Peer to Peer Internal Communications Conference – Simply Communicate

Background

Social networks are transforming the way we relate to each other, express ourselves and share our views. For internal communications specialists these developments go way beyond a social phenomenon, they present a real communications challenge. If you have employees who are blogging, how do harness the content and what they are saying for the good of your organisation? Command and control communications are clearly out – but what’s in instead?

The Need

To answer this question, www.simply-communicate.com hosted a peer-to-peer event for 40 internal communications personnel. The delegates, drawn from every business sector, are some of the UK’s top communications specialists, so the event had to be impeccably organised if it was to impress – and given the subject matter, it had to offer some serious opportunities for personal expression.
The event had to foster free and unfettered discussion and yet still provide a way for people’s thoughts and views to be marshalled and common ground to be shared. It needed to enable the delegates to exchange their ideas and experience. Also, given the fast pace of change in this sphere, there needed to be plenty of scope to learn from expert speakers too.

The Solution

Crystal Interactive played a crucial role in this. On the second day of the two-day event, Crystal facilitated and supported a major workshop where the delegates could brainstorm the whole area of media and social networks. Crystal technology ensured that each of the 40 people in the room had a voice.

Using their tablets, Crystal collected views from the delegates who had been stimulated by the events’ speakers such as intranet guru, Gerry McGovern, and Niall Cook of Hill & Knowlton.
The delegates used the workshop session to explore the barriers which prevent companies from making greater use of social media. The internal communications specialists also came up with ways to break those barriers down. To do this the delegates, facilitated by Crystal’s experts, worked in small informal groups on each of these areas. This approach meant ideas could be generated, rated and explored incredibly quickly.

The Results

In just 90 minutes, 90 barriers and 100 solutions for companies trying to adopt social media were identified. The four key barriers – developing or demonstrating the business case, overcoming the senior leader’s resistance, overcoming regulatory issues and fear of loss of control – were discussed in detail. The group then came up with practical ideas for combating these barriers.

Marc Wright, founder of www.simply-communicate.com says: “The Crystal sessions were more successful than we dared hope expect. Delegates could be truly candid and open about an area, which is very daunting for so many. They could share their fears without looking foolish or out of touch and as a result we really pushed back the thinking on using blogs, wikis, podcasts and all the implications of socialmedia in large organisations.”

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