There is often a lack of respect or trust for communications professionals. Often our advice is dismissed or discounted as not as important as an economist, policy officer or project manager. I have been asked more times than I can…
Why you need to work somewhere that matters
If we learnt anything from the last year, it’s that connections can be made regardless of our geographical location. The people we work with and what we do together matters. When you can’t travel, can’t leave the house, when all…
Communicating our value to an organisation
Last week, I joined the IABC Converge conference with communications peers from the Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. The two day, fully virtual conference had speakers from around the world sharing their insights into the latest and greatest…
Strategy sins and channel challenges
Is “the media” an audience or a channel? How do you target “the general public”? And other strategic communications challenges. If you work in communications, it is easy to be lazy when writing a communications strategy or plan. You get…
Next steps in your communications career
Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion for IABC Canberra with Justine O’Brien from the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering and Jaimee Thorpe from Hays Recruitment. We talked to communications professionals about what was…
Communications operating model: How to structure your communication team
It is the ultimate conundrum in communications – Do we have the right operating model? It is an issue that comes up for communications teams every few years. Is there another way to offer our services? How is everyone else…
A 2021 challenge: personal development
I didn’t realise how important it was to do personal development until I had to pay for it myself. When working in government I took it for granted (I see that now) that I could do a course or attend…
Canberra Communications Professional series: Emily Curlewis
Emily is the Chief Operations Officer at Veritec, a Canberra-based IT company who specalises in partnering with the public sector through Microsoft solutions. I first met Emily when she had just moved to Canberra and was immediately drawn to her…
Riding the wave of self-confidence
If you work in government communications every day can be like riding a wave. You get great feedback from the Secretary. You have a difficult meeting. Your media release gets through two Executive with limited changes! You drop the ball,…
The fight against acronyms
Primarily, I work with government clients. I have worked across the APS and there is one common problem. SMEs do it, the SES do it, and it drives me insane. It does matter if you are at DAWE, DISER, OTA,…