Preston Lewis, Founder & CEO, Intactic
Past President, IABC San Francisco 

Time: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Date: 8 December 2016
Venue:  BASF Office,   45/F, Jardine House,  1 Connaught Place, Central,  Hong Kong

The role of communicators is to partner with leaders and other internal stakeholders to ensure that we are constantly facilitating an ongoing conversation about how to grow, innovate and modernize our function. To be successful, we need to stay connected to leading practices and trends that are aligned with the constantly shifting employee preferences and expectations. This session will cover the five key factors that leading companies are using to modernize their communications functions and prioritize their initiatives.

With a reputation of working with the most enviable companies in the world for almost twenty years, Preston Lewis is a recognized employee engagement and strategic internal communications thought leader. Based in San Francisco, Preston is an energetic and creative catalyst responsible for driving many of the Intactic client engagements while also creating new thinking and global partnerships. His past and current clients include GE, Roche, Genentech, Starbucks, HP, Isola, Chevron, Merck, McKesson, Intuit and Chanel.

Special thanks to BASF as the venue sponsor of the talk.  

On 2 November, we had the pleasure of having Ms. Anna Choi, Head of Strategy & Communications for Siemen’s Hong Kong to come to share with our members and guests how Siemens has taken advantage of a combined function to make the most of communications expertise in developing and implementing its business and communications strategy. Creative and interesting approaches for driving active engagement by different stakeholders groups were shared and discussed.

A special thanks to KPMG as the venue sponsor of the talk. 

John F. Cameron, Department of Criminology, University of Leicester

Time: 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Date: Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Venue: KPMG Office, 23rd Floor, Hysan Place, 500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay

Communications expertise is vital for institutions such as the Hong Kong police force – and the force still has more to learn from the latest communications approaches, including social media outreach in particular. These are the conclusions of retired police officer and host of “Police Report” John Cameron, who met IABC members in Hong Kong in May to discuss his personal experience over nine years communicating for the Hong Kong Police, as well as recommendations drawn from his recently completed master’s thesis.

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Charlotte Judet: Fourth from right. 

Communicating about Luxury and Sustainability: Find the Right Balance

Charlotte Judet, Vice President, Communication, Kering Asia Pacific 

Time: 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm

Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Venue:Langham Hospitality Group 2701, Great Eagle Centre, 23 Harbour Road Wanchai

On April 13, we had the pleasure to have Charlotte Judet, Vice President of Communication, Kering Asia Pacific to share with us the renowned fashion group’s experience in finding the right balance for “Communicating luxury and sustainability”.

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Never stop learning: the key to future careers in business communications

I’ve heard that the communications profession is changing fast (or is it)? No, someone else told me that the fundamentals are still important (or are they)? Who knows? This is exactly why we need to keep the dialogue open about our profession – and it was the subject of a talk I gave on behalf of IABC Hong Kong chapter to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Professional Education and Executive Development (SPEED) on March 2.

My key message for the talk, “Future Careers in Business Communications”, was that we should never stop learning. It was clear that the 35 students who signed up for the talk have committed to continuing their education not only through professional development courses but also through enrichment activities such as external speakers arranged by the University.

I have observed over the past several years that several societal and technical changes are influencing our profession. These include the increase in non-governmental organizations and (social) activism; the search for “authenticity”; demands for greater transparency; ever-shorter attention spans; the speed of crisis propagation; fluctuating levels of trust in different institutions; and increasing political influence on commercial communication. Looking at Hong Kong alone, the changes in our population’s media consumption habits show clearly why communicators need new skills. With 4.65 million mobile internet users, 96% of whom browse daily, knowledge of multiple platforms beyond “media” is a must.

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