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IABCLA Board Retreat: Celebrating Successes, Planning for Future 

June 26, 2019 by
The IABCLA board held a planning retreat on June 11.

The IABCLA board reviewed the chapter’s accomplishments during the first half of the year and began planning the remainder of 2019 at its semiannual retreat on June 11. 

Looking back at the last six months, our group has much to be proud of. We fulfilled our mission: “to heighten the skills, reputation and talents of the community through human connection. We do this by welcoming and inspiring LA’s professional communicators with targeted professional development events and honest conversations.” 

Between January and June, our chapter held several professional development functions  — a Dine & Discuss, two Coffee Connections, and a case study. Discussion topics included “Brand Building in a Digital World,” “PR in the Digital Age,” and “Navigating the Comms Job Market in LA.” We also held a Spring Mixer where guests networked at a popular bistro.  

In addition, we’re constantly looking for new ways to share chapter information and ideas. We now distribute a monthly newsletter — email Grant Skakun at grant.skakun@eucrest.com to subscribe. And, we’ve added an Instagram account — @IABCLosAngeles. Please follow us! 

Several ideas were discussed at the retreat, and we’ll continue to have a full schedule of activities between now and December. Look for reoccurring favorites like Coffee Connection and Dine & Discuss, as well as new happenings. We will, of course, continue to reach out to members and nonmembers and strengthen ties with communicators at all levels of their careers. 

To learn about the very latest, please continue to visit this site and follow us on social media: 
▪ Facebook: @IABCLosAngeles
▪ Twitter: @IABCLosAngeles
▪ Instagram: @IABCLosAngeles

Thank you! IABCLA could not thrive without YOUR support and participation! 

Filed Under: Board News, Chapter News, News Tagged With: , , ,

Great times at IABCLA’s Spring Mixer

June 5, 2019 by

Thank you to all who attended IABCLA’s Spring Mixer at The Cat & Fiddle Restaurant & Pub in Hollywood on June 4! Attendees enjoyed sliders, chips, pints, and great conversation at the longtime British themed bar. 

“It was a pleasure hosting and getting to know the guests,” said Tery Amaya, the chapter’s vice president of networking who planned the gathering. “We hope to see everyone again at our upcoming happenings this summer and fall.”

Please stay up-to-date by continuing to visit this site and by following us on social media:

Facebook: @IABCLosAngeles

Twitter: @IABCLosAngeles

Instagram: @IABCLosAngeles



Filed Under: Chapter News, Events - Los Angeles, External Events, Networking Tagged With: , , ,

IABCLA Hosts “Thought-provoking” Exchange at Dine & Discuss

March 17, 2019 by
IABCLA’s Dine & Discuss in February.

Our chapter held its first Dine & Discuss of the year on February 27 at TOMGEORGE in Downtown LA. Julie Wright, president and founder of (W)right On Communications, Inc., lead the discussion on “PR in the Digital Age.”

Attendance was capped at 10 people; we keep the number small in order to facilitate a discussion in which everybody can participate. There were folks who were newer to the communications industry, as well as those who had been in the field for some time, and all with diverse career experiences – Julie said this mix led to a “thought-provoking” conversation. 

The group talked about issues from fake news and distrust in media to technology trends like content marketing, visual storytelling, and data-driven communications. There was general agreement around the notion that a compelling concept and story are at the heart of all successful campaigns and initiatives. Regardless of technology trends and changes in media consumption, well-crafted stories and well-researched messages that speak to target audiences are what drives successful communication.

One of the best moments of the evening came when a guest brought up this intriguing idea: what if we communicate less? For instance, what if you could only send five business emails a day? Who would you send them to and what would you say? Also, he mentioned Banksy, the street artist, as someone whose work speaks in a sparse, yet powerful way. 

Julie was intrigued by the concept of being discrete and sparing in her digital communication. The next day at her company, she talked to colleagues more in person rather than through messaging. When Julie did email, she held onto her feedback longer than usual – she found that often issues had already been resolved by the time she weighed in. 

Board member Ephraim Freed noted the counterintuitive nature of this suggestion: “As communicators, we assume everybody needs more communication, but often when you talk to your audiences you find out something different than what you assume.” 

New ways of thinking are just one of the many positives to come from Dine & Discuss, and that’s why it’s one of our most successful programs. Look for this and other upcoming events on our website, as well as social media – our group is on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and now Instagram. We also send out regular emails to our members and supporters notifying them of activity. If you’d like to be added to our mailing list, please reach out to Grant Skakun: grant.skakun@eucrest.com. 

Filed Under: Chapter News, Events - Los Angeles, Networking Tagged With: ,

FREE Webinar – The Rise of the Millennials: Transforming the Enterprise Through Gamification

May 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Free webinar for IABC-LA members. May 14, 2014 at 9:00am PDT

New! IABC is piloting making our free-to-members webinars available to non-members for $100

Gabe Zichermann, Founder and CET of Dopamine and Gamification Co., Conference Chair, Gamification Summit
Some leading organizations are realizing the power of gamification to enhance work, reaping spectacular increases in productivity, engagement, innovation and business outcomes. Discover what’s driving this extraordinary trend, key successes and failures, and major design patterns that will enable your organization to take advantage of this innovation.

http://www.iabc.com/education/webseminars.htm

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Nominations Open – 2012-2013 LA chapter board members and directors

May 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Nominations for July 2012 – June 2013 LA chapter board year are now open.

If you are a current IABC member and interested in volunteering to advance your career, expand your network, gain management experience, or develop your communications skills, please review the board and volunteer positions listed below and contact Paula Cassin, at la-president@iabc.com or 805 758-3392 to discuss!  We welcome all help, of all sorts and sizes.  We do have people expressing interest in many of the roles listed, but can always find a match for your personal goals and what’s needed to run the chapter. 

The deadline for nominations is midnight Saturday, the 12th of May.

IABC Los Angeles is a unique professional association, known for its friendliness and for providing access to network of 14,000 professionals around the world. The Los Angeles Chapter has been providing face-to-face, quality networking and professional development events for all communicators in the LA area for decades, all through a rotating volunteer board.IABC Logo

Serving on the board provides an incomparable professional development experience, creates lifelong friendships, and provides opportunities for communicators to expand their skill set in areas that may not be available at work.

Potential projects for 2012-2013 include planning the events program for 2012-2013,  rethinking event structure (virtual events? can we tie in social media more deeply at live events? partnering with other organizations? experimenting with the cutting edge in comms), overhauling how we showcase members online and at events, expanding our membership to new groups of practitioners.

Board level roles include the opportunity to travel to IABC Leadership Institute (Scottsdale, AZ in 2013) and regional IABC meetings, to meet with peers from around the world and also to regional chapter meetings and conferences.

Chapter board level roles:

President 2012-2013 – (Dana Edler)

Past President 2012-2013 – (Paula Cassin)

President Elect – Position Responsibilities:

  • Automatic succession to the position of president
  • Perform duties assigned by the president
  • Act on the president’s behalf in case of their absence
  • Act as the chapter’s main contact person for the Pacific Plains Regional Board
  • Manage the development of the official slate of next fiscal year’s Board members and work with the president to issue the final slate for voting to IABC-LA’s members
  • Manage the volunteering director and help establish  a healthy turnover of volunteers
  • Provide advice and counsel to the president on the direction and progress of the chapter

VP of Communications – Position Responsibilities:

  • Maintain the chapter’s broadcast communications calendar and craft the communications plan for the year (using past resources, best practice templates/work plans, and own initiative)
  • Manage and coach the social media, email, newsletter and website directors as needed to get content posted and broadcast.
  • Ensure all member mailings reflect the IABC-LA brand
  • Create and maintain a style book that reflects IABC-LA’s preferred look and feel for all member communications
  • Collect and publish member profiles
  • Work with the newsletter director to deliver the monthly e-mail newsletter for members

VP of Membership – Position Responsibilities:

  • Advocate and coach chapter volunteers on membership value and craft a membership promotion for the year (using past examples, best practice templates/work plans, and own initiative)
  • Member outreach – new, renewing, and lapsing members
  • Email new member packets monthly to all new IABC-LA members
  • Call members on their anniversary to thank them for their membership and ask for their feedback about events etc. being offered
  • Reach out to prospective new members and encourage them to join – through email, phone or mailings
  • Manage and coach new member welcome volunteers
  • Promote membership deals that IABC International offers by asking Website Chair to post details on the LA site and sharing that information with regional event planners so they can announce opportunities at monthly events.

VP of Professional Development (Programming, Events) – Position Responsibilities:

  • Lead Programming Committee to determine event calendar for September 2012- June 2013
  • Responsible for event calendar changes, updates, and relaying info to website director for posting
  • Manage and coach regional event directors, helping them stay on track, flag any problems
  • Responsibility for maintaining central database/info on topics, speakers, venues
  • Maintain a list of locations that have hosted events in the area for use by future Board members
  • Update Board on event status monthly

Treasurer – Position Responsibilities:

  • Must have served on the IABC-LA Board of Directors for one full fiscal year prior to accepting the role of Treasurer
  • Ensure the financial health of the chapter by monitoring the budget, managing all financial accounts, monitoring all financial transactions and issuing payments to vendors
  • Reimburse board members for expenses
  • Store and maintain all financial receipts and records
  • Prepare financial reports for IABC as requested by IABC
  • Manage new vendor contracts as necessary

 Directors (reporting to and coached by a board member, varying levels of commitment required):

Social Media – responsible for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Group, and promoting chapter members and activities through social media

Events, South Bay – organize an event for a particular month in a particular region

Events, Pasadena/Burbank – organize an event for a particular month in a particular region

Events, Downtown- organize an event for a particular month in a particular region

Events, Woodland Hills/Westlake- organize an event for a particular month in a particular region

Website – post news, event information, member profiles, event photos/video on our website

Monthly Newsletter – monthly round up of events, activities, notable news from IABC that goes out to members and non-members

Email communications – manage email broadcasts and eventbrite broadcasts during the year

Job Board  – receive and post job openings provided for SoCal during the year (5-10 per month currently), promote and spread awareness of our members-only free channel

Event volunteer – check in registrants, print out badges, etc)

Secretary/Administrator – attend board meetings, take minutes and post, print name badges,

New Member Welcome Committee – volunteers who contact new IABC members, find them a buddy, assist the VP Membership,  introduce new members at events

Programming Committee – volunteers who meet during June and July 2012 to agree and schedule the event calendar for 2012-2013

Volunteering – connect with members and non-members interested in volunteering and connect them to the right director or VP.

 

Filed Under: Chapter News, Member News, Networking, News, Professional Development Tagged With: , , , ,

Networking with Surprise Guest – Sept 21st

August 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Please join us for our kick-off networking event for the 2011-2012 year –  Registration is now open.

Breaking news: 2011-2012 IABC Chairman Adrian Cropley will be in Los Angeles and attending! Come along if you’re interested in meeting this global ambassador for business communications or want to quiz him on the state of the profession in other parts of the country, other parts of the world. I’ve met Adrian a few times at IABC events (Leadership Institute, World Conference) and not only is he talented and insightful, he’s fun and engaging – one of those people it’s a delight to be around. – Paula (IABC LA Chapter President 2011-2012)

This is one of 2 “Thank-You-For-Being-a-Member” events that the Los Angeles Chapter organizes each year (Pasadena/Burbank in September, South Bay in January/February). If you’re a member, it’s free of charge, venue, appetizers, drink tickets included. If you’re not a member but want to network with local business communicators, you’re warmly welcomed, too, and we’ve kept the price reasonable.

We will have networking activities, several prizes to give away, and as always, a collegial, inclusive atmosphere (the reason so many of us keep coming back).

————————

Adrian Cropley  is currently the Chairman of the International Executive board of IABC and has held a number of  Voluntary roles. He was named IABC’s Volunteer Chapter Leader of the year 2008 and has been instrumental in the growth and development of Chapters across the Asia/Pacific Region.

Adrian is the Principal for Cropley Communications, Melbourne. Australia and has over 20 years
communication experience in the Private and Public sectors. Adrian has been in roles from HR Management, Change and Organizational Development Manager to heading up corporate Internal Communications.

Adrian works with a variety of clients on change and internal communication strategies and programs. He is also an executive coach working with organizations Including Ernst & Young, Shell, NAB, ANZ, National Foods, Kraft, Bunning’s, Aus Post, Telstra, Amcor, AXA RMIT, Latrobe, Deakin & Monash Universities and various government organizations. He is a sought after facilitator, lecturer coach and has spoken right across the globe at various, conferences and forums. He is widely published with a number of articles appearing in industry magazines globally.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Chapter News, Events, Events - Los Angeles, News Tagged With: , , ,

Father Greg Boyle to Headline Annual Chapter Banquet on 6/15

April 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Father Greg Boyle

IABC Los Angeles is proud to have Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, as the keynote speaker at its 2011 Annual Banquet, Wednesday, June 15, 6:00 – 9:00 pm at the Oviatt Penthouse, located at 617 S. Olive Ave. in Downtown Los Angeles. The event is an opportunity for IABC-LA to recap and celebrate the past year and to install new board members for the next year. Registration details will be posted shortly.

Father Greg, as he is known, will discuss the power of communications — the ability to reach the most hardened, to see the best in everyone, and ultimately, how he helped gang members turn their life around.  He will also talk about how he changed the minds of many in society to eventually be more accepting of these individuals’ pasts and to give them a chance at a better life.  Founded in 1988, Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention program in the country, offering job training, tattoo removal and jobs to members of enemy gangs and has become a national model in its effectiveness.

In March 2010, Father Greg released “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.” In it, he captures his work with these gang members—the homies—in the barrio of Los Angeles into a book of amazing stories and essays. All IABC-LA gala attendees will receive a signed copy of “Tattoos on the Heart” at the event as Father Greg has graciously agreed to autograph each one. More information about Homeboy available is at www.homeboy-industries.org.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

Presidents Message – Welcome to the New Site

October 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Dear Members,

Welcome to our new website. I hope you enjoy it and find it a step forward from the previous site.

Everyone on the Board has been working hard through the Summer and Fall on the website and other major projects for the Chapter.

I would like to tell you about how the current IABC-Los Angeles Board intends to provide value to members and fulfill our goal of connecting business communicators in Los Angeles.  It boils down to three things: Improving Online Resources, New Events, and Showcasing Members.

Improve Online

With our revamped website, we can now easily post our events calendar, showcase members, post news, and pass on best practice and resources.

If you attended any of our past events, odds are you found people to be friendly and welcoming.  IABC is known for providing great networking and for attracting professionals open to helping one another.  Unfortunately our online presence did not match this!  The old website was static and painfully difficult to update, especially when our longstanding Webmaster decided understandably to move on after volunteering on the Board for several years.

We intend for the new site to evoke the friendliness and accessibility of our face-to-face events, while staying true to IABC.  Now we have a website where great communication is possible!

We have taken up social media, too – please connect at our active LinkedIn Group, Facebook Page, or on Twitter if you have not done so already. We are using these tools to network, share knowledge and provide places to ask for help from fellow members and the wider communications community.

New Events

This year we are continuing our practice of holding regular meetings every month from September through June, rotating between Burbank/Pasadena, Downtown, and South Bay/Long Beach areas, so that members have at least 3 events close by each year. (At the moment we do not have anyone able to organize events in the Thousand Oaks-Woodland Hills area – let us know if you are interested!). We””””ll continue to have two major events a year within this schedule – the December Holiday Party and the June Annual Banquet.

Something new: we are organizing two events completely FREE to members as a way to say Thank You for staying with IABC through the economic downturn. We began with a free networking event in Pasadena on September 23rd, and will host a similar event in the South Bay in February 2011, to ensure at least one is accessible to all members.

This year, we are working more closely with other professional organizations such as Communitelligence and PRSA-LA, to pull in speakers and widen networking opportunities – sometimes our combined efforts enable us to tap into resources and people we could not reach alone!

Showcase Members

The Member Profiles feature on our website has been in demand – we will continue doing this, as many people have found it to be extremely valuable for career development and networking. Once all existing member profiles are migrated to the new site, we will put out all call for new profiles.

We intend to further showcase members by inviting them to guest post on the Chapter blog, providing their thoughts on a topic, raising issues, reviewing events or speakers, etc.  If you are passionate about a communications-related subject and would like to contribute, please contact us – we may be able to showcase your thoughts in an article, video, or at a face-to-face event.

Your Thoughts?

All of us on the IABC Chapter Board are members like yourselves, who choose to volunteer to make the Chapter happen. Please let us know if you think we are heading in the right direction – we welcome your ideas, suggestions, improvements, critiques. You can write to individual Board Members, email or head to the Linkedin or Facebook pages to connect!  And if you’d like to help run the Chapter, we warmly welcome your contributions.

Thank you,

Paula Cassin

President 2010-2011, IABC Los Angeles Chapter

Filed Under: Chapter News, News Tagged With: , ,

March 20th, 2009 Event wrap up: venturing into new territory, experiencing a new approach to writing

March 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment

After spending some time networking and catching up over breakfast, we spend an hour and a half with Virginia Green, PhD, who took us through some exercises to help up approach writing in a new way.  We drew self portraits using 5 lines (!), brainstormed over a Vermeer painting, explored our strengths through an entrepreneurial lens, and then tied it all back to tapping into right brain creativity as well as left brain analytics and language.

Here’s a video wrap up from some of the participants:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/2F4hjtlEEes" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

In order of appearance:

Jeff Gilling of McCrindle Research, visiting from Sydney, Australia

Rebecca Mikkelsen, new IABC member recently relocated to Los Angeles

Virginia Green, our esteemed speaker, and

Kerry Bonner, IABC member and PR/Marketing freelancer.

Filed Under: Networking, Professional Development, Writing Tagged With: , , , , ,

March 25 Event: Embracing Social Media – Why, When & How?

March 26, 2008 by 1 Comment

March 25, 2008, Woodland Hills, Maggiano’s Restaurant.
Speaker: Terry McKenzie, Senior Director of GECCO (Global Employee Communications and Communities Organization) at Sun Microsystems,Ltd.

Download the presentation materials

After a bit of networking and breakfast, Terry began to tell us the story of the transformation she’s been spearheading at Sun over the last 15 months. I know I’ll never be able to capture everything she said and all the great insights, but I’ll get down a few, and you all can add more in the comments!

At the beginning of 2007, CEO Jonathan Schwartz told Terry that while communications were interesting, communities were absolutely vital to Sun. His challenge to Employee Communications was to go out and create communities internally. Less than a year later, there has been a huge shift as a result of this work.

This has been one of the primary rockets behind their shift from a communications environment revolving around information whether in email, intranet, town halls, or podcasts (info overload was primary complaint of employees) to an environment revolving around collaborative communities – whether it be in wikis, blogs, virtual townhalls and conferences, or Facebook.

At the moment Sun has about 4,000 employee blogs (all external – http://blogs.sun.com) and 5,500 employees on Facebook. Most have begun in the last 15 months.

The culture shift which has accompanied all of this is striking. According to Terry in 205 the culture was:

  1. Kick butt and have fun
  2. “You aren’t the boss of me”
  3. We’re right – rest of the world is wrong (couldn’t take criticism)
  4. Personality cult around CEO

Now, there has been a lot of maturing:

  1. “Let’s just imagine, for one minute that the analysts are right and we do suck…”
  2. Accountability
  3. Teamwork
  4. Adult to Adult
  5. Transparency, courage, authenticity highly valued

Some of the other great thoughts from this presentation were:

1. Everything Always in Beta: experiment with what’s out there, keep what works, and discard what doesn’t.

2. Corollary: Focus on the outcomes and results your after, not the tools themselves. Tools will always be changing. It’s what they enable that needs to be the focus.

3. Sun is developing a new intranet (2010) which will be 90% customizable, 10% fixed, to enable employees to create their own work experience and optimize the information and tools that they need. Accessible by any device (PC, cellphone, pda, etc) and top levels outside the firewall.
4. It’s silly to block Facebook or other sites to stop staff from ‘wasting’ time. They do this in other ways now (personal email, phone calls, etc.) It’s a Management issue if someone is unproductive.

5. Blogs must be interesting, well-written, authentic and cannot be ghostwritten.

6. Blogs can be a great way to find out what people are thinking. They talk about it anyway around the watercooler, at lunch, with friends. Why not capture their conversations in a blog rather than try and guess what’s going on.

If you were one of the 31 people who attended, what main points did you take away? Please comment below!

Filed Under: Employee Communication, Networking, Professional Development, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,