Categories: Articles

What I Learned At CommsCanada 2006 Today

I was asked to give the keynote at CommsCanada 2006 today. The conference was produced by Melcrum – a company that provides research reports, publications and events targeted at communications professionals. CommsCanada 2006 was billed as “Leveraging Internal Communication for Business Results.” Last night, the organizers invited me and some of the other presenters out for dinner. As I was learning more about Melcrum, I asked if they were at all in touch with my CAPOW cohorts and fellow Podcasters, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson (For Immediate Release). It turns out they are. Shel actually authored one of their how-to guides titled, The Top 10 New Technologies For Internal Communicators. Another sign that life truly has become all about six pixels of separation.
My keynote kicked off the event and I could see some of the jaws drop as I moved from where we were to where we are to where we’re going in this conversation marketing environment. I have three key questions to gauge the barometer of mass acceptance.
Question one: “how many people have read a Blog?” I am happy to report that in a room full of communications professionals (mostly involved on the internal communications side), every single person had their hand raised – this is a first for me… there are usually a handful of stragglers.
Question two: “how many people have a RSS feed or customizable homepage?” Here the hands raised were a bit over half of the close to one hundred participants. RSS is gaining ground… happy about that response too… much higher than I expected.
Question three: “how many people know about Second Life?” Not a single hand rose. No one. While I have my Avatar (Mitch Till) and I occasionally hop into Second Life to explore, meet up with friends and discover new ways to communicate, it became crystal clear that Second Life is still far away from prime time.
I was happy to field many very intelligent questions which were followed by more in-depth conversations in between sessions and at lunch. One question, which still rattles me tonight is, “how can I apply social media to the public sector?” Some of my thoughts revolve around getting people used to the new conversations, adding relevant Blogs and Podcasts to a feed, commenting and pushing the conversation forward in hopes that those that work in the public sector will better understand the power of it, instead of fearing the best parts. Namely, transparency and the ability to have an honest conversation, not just push a party line or corporate message. So no, you don’t have to have a Blog or Podcast to take part in social media. All you have to do is be open to joining the conversation.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.