The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is holding a networking and seminar event on Wednesday 18 March titled:
‘Branding crunch: keeping your  brand alive during a recession’, one of the toughest communication challenges today.

At the event, you will hear from a leading marketer – Ago Cluytens, Global Head of Marketing, Private Banking, ING Bank, and have the opportunity to network with other attendees.

Event details:

Time: Networking starts 18.30, seminar starts 19.15, close 21.00  

Venue: Hotel Bristol, 10, rue du Mont-Blanc, 1201 Geneva 

Price:  IABC Members CHF 25, non-members CHF 35 

To register or for more information email Marcus Ferrar, President, IABC Switzerland:  marcus@ferrar.ch.

For International Women’s Day, Wednesday, 04 March 2009,  Geneva Women in International Trade is organising a roundtable on “Women Leading Change – Traction for Trade”:

Leveraging the unique concentration of female talent in Geneva – members of this interactive panel will explore how they create impact from the local to global levels, through leading change.  The event aims to draw us together around leadership in achieving women’s economic empowerment through trade.  Opportunities for engagement will be shared during the session with time for follow-up during the cocktail and networking hour.

Panellists:

Patricia Francis – Executive Director – International Trade Centre

H.E Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, Ambassador and Head of World Trade, Switzerland

Myret Zaki, Head of Finance Edition, Le Temps

Richard Newfarmer – Special Representative to WTO and UN – World Bank

Moderator:

Ania Jakubowski – President – Geneva Women in International Trade

Further information and registration>>

On Thursday 5 March, SRRP are organising a roundtable (in French) on the theme of “Managing your reputation in a times of crisis”. Our very own Vincent Lusser will be speaking at the event.

En période de difficultés économiques, le défi pour les spécialistes RP est de trouver un moyen pour communiquer le juste équilibre entre objectif et performance, rétablir la confiance des principaux actionnaires et renforcer la réputation des entreprises.

Dans le cadre de cette nouvelle réalité économique, Burson-Marsteller vous présentera les résultats de l’étude Purpose&Performance menée dans 11 pays à travers l’Europe, parmi lesquels la Suisse, auprès de 200 dirigeants d’entreprise et faiseurs d’opinion influents: PDG et présidents, représentants du gouvernement, journalistes, ONG, professionnels de la communication en entreprise et universitaires.

Cette présentation sera suivie par une mise en perspective et un partage d’expériences, avec notamment la participation de Vincent Lusser, Chef de la communication interne du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge (CICR), Genève.

La soirée se poursuivra autour d’un apéritif par une discussion ouverte.

Further information and registration>>

Thank you to all the participants who attended our workshop at Lift yesterday. It was a very interesting discussion. Here are the slides summarizing some of the major points. 

Lift09 Networking Workshop Slides   

Stay tuned for some photos and video coverage of the session.

Enjoy the rest of the Lift conference!!

Patricia

Thanks to Thierry Weber of Culturepod, we now have a videocast of the presentation of Dr. Surabhi Aggarwal on intercultural communications from our lunch seminar of 30 January 2009.

View the video: Geneva Communicators: The Challenges of inter cultural communication >>

Enjoy the show!

A US webinar on 27 February, titled ‘Media Relations Lessons from the 2009 Peanut Butter Recall‘ will examine real product recall cases and their handling in the media, sharing best practice and lessons learned. With those in Corporate Communications often being asked to produce emergency communication plans, this webinar could offer useful insights to help  construct such plans. Find out more at: www.health.newsbios.com.

Melitta

The University of Geneva is holding 10 evening  seminars on communications themes from February to June 2009. The conferences are on a variety of themes ranging from crisis communications to media and democracy in the Middle East. All conferences are in French except the conference of 2 June in English on the theme “Communication in International Organisations” featuring Keith Rockwell, Director of Communications, WTO.

View the complete programme (pdf) >>

Last night, members of the Geneva Communications Network participated in a virtual event where we met in a virtual “world” and spoke about how they work for communications applications. Ron Edwards of Ambient Performance took us through the virtual environment of Forterra Systems with a demonstration as to how it works. We were all sitting in a virtual conference room and members of the London Communicators Group were watching it all *live* from a conference room in London. Here is a screen shot of the virtual conference room:

Thanks again to Ron Edwards and Matt O’Neill of the London Communicators Group for organising the event and inviting members of the Geneva Communicators Network to participate.

If you are interested to hear a preview of what Dr Aggarwal will speak about at our event on 30 January, listen to Dr Aggarwal and Glenn O’Neil of the Geneva Communicators Network discuss the challenges of inter-cultural communication on World Radio Switzerland:

Listen to the WRS show “Your Space” of  5 January >>