IABC Be Heard Weblog

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!