> CiB - News for Business Communicators

Mon, 19 May 2008 21:01:00 GMT: IMPORTANT: RSS feed URL has changed

As part of a web site upgrade the URL for the CiB web site RSS feed has changed. You now need to point your browser/aggregator at:

http://www.cib.uk.com/content/index.php?format=feed&type=rss

This feed will no longer be updated. If you have any problems you can find a link to the feed on the left hand side of the CiB home page at www.cib.uk.com

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:53:00 GMT: Top tips to zap up technical and tricky text

Judi Goodwin runs CiB’s “Zap up technical and tricky text” course. It is aimed at anyone writing on dry or difficult topics including science, technology, finance, medicine, insurance, engineering and construction - or anyone who feels their writing style is in need of a boost. Here are top ten tips.

Wed, 07 May 2008 13:04:00 GMT: Wolseley UK: From zero to heroes

Wolseley UK’s communications team, created just over two years ago, has already won 18 major international, national and regional awards for transforming the way the company engages with its employees. Jackie Davis finds out how it was done.

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:34:00 GMT: Central event: have you got what it takes?

What does it take to be an internal communicator? That’s the question which CiB Central will be exploring at its next dinner and discourse evening in Birmingham, to be held on June 19.

Tue, 06 May 2008 10:56:00 GMT: Anglia: Communic8 awards are launched

CiB Anglia Region has launched its Communic8 awards. The deadline for entries is 15 May and an entry form and details are available for download.

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:43:00 GMT: Looking for freelance help?

Need interim help over the summer holiday period? Looking for a freelance for that upcoming communications project? CiB's latest freelance directory lists 100 independent communications specialists and is searchable by name, location and speciality. Click here to find out more.

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:03:00 GMT: Conference update – 22-23 May 2008, Brighton

Have you booked your place at this year’s CiB Conference in Brighton? Latest conference brochure available to download.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:42:00 GMT: Wanted: new Editor in Chief at BT

Former CiB chairman Ken Runicles is retiring in late summer from one of the plum jobs in corporate journalism - and has been asked to find his successor as BT's editor in chief before he leaves.

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:23:00 GMT: CiB Awards: The finalists have been announced

The finalists in the 2008 CiB awards have been announced. Huw Edwards, the BAFTA award-winning journalist, presenter and newsreader will present this year’s in Brighton on Friday 23 May 2008.

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:40:00 GMT: CiB: New draft constitution now available

As outlined to members in an article entitled “Brave New World” by President Alan Peaford in the January issue of communicators, there are proposed revisions to CiB's Constitution. Members can now read about and download the draft Constitution in the member-only section.

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:31:00 GMT: Corporate identity rests on seven pillars

Geoff Davies argues that three key characteristics of a successful corporate identity are acquired only by meeting seven priorities.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:16:00 GMT: Employee Communication: five ways leaders can engage with staff

Marcia Xenitelis is often asked about the role of the CEO or leader of any organisation in employee communication. Her opinion is that no matter what the issue is, even if it is just business as usual, having a good communicator as a CEO is critical to impact the culture of an organisation in a positive way.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:37:00 GMT: Staff engagement: getting people in involved in rebranding

Liverpool Victoria went through a major re-branding exercise last year to become LV=. Lorne Armstrong, a partner in the consultancy team who assisted the project, looks at why the campaign was such a success.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:20:00 GMT: Conference update: What you'll miss if you don't book now

Make sure you book your place at the CiB Conference in Brighton on Thursday/Friday 22/23 May 2008.

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:23:00 GMT: The secrets to better corporate blogging

Web logs, popularly known as blogs, have become one of the hottest communication tools on the Web. Corporations are turning to blogs as communication tools for both internal and external use, as Kari White shows.

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:14:00 GMT: Employee Engagement - 13 important questions for management

Organisations are beginning to realise that their most important customers are actually their own employees, writes Cindy Goldwing. Dedicated, engaged employees can make a business prosper by building customer loyalty.

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:15:00 GMT: South West: ACE Award Winners 2008

Around 100 CiB members and guests attended the South West Region's Awards for Communications Excellence 2008 in Bristol on 6 March 2008. A total of 30 silver and gold awards were won across 19 award categories, including internal and external publications, face to face communication and communication programmes.

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:50:00 GMT: New telephone number for legal helpline

Please note that the telephone number available to CiB members for Legal and Tax queries is changing from: 08707 454545 to 0844 5618133.

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:58:00 GMT: Survey results: Social networking has a part to play in internal comms.

The overwhelming majority of corporate communicators think that social networking tools, like Facebook, have a part to play in internal communications. This was the verdict of a survey into social networking conducted by CiB in its free monthly ezine.

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:26:00 GMT: The benefits of storytelling

The Storytellers company claims to have created a unique, innovative approach to successful strategic execution in big business. It believes that all businesses are on a journey and, to achieve lasting results, people must be rationally and emotionally connected to that journey, becoming involved and empowered at every level.

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 08:49:00 GMT: Get your free monthly electronic newsletter

Did you know that you can keep up to date with all the latest developments in communications for free? Just subscribe to our free monthly electronic newsletter and we will deliver it straight to your inbox.

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:58:00 GMT: Phillipa Burrow 1957-2008

CiB is sad to report the death of former National Chairman Phillipa Burrow on Friday 25th January, following a long illness.

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:25:00 GMT: How to cut costs by increasing your budget

Russell-Oliver Brooklands, a former Corporate Brand Manager at Allied Dunbar, has devised a new way of working out how much communications cost a company. He maintains that cutting your communications budget will actually cost more in the long run.

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:52:00 GMT: Ross Chestney: Social media and Web 2.0 at BT

Ross Chestney, head of communication services at BT, is well known as an intranet pioneer. Steve Nichols, CiB ezine editor and webmaster, asked him to outline BT’s use of Web 2.0 tools and social media for internal communications.

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:37:00 GMT: Why use pictures when words do the trick?

A picture isn’t always worth a thousand words according to research carried out at Aston Business School in Birmingham. Stephanie Feiereisen and Veronica Wong in the school’s Marketing Group compared learning strategies and presentation formats. They discovered that for some products, words work better than pictures. 

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:54:00 GMT: Design for access – making information more accessible

Information is produced and disseminated by most organisations but how accessible are these documents? Whilst the content may be informative, many people may not be able to read or access the information due to the design, language, layout and typeface used. Katie Grant takes a closer look.

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:25:00 GMT: Scotland: Jenny is outstanding!

CiB Scotland was proud to present the 2007 Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Communications Industry to Jenny Carter. Her experience over the years includes working with almost three quarters of Scotland’s top 20 companies.

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:03:00 GMT: Summersault still scoops top honour in revamped CiB Central Awards

Leamington Spa-based communications agency Summersault kept its now traditional stranglehold on CiB Central’s Tom Dawson Award for the best publication – this time winning with The Link, produced for Group 4 at this year's awards.

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:24:00 GMT: CiB Scotland awards ‘a great success’

The CiB Scotland Awards 2007 awards dinner, which took place on Friday, 1 February at Oran Mor, Glasgow, was a great success.

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:40:00 GMT: Chairman’s blog February 2008

E-mail, consultants, bad spelling, CEOs who won’t communicate and lengthy approvals processes are just some of the things that corporate communicators would like to throw into Room 101.

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:02:00 GMT: The “How to” collection

CiB members have exclusive access to a large section of “How to” features in this section.

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:07:00 GMT: Survey results: What would you throw into Room 101?

E-mail, consultants, CEOs who won’t communicate, and approvals processes are just some of the things that corporate communicators would like to throw into Room 101.

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:28:00 GMT: English in a non-English environment

Brian Flack suggests that international writers should endeavour to recognise and avoid English words that have parallels in other languages - the so-called 'false friends'.

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:15:00 GMT: Join CiB today and save money

Thinking of becoming a CiB member? Then act quickly to save yourself some money. CiB subscriptions will be rising - for the first time in three years - by five per cent from February 1 2008.

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:23:00 GMT: Scotland: Awards shortlist now available

The initial judging stage for the CiB Scotland Awards 2007 has been completed. Category judges have scored and appraised the entries and have picked their shortlisted entries.

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:53:00 GMT: Beyond journalism and marketing: why Internal Comms need extra skill

What’s the difference between a copywriter and a journalist? Many people would say the obvious answer is that one works on marketing communications, while the other works on press communications. But is that all there is to it, or where does that leave Internal Comms?

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:20:00 GMT: New CiB members' group on Facebook

A new CiB group has been set up on social networking site Facebook and all Association members are invited to join.

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:52:00 GMT: Northern: School leadership college wins top communication accolade

A magazine published by the Nottingham-based National College for School Leadership, has been named as the top business communication in the North of England.

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:32:00 GMT: Getting the most from your PDFs

Nigel Curtis of Midlands-based CW Corporate Communications took exception to last month’s ezine article about PDFs potentially being boring. He says that, if handled correctly, PDFs can be anything but. He has a sample for you to download too to prove his point.

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 07:54:00 GMT: Why internal communications must never be seen as a cure-all for poor employee engagement

Andy Parsley, founding director of Green Lion, takes a closer look at the importance of employee engagement.

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:17:00 GMT: The power of engagement

In this article David Jacobs, from CiB members Lewis-Barned & Associates (http://www.lewis-barned.co.uk/), talks to Paul Swift, MD of PSC Ltd a leadership coaching and change management consultancy and Peter Johnston, change consultant at Turner & Townsend, about their experiences of helping organisations engage with staff and successfully manage business change.

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:04:00 GMT: CiB Central and Scotland launch awards

CiB Central and CiB Scotland have both launched their 2007 awards competitions with identical entry deadlines and gala presentation dinner dates. The deadline for entries into both competitions is Friday November 30.

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:24:00 GMT: Chairman’s blog: November 07

I spoke recently as a guest of a unique group of people – the CiB’s past chairmen. They meet once a year for dinner in London to catch up on news and to renew old friendships and networks.

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:22:00 GMT: Ten things you didn’t know about the CiB website

Not been to the CiB website recently? Here’s 10 things we bet you didn’t know were available.

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:08:00 GMT: Scotland: Eyetracking event is big eye opener

Wouldn’t you love to find out what impact your visual communications have? Which layouts work and at what point viewers switch on or tune out? Well, that’s exactly what members of CiB Scotland did at last week’s ‘Eyetracking’ event. Hosted by Bunnyfoot Studios, the event took place in the General Medical Council boardroom overlooking stunning views of Edinburgh’s extinct volcano, Arthur’s Seat.

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:02:00 GMT: Chairman's Blog - October 2007

My friend’s daughter recently landed her first job after graduating. She’s 22 and is a ‘Senior Executive’ for a branding company. Senior Executive??? She’s never worked apart from a Saturday job in New Look.

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:10:00 GMT: Quality interviews make for quality communications

Geoff Davies takes a look at the best way to get the most out of your interviews with CEOs. He argues that it is all in the preparation and approach.

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:02:00 GMT: Building trust - a little lesson from history

Steve Nichols takes a look at what we can do to make employees believe the messages they hear from their CEOs. And digs into history for some clues at the same time.

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:51:00 GMT: Get your copy of our free monthly e-newsletter

Communicators in Business, the UK's leading corporate communications association, circulates a free monthly e-zine or electronic newsletter

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:21:00 GMT: Our features on your web site - free!

The CiB website contains a growing library of top features on all aspects of corporate communications. Now you can automatically include these on your web site or intranet site ... and it won't cost you a penny.