Write up by Nick Saalfeld
The Internal Communications profession has been revolutionised by wave after wave of exciting technologies. You’re no doubt used to the internet, email, and perhaps a sprinkling of Facebook or an Instant Message or two.
But have you ever wondered what life is like at the cusp of emerging communications technologies?
The London Area Communicators’ Group (LACG) is a friendly monthly meetup for internal comms professionals on the Melcrum Communicators’ Network; hosted and organised by Matt O’Neill of Cordovan. For the September meeting, Matt decided it was about time we practised what we preach: and arranged a session which demonstrated in a live environment some of the coolest communication tools in our growing technology armoury.
If you are wondering how to communicate a message instantly around a multi-campus company, across borders and even globally, read on.
Cross-border comms on a shoestring
With nothing more than a PC, a webcam and some basic audio equipment at each end, the London meeting was held simultaneously with the Geneva Communicators Blog meeting in Switzerland.
In the spirit of high-tech, our guest speaker was Ewan MacLeod, editor of the Mobile Industry Review. He gave us an invaluable insight into the mobile telecoms business, and took London and Geneva participants on a whistlestop tour of the gadgets which will be in our pockets in the coming months. (He also fielded plenty of questions from IC professionals eager to reduce their mobile phone bills- it turns out we’re a fickle lot…)
At the London end, lecture theatre screens displayed Ewan’s slides, plus a webcam picture of the room at the Geneva end. The Geneva team had a similar setup on their big screen, with a webcam picture of Ewan as he spoke. Throughout, both sides could hear each other, and a Q&A session was executed perfectly, with plenty of questions from both sides.
The tools required were minimal. The software was completely free (Skype). And the effect was remarkable- whilst Skype will never quite feel like being in the same room, there was no question that we were enjoying a shared experience. Any CEO who has tried to fly between six different countries to deliver the same message, only to find that the rumour mill beat him to it, will see the value of this sort of arrangement.
If you can imagine it, you can probably do it
Taking us well beyond the technologies used in the meeting, Ewan then demonstrated QIK: a smart piece of software which uses your mobile phone as a live video camera, streaming from the phone direct to the internet- either privately, publicly, or to your list of friends.
This drew cheers of amazement, until we all realised the potential of such a tool in a shareholders’ AGM… Clearly PR and communications experts need to have a grasp on these emerging techniques, as every employee, customer and disaffected radical all become armchair video-journalists.
As you read this on old-fashioned paper, it would be remiss for us not to point you to some of the meeting’s online media, so open a browser and take a look at some of these links for more information:
As with all LACG meetings, Matt took plenty of photos; and you’ll find the rogues’ gallery here plus also some photos from our Swiss companions for the evening.
Thierry Weber, the technician at the Swiss end took some QIK video of the meeting at their end too.
And for more news on all things mobile (and a review of our meeting), you can’t do better than Ewan’s blog.
And here’s a video produced by Thierry Weber from the Swiss side summarizing what happened from their perspective:
If you would like to come along to an LACG meeting, you’ll find us very welcoming indeed. Every meeting is different, and in the past two years we have had an astonishing range of expert and engaging speakers. To find out more, visit www.communicatorsnetwork.com and join ‘London Area Communicators Group’.