2021 - our commitments
We believe in “unity in community”; that we are stronger together and the IABC supports our members to add value to their organisations, to society and to the planet every single day.
Despite a difficult year, in 2020 the IABC NSW board was thrilled to end the year with some sensational results (here).
In 2021 we will continue to action direct feedback from our members. The board have now hosted our 2021 strategy session, and I’m pleased to share our priorities to ensure our members receive exceptional value. We’re committed to continuing to boost the credibility, networking and professional development opportunities of our members and our communication profession.
With our existing and new board members we used the 2020 events survey feedback to revisit our key and secondary priorities.
Key priorities
· Maintain excellent events, continue with our highly regarded event schedule including an ongoing commitment for virtual events, ensuring our regional NSW members can participate
· Boost professional credibility, help our members to become trusted advisors by providing recognition opportunities such as Gold Quill awards and the GCCC accreditation
· Care for one another and ensure a culture of inclusiveness, support a collective IABC voice with a community that cares, empathises and looks after one another especially related to mental health and wellbeing). Continue to build stronger connections to IABC regional and global opportunities.
· Advance the member experience, ensuring our content pathways and communications are clear, relevant and valuable, and new networking and mentoring opportunities are pursued.
· Leverage & share global best practice, share global and regional content with our members, such as thought leadership, podcasts and the opportunity to attend other IABC chapter’s online events so our members get the very best of what IABC, locally, regionally and globally has to offer.
Last year we made good progress on the priorities to develop a targeted approach for attracting corporates members and to centralise our buddy system. As these have now become business as usual actions, we have removed them from our key priorities this year.
Secondary priority commitments
· Continue to stretch board resources e.g. into sub committees
· Develop a sponsorship proposal for the chapter
· Increase our brand presence in the market through our members and media opportunities
· Link IABC members wanting to do pro bono work with not for profit organisations that may need it
Background
The 2020 board and I worked on an evidence-based approach to leading the chapter. In 2019 we hosted our first IABC NSW experience survey (Link). We set our 2020 priorities (Link) using the survey results as our ‘beacon’. Six months through 2020, COVID-19 turned our world upside down, and we took the time to reflect before we delivered our second 6 months (Link).
We ran an events survey and had the opportunity to see how we were tracking on our Net Promoter Score (NPS). Over the 2020 , we are incredibly pleased to report we increased our NPS by 40 percentage points, smashing our target of a 10 percentage point increase. In 2021 we want to build on this momentum together.
Strategy
The IABC NSW board strategy session focussed around three areas that align to the IABC’s global vision to put “Professional communicators at the heart of every organisation”.
1. Create connection – We shared each board members roles and responsibilities and discussed our governance obligations as well as ways to collaborate and support each other and our members.
2. Advance the profession – We shared our personal and professional ambitions , which informed our key priorities. We also collated our personal ambitions to advance the chapter.
3. Develop strategic communications – We talked through allocating leads to our events, plus built our collective understanding around governance, finance and the buddy system so that we can develop our leadership learning for the benefit of our members.
We believe in “unity in community”; that we are stronger together and the IABC supports our members to add value to their organisations, to society and to the planet every single day.
My personal thanks to our 2021 board for bringing their enthusiasm, ideas and vision to the strategy session. We each made a promise to complete an action prior to our first board meeting in February.
At that meeting we will also officially endorse our new roles and responsibilities and then formally introduce members to our 2021 board. Board members have been allocated buddies so members will be hearing from your buddy for 2021 in the very near future.
On behalf of the board, a huge thank you to Lucy Newcomb from Salt and Shein for their continued sponsorship and support. We also send our sincerest appreciation to our past and forthcoming speakers. We couldn’t do it without the generosity of speakers who give their time and resources for the benefit of the business community.
Coming up
Our 2021 events schedule is well underway, 21 people signed up for our Gold Quill masterclass on the 19th January, supporting local and regional members on their Gold Quill submissions. The final deadline for Gold Quill submissions is 8 February, 2021.
Our first networking event is now live: 12pm, 4 February – we invite all IABC NSW members to join us for So, what now?
An interactive discussion about the future of our profession - what better way to help you build your network and set yourself up for the year ahead! IABC NSW members only - tickets here .
About us
Setting a standard of excellence since 1970, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is a vibrant global communication membership association. We’re committed to continuing to boost the credibility, networking and professional development opportunities of our members and our profession. Learn more about membership here or reach out directly to hear more.