In this issue: Invest In Your Future; Has Your Company Mobilized for Mobile?; and more.

In this issue: Inside the Judging Experience; Employee SIG Takeaways; and more.

WHEN
May 24, 2012
5:00 p.m. to  8:00 p.m.

WHERE
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.)
1050 Techwood Drive, Bldg. 10
Atlanta, GA 30318

FEE
IABC Member: $15.00
Non-Member: $25.00

Register online today! >

Join us for this presentation by Angela Sinickas ABC, IABC Fellow.

How to get leaders to listen to you

Your professional experience and your title seem to have little impact on getting leaders to listen to good communication advice. What to do? It helps to speak their language—numbers—to get their attention. This session will share examples of how to gather research quickly and effectively to make yourself more credible when you advise your management team. Some of the examples will include:

• Gathering qualitative research on emerging issues to let leaders know exactly how a planned change is likely to be interpreted by stakeholders, which may be quite different from their original intent.
• Using previous situations where your advice was not taken to show the resulting negative business impact.
• Using pilot/control groups to demonstrate the difference the right communication approach can make.
• Gathering quick survey data to show the extent of an existing communication need or the ROI of a recent communication solution.

Angela Sinickas, ABC, IABC Fellow, is president of Sinickas Communications, Inc. (www.sinicom.com), an international consulting firm that has worked with 25% of the Forbes largest 100 global companies. Author of the manual How to Measure Your Communication Programs, Angela has written over 140 articles, has spoken at conferences in 29 countries, and has received 17 Gold Quills for measurably effective communication.

WHERE
Buckhead: Maggiano’s Little Italy
3368 Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA 30326

FEE (Early-bird pricing shown below; prices increase after February 24)
Members: $32
Nonmember: $47
Students: $15

Register online! >

Participate in two discussions of your choice featuring projects of 2011 IABC/Atlanta Golden Flame winners of gold awards:

• Employee Communications: UPS with Kathy Hogan for “Founder’s Day”
• Nonprofit Integrated: Edelman with Nisha Chandran for “A Holiday ‘GIFT’ for the Atlanta Community”
• PR/Media: Georgia Tech with Kirk Englehardt for “Password Cracking, Reputation Building and a $10 Million Contract”
• PR/Social Media: GCI with Jessica Lacy for “Nursing Notes” by Johnson & Johnson Facebook Page
• Writing-Internal: Star Rewards/Assurant with Lindsey Emerson for the STAR Rewards Program
• Overall Publications-Newsletter-Newspaper: Atlantic Southeast Airlines-Express Jet Airlines with Kate Modolo for “Among Friends”

WHERE
Perimeter: Villa Christina at Perimeter Summit
4000 Summit Boulevard
Atlanta, GA 30319

FEE (Early-bird pricing shown below; prices increase after March 23)
Members: $32
Nonmember: $47
Students: $15

Register online today! >

Presented by Mark Schumann, Former IABC Chairman

With companies changing at a rapid pace, the role of the Corporate Communications professional has become more important than ever. But how do you stay ahead of the curve? Join us for an engaging discussion with former IABC Chairman Mark Schumann as we get a sneak peek of his World Conference speech titled The End of Corporate Communications (As We Know It). We will discuss how corporate communications  is evolving and how you as a communications professional can continue to add value in your organization.

Come and join us for this engaging discussion where you can share stories about our profession, its future, and its challenges with Mark and your fellow Communicators.

WHEN
Thursday, April 12, 2012
11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
AT&T Lenox Auditorium
1025 Lenox Park Blvd.
Atlanta, GA 30319

FEE (box lunch provided)
Members: $15
Nonmember: $25

Register online today! >

I had the marvelous fortune to lead major change/communication/brand/merger and acquisition assignments for such organizations as ExxonMobil, BP, Total, American Express, Southwest Airlines, Kimberly-Clark, McGraw-Hill, JPMorgan Chase, Anheuser-Busch and EDS. For several years, I also held two senior internal positions for Towers Perrin, as the global leader of the firm’s communication consulting business and leader of the firm’s office in Houston.

From June 2009 to June 2010, as the Chair of IABC, I traveled some 110,000 miles to five continents to share conversations with business communicators about our profession, its future, its challenges, its essentials. And, today, looking at the world from a communicator’s view, I see countless opportuntites for us to continue to learn what it takes to effectively connect people, organizations and nations through effective communication.

Thanks for joining as we explore a communicator’s view of the world.

Join us on the back patio to meet some of our newest IABC/Atlanta members and catch up with everyone. Open to members and non-members, so feel free to bring a pal. Admission is $10, which covers your food as well as your first drink. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. and wrap up at 8:00 p.m.

We look forward to seeing you there. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Terry Cerisoles, IABC/Atlanta VP Membership at membership@iabcatl.com.

Register online >

In this issue: The App Revolution; Top 5 Mobile Myths; Member Profile on Terry Cerisoles of Turner Broadcasting System; and more.

Presented by Tim Whitehead, VP, Marketing & Communications at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta & Recipient of IABC/Atlanta’s 2012 Catalyst Award

WHERE
Perimeter: Villa Christina at Perimeter Summit
4000 Summit Boulevard
Atlanta, GA 30319

FEE (Early-bird pricing shown below; prices increase after March 23)
Members: $32
Nonmember: $47
Students: $15

Register online today! >

Do these ads help or harm? Who's to blame for childhood obesity? These questions volleyed about in a nationwide controversy that was part of the communications strategy. Getting people to think and talk about a tough issue is the first step toward solutions that will improve the health and lives of children in Georgia and everywhere.

Tim Whitehead and his team seized an opportunity to test their mettle when they made the commitment to expose childhood obesity as a major health issue and improve the lives of Georgia’s 2.7 million kids.

The Children’s approach was risky and ambitious. The hard-hitting “Stop Childhood Obesity” ad campaign sparked national controversy, and the Strong4Life solutions campaign aims to ratchet down Georgia’s 2^nd highest childhood obesity ranking in the U.S. by offering simple steps to families.

Early results show campaign is paving path to change

The campaign approach, tested in two pilot markets before the Atlanta launch, was extremely effective and the ads achieved their objective: starting a new dialogue and making childhood obesity a top priority. In fact the campaign generated more than 10 million unpaid media impressions in 2011. And while the ads have sparked a lot of controversy for their “tough love” approach, recent market research after the Atlanta launch shows that 80 percent of those who have seen the ad campaign agree with the approach and only 11 percent say they do not like the campaign’s message.

Best practice for communicators

For planning and executing what will endure as a best-practice case study for a large-scale public awareness campaign, Whitehead and his small, efficient team have already earned 7 IABC Golden Flame awards, 4 PRSA awards, and 7 ADDY awards for work that included overseeing waves of consumer research, developing multiple ad campaigns, PR, social media and digital/Web plans, planning three launch events, and the creation and development of more than 350 collateral materials including the Strong4Life Steps Toolkit, Strong4Life Provider Toolkit, Fundraising materials, Executive communications and more.

IABC/Atlanta recognizes Whitehead as catalyst for change

The issue of childhood obesity has many stakeholders and many cultural and medical nuances, and for Whitehead’s leadership of this major initiative, he is being recognized by IABC/Atlanta as the 2012 winner of the Catalyst Award.  In an era where resources are tight and the communications landscape is increasingly cluttered and complex, this award for being a master of change highlights a central achievement in our profession.

Why you’ll want to hear the story of this campaign

There’s nothing about the story of this campaign that isn’t at the heart of what our profession at its most heroic is all about:  A message with life-or-death and economic implications that people don’t want to hear.  A passionate cause worth fighting for.  The intersection of research, collaboration and creative genius.  An inspiring example of leading a team into the charge.

What Whitehead has to tell us will constitute a crash course in communications strategy, crisis communications and change management.

Hear the story and leave emboldened to take on your next challenge.

Tim Whitehead, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

As Vice President, Marketing and Communications at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Tim Whitehead oversees advertising, brand management, marketing, public relations, creative and internal communications. He started at Children’s as Director, Internal Communications, managing the organizational communications strategy and communications activities for more than 7,000 employees at one of America’s leading pediatric healthcare systems. In this role he was also responsible for a variety of Human Resources and operational communications projects, including recruitment branding, change management, and national recognition for the Human Resources Division, such as the organization’s entries onto Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For” list.

Before joining Children’s, Tim worked in a variety of internal communications, issues management and public relations functions at such companies as E*Trade, The Coca-Cola Company and Georgia-Pacific Corp., and as part of Ketchum and Hill and Knowlton public relations firms.

In this issue: Meeting News – How Communicators Feed the Insatiable Hunger for Mobile Apps; The Secret to Outperforming Your Competitors; and more.