Dear communicators,
We are pleased to invite you to our next Geneva Communicators Network (GCN) lunch event, to be held on 6 October 2026:
““Actually, I Am Not a Hostage Negotiator” – What high-stakes rooms have taught me about communication and influence”
Dr Susan Laverick is not a hostage negotiator. She would like that cleared up early. How that particular rumour started, and what it revealed about the way messages actually travel once we lose control of them, is where this talk begins.
As a speechwriter and communication adviser, Susan works in rooms most of us never see: helping former combatants articulate a future beyond conflict and helping Ukrainian diplomats carry a message the world seemed to have tired of hearing. Drawing on four very different consultancy projects, she explores what really happens when careful messaging meets real people, real egos and real pressure.
For anyone whose job is to advise a leader, speak for someone else or help someone else speak, this is a candid, occasionally irreverent look at influence, authority and the gap between what we intend and what lands.
Dr Susan Laverick is a strategic communication adviser, speechwriter and Guest Lecturer in Applied Rhetoric at the Université de Genève and the Geneva Graduate Institute. Her clients include diplomats, international organisations and corporate leaders. Her assignments have ranged from dissecting failed pitches and preparing speakers for UN podiums to pitching senior candidates to international electorates. She is a UN-accredited expert adviser in communication and holds a doctorate in English literature, completed with the support of an Australian Government scholarship. Before moving to Geneva in 1997, she worked for the BBC in London. Her work brings together narrative, applied rhetoric and a candid understanding that the most carefully prepared message is never the only force in the room.
Date: 6 October 2026
Time: 12h30 to 14h00
The Swiss Press Club, Domaine de Penthes, Chem. de l’Impératrice 18, 1292, Pregny-Chambésy, Geneva
Fee: CHF 35.- per person includes drinks and snacks
