Since 1942, when Roy Plumley came up with the Desert Island Discs format, people have been refining their pick-list for their top 8 pieces of music, just in case they are invited to be a castaway on the BBC’s desert island.
Once down to 8 tracks, they have to choose just 1 as their ultimate desert island disc.
No doubt each variant of someone’s list represents just a snapshot, and if asked a little later, their list would sound very different. After all, your focus and interests change all the time…
This is rather how I feel about conference programmes. There are always a few sessions that are standout interesting at the time; and your standout sessions probably wouldn’t be the same as mine. Creating a set-list that’s going to appeal to as many people as possible, must be a very difficult task.
It’s time for the 3rd Communicate Reputation in Oil Gas and Mining conference, aimed at those with responsibility for brand management, corporate comms, internal comms and strategy. It’s on the 13th June, in central London, and will be looking at crisis management, digital media, employee engagement, internal comms, social media and more.
I’ve been to several Communicate conferences now, and the pick-list of sessions is always good. There are several sessions I’m particularly looking forward to, but if I had to pick my Desert Island session, it would be Behind the Scenes, looking at video.
I’ve been researching the use of video on the corporate website recently, and have watched many, many more than is probably sensible. The speaker, Stephen Golding from Tullow Oil, is going to look at video in internal comms, and it should be fascinating. Some of the external-facing videos I’ve spotted on corporate websites communicate their messages very strongly…
Here’s the IBM Diversity video, for example, which I think does a great job of ‘show don’t tell’ in communicating their corporate culture—and demonstrating just how long this has been a company value. It’s not new, but is worth watching to see how they do it. It’s on the corporate website diversity page too.
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My second pick would be the “Daimler For Me Is…” video. This is used on the corporate website too, and is a great example of combining/linking videos. You can click the video at various points when a particular individual is talking to see another video with more detail about a them and their viewpoint. View it on the corporate website for best effect.
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Do come to the conference if you can; the Communicate conferences are always worth attending. If you haven’t booked your ticket yet, it’s not too late: check out the conference programme and book — and let me know if the session you’d pick to be saved from the waves would be the same as mine. See you there?
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
I use to work with IBM a few years ago and I can tell you now, communication within the company is extremely important! It is instilled into you on the very first moment you step inside the company!