Summit, which Sue and I extended by doing a workshop on the day before the event.

Then this Monday I did the CIPR's Inside Information conference (see wingeing in previous post) - And found a really interesting write-up from Casey Leaver (well worth a read).

So this week I've been running a two day masterclass on Strategy and Planning which always leaves me exhausted (no Sue to argue with or keep me on track!).   

Apologies to the guys for the dodgy photo!

I was more than usually nervous about this one mainly because I'd tweaked the material quite a lot since the last time so I could concentrate more on the question "what should be the strategic concern or purpose of internal communicators?".  That meant that I spent less time than normal on "what should be the contents of your communications plan?"

I was also more than normally intimidated by the group that was coming - a couple of people I know and really admire, someone with acres of training and development experience (who turned out to be a trained hypnotist!) and everyone else seemed to have scarily important positions!

As it turned out, I think it went OK (well at least they were kind with the feedback markings on style and content).  And I think at least one delegate has been persuaded to set up a local self-help group for IC people along the lines that Claire Venn has established in the East Midlands.

However, I do wonder whether "Strategy and Planning" is the right title for the session.  My query is based on the fact that this heading does raise a very broad range of issues for people.  For example when you start talking about the strategic concerns of IC you quickly get into themes like coaching skills, co-ordinating with external comms and stakeholder management.  I'm wondering if we should redesign it to have one masterclass on "Managing IC" and another on "Writing the comms plan".   

Thoughts welcome!

So next week I've got a session at the IABC, a lecture on Comms Theory for the CIPR Diploma plus a workshop for a client.  Maybe I should get some tour tee-shirts printed with dates.

At least I've got a bike ride planned on Friday - anyone want to join me?

Liam