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

CiB's Brighton Conference 2008 - don't miss it.

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

Delegates come from all over the UK, from diverse industries, and work at all levels in communication roles. The conference offers fantastic value for money in comparison with other UK IC events and leads the way every year with the calibre of its speakers and sessions. What more could you ask for?

And you don't have to be a CiB member to take part. Anyone can tap into the essential learning and networking that takes place at conference.

In fact, if you do come we are offering non-members one year’s free membership with each full conference booking - a saving of Ł178 + VAT.

You can then take full advantage of the membership offers, events that take place throughout the year and save money on other CiB courses and activities.

TJ Larkin

This year's conference offers:

Insights into change communication with thought leader T J Larkin and James Timpson, MD of a major UK retailer. Alan Cook, MD of the Post Office, will also talk about his experience of change environments.
Sara Moorehead, Barclays' Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs, will tell us about the bank's transformation journey and how its communication was managed.
While Barclays, Penna and the Pension Service share case studies in main sessions on day two, we are also giving delegates the opportunity to choose from three breakout sessions designed to share practical ideas and experience to take away.
The Storytellers will be sharing ideas and examples of how to develop communication strategies to engage organisations and build the business.
GfK NOP will be helping delegates to achieve a high level of employee engagement through measurement and analysis techniques.
Martin and Rachel Scott will show you how to approach problems from a new perspective to enable people and organisations to achieve their full potential.

Louisa Preston to host conference

Louisa Preston

We are thrilled that the BBC’s Louisa Preston will be hosting this year’s conference, using her news reading and corporate speaking experience to host each session, pull information and learning together over the two days and get the most out of each speaker

Louisa regularly presents the news for BBC London, BBC Breakfast and BBC News 24.

Before working for the BBC Louisa worked for ITN for six years. She became one of the youngest national newsreaders when they took her on as a reporter and presenter on Five News. During that period she also co-presented the weeknight debate programme on Five with Kirsty Young and presented the ITV News Channel.

Doing our bit for charity

If there is an opportunity to raise some money for an important cause, we know CiB members are keen to get involved. The raffle at this year’s Annual Dinner has a great selection of prizes that will be unveiled at the conference.

This CiB has chosen to support the important work of the Air Ambulance around the UK. On average, an emergency air ambulance takes off every 10 minutes in the UK, flying 365 days a year in daylight hours. Put another way, during every hour of every day seven Air Ambulances are attending accidents and medical trauma.

The Association of Air Ambulance Charities (AAAC) exists to support the work of the UK's many Independent Air Ambulance Charities. In England and Wales there are 16 dedicated Air Ambulance operations flying a total of 22 helicopters and all are reliant upon charitable support.

Don't forget to book!

There will lots more taking place as well, including the CiB dinner, the CiB awards on Friday night and more networking opportunities than you can shake a stick at.

Nigel Legg, e-Media Manager, UK Communications & Corporate responsibility, AstraZeneca plc, and a regular conference delegate, says: “Developing communications in isolation is a dangerous business. Conference gives me the opportunity to immerse myself for two days in what is going on in the communications business and pick up on how others may have solved the problems currently flinging themselves upon me. It's also extremely therapeutic to be with folks doing the same sort of thing in a no-pressure environment like this.”

Ian Grogan, Senior Communications Adviser at the Home Office, which is sponsoring this year’s event, sees the conference as a valuable training opportunity for his Home Office teams as well as colleagues working across government. He says: "I’ve only missed one CiB national conference in the last eight years and that tells a story in itself. The conference is a great forum for cross-fertilisation, where communication professionals from all disciplines can immerse themselves in the IC culture.

"It’s a great place to meet people and share ideas and best practice. Coupled with that, the twin themes at this year’s conference of change communication and staff engagement are really relevant and topical to most major organisations at this moment in time.’

Why not find out more? Visit the Conference page and download a full brochure.