Many thanks to our panel and the 80+ participants at our lunchtime seminar yesterday on media relations. To keep our with our panel, you can follow Frank Jordans of AP through Twitter: @wirereporter.  You can learn more about social media and journalism on the blog of Gillian Rogers.   You can follow the work of the ICRC (organisation of our speaker Florian Westphal) on Twitter: @icrc_english.

Please note that our next lunchtime seminar is now sold out – we have record number of registrations and cannot fit more people into our venue – thanks for your understanding and see you at our next event!

We are pleased to announce our next event of 2011:

Lunchtime seminar – the changing role of media relations

The media remain an important stakeholder and relay for many communicators. But in a rapidly changing environment, the roles of both journalist and communicators are changing. How is the media changing in the new media landscape? What is “newsworthy” today? Who is responsible for the information that reaches the public? What are the new channels? Our panel of journalists and communicators will address these questions and more…

Date: Thursday 24 March 2011
Time: 12h30 to 14h00
Location*: The Swiss Press Club, Route de Ferney 106, La Pastorale, 1202 Geneva.
Fee: CHF 15.- per person includes drinks and snacks – payable at the door.

Panel:
Frank Jordans, reporter, Associated Press, Geneva – How can communicators work with journalists more effectively in today’s world?
Gillian Rogers, blogger, graduate student and journalist, New York City / Geneva – The changing role of the journalist in light of technology and social media
Florian Westphal, Deputy Director for Communications (former head of media relations), International Commitee of the Red Cross – Challenges and insights on managing media relations today.

Places are limited due to the venue size, so please register early for the event.

Register here for the event>>

Many thanks to the 40+ participants who ventured out today to discover their communication styles at our GCN Lunch Event.  Thank you also to Henri Gauthier of Sequoia for his excellent presentation. It was an interactive event to end the week on a positive note. Thank you also the International University in Geneva for their sponsorship.

We will be distributing a copy of the slides to those who attended. If you would like to contact Henri directly for any further queries you can reach him at henri.gauthier@sequoia.ch.

View the photos of the event on the left hand column of this page or on our Flickr page.

Look out for our next event in May.

Bon week-end,

Patricia, Melitta, Glenn, and Vincent

We are pleased to announce our first event of 2010.This time we are bringing you a special workshop for your personal and professional development.

Title: Discover your communication style

Date and time: Friday 29 January 2010, 12h30 -14h00

Fee: CHF 10.- for light lunch and drinks

Location: International University in Geneva, Plaza floor, ICC building, Rte de Pré-Bois 20, Geneva (Map). Parking available (To get to the University, park in the underground parking section G, take the lift to the ground floor, enter the building, turn left, and take the lift “G” down to the plaza level. You will exit directly on the University floor).

Registration: please register – click here>>

Seminar description: Have you ever wondered what kind of communicator you are? How can you develop a deeper understanding of yourself and consequently of others? How can you adapt yourself to the preferences of others and optimize your communication?

Mr. Henri Gautier, Founder and associate at Seqouia will facilitate the workshop to help you assess your communication strengths and weaknesses.

We look forward to seeing you there!!

Thanks to the International University in Geneva for the venue sponsorship.

Following is some more information on the theme of our next lunchtime seminar:

 Suddenly management and decision-makers are obliged to keep those existing ‘daily business’ balls moving fluidly, while adding one- or several- chainsaws into their juggling act. The chainsaw(s) can be accidents, scandals, product defects, environmental disaster, health hazards or any other situation that poses a threat to operations and reputation. The real question: are you prepared to juggle a chainsaw or two? We find that while companies can manage to juggle the odd chainsaw, their structures and approaches tend to work in silos- the health and safety officer might deal with the accident, human resources with the scandal, the marketers with the product defect and so on. Can communicators become the bridge-builders within organizations, effectively de-siloing approaches to crisis communication and management? Our hypothesis is that social media can help to level the playing field, where communications can become a ‘centralizing’ platform internally. While it is true that communications has always played an important role in crisis management, since the advent of Web 2.0 the rules of the game have been turned upside-down with the citizen having the power to create content.

Who is now in command? Which are the new target audiences and how do we reach them? By putting communications structurally at the center of the crisis response and intelligently making use of social media, companies and organizations can be better equipped to mitigate the impact of a crisis. Come to this workshop and discuss the social media dimension with Raj and Tony who specialize in creating scenarios which simulate your Worstcase nightmares.

Register here for the lunchtime seminar >>

We are happy to announce our next Geneva Communicators lunchtime seminar!

Theme: Can you juggle chainsaws? Crisis Communication in the Social Media Age

Date/time:  12h20-14h00, Tuesday 10 November 2009

Venue: HD Centre, 114, Rue de Lausanne,  Geneva (map – pdf)

Speakers: Tony Murdoch and Raj Rana, co-founders of theworstcase.com

Cost:  10 CHF (light lunch included)

Register here for the lunchtime seminar >>

Thanks  to the HD Centre for the venue and the International University in Geneva for sponsorship.