IABC Be Heard Weblog

My trip to Leadership Institute in Orlando earlier this month. My social media savvy friends tell me that the 25 random things list is so last hour, but I thought it was a good way to fill you in on my trip.

1. Florida was having the coldest winter on record when I arrived. It was warmer in Houston!

2. It was great to meet IABC staff members, like Gretchen Hoover Anderson (see photo), who I had only known before by their email addresses.

3. Susan Burnell, APR, our past president and current co-chair of the Southern Region Conference, and I handed out rubber ducks to LI attendees to promote the conference. They were a huge hit! Only perplexed look came from a member of the IABC Nigeria Chapter.

4. We presented a free registration certificate to Gervais Joubert from New Orleans (see photo). Look forward to seeing him make the trip down I-10 to attend the conference Oct. 22-24.

5. The last session was probably the most valuable. 30 ideas in 30 minutes was led by  Barbara Gibson, ABC, international chair, and Glenda Holmes, ABC, former international chair and Texas gal in Austin. Attendees were encouraged to share their ideas for helping chapter members cope with the economic downturn. A timer on the giant screen made sure no one went past one minute allotted for each idea. It was fun and energizing. See numbers 6-12 for some of the ideas.

6. One idea as to create very low-cost or free events; brown bag; meet in a pub; cut out the fluff.

7. Go on a field trip. Have a local employer host a meet and greet at their place; give a tour; charge $10 to attend to cover cost of refreshments.

8. Engage senior membership at a wine and cheese think tank. Seek their help in planning professional development events and succession planning or give them a topic, take notes and turn into article. (Great project for students!)

9. Host a happy hour the night before your monthly luncheon meeting with the speaker. Charge $5 for members to attend and mix and mingle with the speaker. Great way to engage those who can’t afford monetarily or time-wise to attend the more expensive luncheon.

10. Hold a career boot camp. Have speakers focus on resumes, interview techniques and leave camp with a resume and cover letter.

11. Recession-proof your career. Host coffee and conversation at Starbucks from 9 to 11. Designate a discussion leader and invite members to stop by and join in the sharing of ideas and venting.

12. Use the resources of the IABC Foundation more. Share results of salary survey, how to deal with generational differences, etc. All reports are free.

13. I presented a check for $200 to the Foundation on behalf of IABC Houston. Instead of a lovely parting gift, our speakers receive an honorarium made in their names to the Foundation.

14. Note to self for next conference I attend: Arrive at dessert break early before all of the good chocolate treats are gone!

15. IABC Houston won a Chapter Management Award for Excellence in Membership Marketing. Kudos to past president Susan Burnell and last year’s Member Services VP, Helen Fischer, ABC. Barb Gibson presented the certificate to Susan and I (see photo).

16. A member from New Zealand was excited to hear I was from Houston as she is a big fan of the Future Studies program at the University of Houston. Dr. Stephen Bishop mentioned at our January meeting is one of only nine such programs in the world.

17. It took a trip to Florida to meet someone from the Brazos Valley Chapter in College Station.

18. IABC/Newfoundland and Labrador won international chapter of the year.

19. The University of Georgia won student chapter of the year.

20. The Caribbean island nations of Barbados, Jamaica and Trindad and Tobago are part of the IABC Southern Region. I say we hold the next Southern Region conference at one of these locales!

21. When traveling to a Disney Resort town like Orlando, there are lots of kids on the plane. Just an observation.

22. The grapefruit juice was great!

23. The gate where my plane is boarding is always the one fartherest from the ticket counter. My hotel room is always the fartherest from the elevator. Just more observations.

24. I have yet to attend a conference where one of the speakers who used a PowerPoint presentation didn’t say, “I know this slide is a little hard to read.”

25. I was proud to represent the Houston Chapter.

By Ron “Rockin’ Ronnie” Shewchuk, ABC

I’m honored to be a guest blogger for IABC Houston. And I’ve got one heck of a story to tell. On Thursday, February 26, I will be making history at the Armadillo Palace, and it won’t have anything to do with employee communications. It will be because I’m the first Canadian to ever try to give a bunch of Texans a barbecue lesson! I know. I can hardly believe it myself. Teaching barbecue to Texans is like selling coals to Newcastle.

I’ll be lucky if I don’t get run out of town on a rail. But, of course, that won’t happen. First of all, even though I live way up North in rainy Vancouver, British Columbia, I am familiar with Texas’ reputation for making guests feel welcome. And, second, I’m pretty confident that the meal I serve up at my special Employee Communications Cookout is going to be good enough to win over even the most partisan barbecue lovers in the crowd. Come to think of it, I may have made history already by becoming the world’s only motivational speaker who uses barbecue as a metaphor for employee communications.

My luncheon talk, “Everything I Know About Communication, I Learned From Barbecue,” combines my passions for employee communications and outdoor cooking in a delicious, entertaining and informative multi-course meal. It’s one part cooking class, one part employee communications, and one part damn good meal. As I cook and serve up a bunch of dishes from my Barbecue Secrets cookbook, I’m going to use each recipe to illustrate something about employee communications.

If you want an advance taste of the event – a virtual online appetizer – watch me talk about it in this short video, or listen to this audio interview that my old friend Steve Crescenzo did with me a few weeks ago on his Creative Conversations podcast, or read about it in a series of posts on my blog, For Your Approval.

So, if you want to chow down and have a great time with your fellow communicators, register for the lunch and come out to the Armadillo on Feb. 26. And if you want the full meal deal, stick around for the afternoon. I’m following up lunch with an intensive session where I’ll share pretty much everything I know about how to practice great employee communications, including some insights on the changing values of today’s employees, plus my take on the big topic of the day, the use and abuse of social media in the workplace. Register for the lunch/afternoon workshop combo.

Forty years ago, in a parking lot outside the Astrodome, the world’s first barbecue competition was born, staged by a bunch of tailgaters who decided that it would be fun to put on a contest. Today, there are more than 500 contests every year, all across North America and all over the world, but the World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest, now part of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, is one of the biggest and most prestigious contests in the world. The day after my talk at the Armadillo, this year’s contest begins, and I’m going to be in Hog Heaven as I take it all in. And while I walk the competition grounds and take in the smell of beef fat and mesquite smoke, I’ll be thinking that, if not for that contest 40 years ago, I probably wouldn’t be here today.

God bless barbecue. And God bless Texas. Please register today for the Employee Communications Cookout.

I hope to see you soon!

In an uncertain economic climate it’s always good to have your ducks in a row when it comes to helping your company maneuver the hard times as well as managing your career. That’s why the Houston chapter’s Regional Conference Dream Team has chosen the theme Align ‘09: Get Your Ducks in a Row. The conference will be held October 22-24, 2009 in Houston most likely at a Galleria-area hotel. Save the date.

Also, save the date for our next planning meeting. It’s Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 4:30 at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church on Westheimer near Edloe. If you’re not already involved with IABC, this is a great opportunity to step in and get your feathers wet so to speak. Research has shown that an economic downturn is not the time to duck and take cover. It’s the time to get quackin’ and become a volunteer.

Did I mention that our theme has potential for dozens and dozens of plays on words? Thank you IABC member Kerry Gregg for your creative genius.

We’ll soon be polling members on potential speaker topics. Watch for that or no need to wait. If you have a great topic idea send it to me at any time. Hope your week is just ducky!