Jan 11, 2012 6:00 PM CST

Give the People What They Want

If you’re involved in numerous professional organizations, you may feel as if you’ve heard presentations on some of the same career development topics too many times to count. Within IABC Houston, we’re always thinking of ways to bring fresh ideas to our members, giving them top value for their time and money.

Recent survey feedback from IABC Houston members compelled me to slightly modify the approach for our 2012 programming. Our overall objective is to bring in dynamic presenters that are experts on topics that our audience wants to hear about. This may sound simple, but part of our challenge as a volunteer organization is attracting high-profile speakers while remaining fiscally responsible. Another chapter focus is to bolster IABC Houston’s sponsorships to help companies gain visibility. Ideally, meeting our two goals will result in a win-win for everyone.

With a corporate concentration and an entrepreneurial spin, the first four luncheons of the year offer rich content to a wide audience. The January program showcases two well-known firms and their best practices. Anadarko will demonstrate their process for creating an online newsletter. This might seem basic, but understanding the planning, implementation and evaluation of such an endeavor is serious business, complex at the least. Also in this month’s program, we will hear from Keystone Resources, who designed an award-winning direct mail piece, another task with a deceptively simple result, but dauntingly detailed in its design and delivery. Both companies made the most out of these projects, winning accolades both within and outside their organizations.

In February, Connie Barnaba, a human resources professional and well-known Houston Business Journal columnist, will shed light on the importance of communication during mergers and acquisitions. I’m sure many of our members can attest to having observed or been involved in a merger setting where there were many unknowns, and not much forthcoming information. The real nuts and bolts of how to communicate will be revealed by Connie in a two-hour workshop following lunch.

Patrick Knapp of Baker Hughes, an expert in navigating delicate crisis situations, will join us at the March luncheon to share the ins and outs of how to best handle a crisis from inside the organization. From locating employees to creating on-message and accurate communications, this will be a fascinating program.

April brings us Christi McNeill of Southwest Airlines, whose corporate social media outreach is top notch. Christi will show how her organization leverages social media platforms internally and externally to create their famous positive customer experience. We have lots to learn from such an innovative company.

The topics for the remainder of the 2012 luncheons are still being confirmed, but to give you a taste of what’s to come, we are working on programs highlighting external crisis communications, change communication, sports rebranding, and how area hospitals deal with medical issues among celebrity patients, to name a few.

Join us for lunch on the fourth Thursday of every month. We’ll make it worth your while!

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