Toronto 2003: the inside scoop on IABC's biggest annual event.

Communication World asked Toronto writer Jane Naczynski to record her personal experiences at this year's international conference. If you didn't attend or couldn't be everywhere at once, here's a day by day account.

SUNDAY, JUNE 8: FIRST-DAY WARM-UP

Registration. Collect

Everyone wears a badge. No one wears a surgical mask: Not delegates, not hotel staff, not locals on the street or in the malls or aboard Toronto's absurdly clean public transit. Although SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) caused some delegates and speakers to cancel their travel plans, the height of the crisis has passed for the city.

Orientation session for first-timers. About 70 people gather tips on "how to get the most out of the conference." Program advisory committee chairman and veteran IABC member Wilma Mathews, ABC, counsels: "If you have a question or just want to strike up a conversation, look for the people wearing lots of ribbons. Ribbons are like tree rings. They tell you these people have been around IABC for a long time. They know their stuff." There are also lots of volunteers from IABC/Toronto (well after all, it is the biggest chapter in the world, with more than 1,300 regular and student members) wearing "Ask Me!" badges.

Opening general session. IABC International chairman Annette Martell, ABC, MC, welcomes us to the city (she's a local) and thanks us for coming. She notes there'll be a special session to talk about the issues surrounding SARS--talk about up-to-the-minute crisis communications!

Keynote speaker Malcolm Gladwell, journalist and author, offers some particularly timely comments about "The Tipping Point": that juncture when a bad or trend bursts into the mainstream, and how this phenomenon is controlled by people with "social power." These "connectors" and "mavens" are the ones communicators need to cultivate (if not actually become).

Welcoming reception: "A Taste of Toronto. " It's surprisingly easy to strike up conversations at this stand-up, walk around buffet: All you have to say is "And where are you from?" Another talking point is the variety of ethnic food (at least 80 languages and cultures converge in Toronto, quite possibly the most ethnically diverse city in the world).

Then, there are the 3 D cardboard glasses being passed around by enthusiastic members.

The legendary Canadian hospitality suite. Canadian delegates were invited to attend this after-hours event, but the party is clearly being crashed. The Canadians are cheerfully accepting of the gatecrashers: "Oh well, that's what puts the 'international' in IABC."

MONDAY, JUNE 9: GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS

With the conference in full swing, the daily drill is this: Everyone in the ballroom for a morning general session; followed by your choice of two seminars from a pool of five to eight; lunch; two afternoon seminars (or a single one in depth) also from a large selection; then an evening social event. Here are just a few of the high points and insights I gathered from sampling the 50 plus sessions and the networking scene.

General session with IABC International's EXCEL Award winner. Ned Barnholt, chairman, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard spin-off Agilent Technologies, talks about how the company reduced its staff by one-third yet stiff ended up on Fortune's list of "Best Places to Work." His cautionary comment applies to communicators and CEOs alike: "Good news travels fast. Bad news travels faster--so get out in front of it." (See related article, p. 36.)

Coffee break in the exhibit hall. People line up to check their e-mail at the free Internet cafe. Others mill about looking at communication products and services and collecting freebies such as measuring tapes to "measure your communications' success."

"Where Communication Can Add Value." John Santoro's seminar offers at least two takeaway thoughts: "Don't let communication be the scapegoat for organizational problems--such as bad management decisions or poor execution--that are actually outside communication's control." Also, "Recognize that the best time to fix the hole in the roof is when the sun is shining. Is everything in place against that inevitable announcement or event?"

Gold Quill Awards luncheon. Ask anyone at your table wearing a "Gold Quill Winner" ribbon about his project and you're likely to get an impromptu case study right there and then. The quality of the winning strategies is staggering. Of 1,052 submissions from 21 countries, 63 receive awards of merit and 39 win awards of excellence.

"Marketing the Mature Brand." Judith John's case study is about the United Way of Greater Toronto, which raises more money than any other charity in Canada. By the end of this seminar, you know why. John shows videos of people who've been helped by a United Way member agency. Their direct-to-the-camera testimonials ("Thank you for donating to the United Way; your money got to me.") leaves everyone misty-eyed.

Great stories. How do United Way's various units make them happen? According to John: "Allocation and Agency Services builds the story; Marketing and Communications tells the story; Fundraising sells the story."

"Just Added" general session on SARS. The ballroom is packed. Everyone wants to hear how Toronto is dealing with SARS. The city's medical officer of health, Dr. Sheela Basrur, describes the issues, strategies and tactics in calmly measured tones, and in language totally devoid of medical jargon.

Craig DuHamel, director of public affairs at a local hospital, elicits a rueful chuckle from the crowd when he comments: "Our crisis plan lasted about an hour." (Though it succeeded in quickly setting up the necessary infrastructure; see related article, p. 26.)

Evening at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Spending a Monday night out on the town is an IABC conference tradition. This year, one entire floor of the hall is booked for IABC's sole use. IABC/Toronto volunteers are hosts. Even the non sports-minded are enjoying themselves. Being photographed with a replica of the Stanley Cup is proving a popular diversion.

TUESDAY, JUNE 10: INFORMATION SATURATION

Annual general meeting of IABC International. Incoming IABC chairman Stephanie Griffiths of South Africa succinctly sums up the nature of a volunteer professional organization: "Ubuntu is a Zulu principle that means 'We can achieve more together than individually.'" That's not a bad message to take back to our regional and chapter organizations.

General session on "E mail Marketing and Privacy. " Louis Mastria of the U.S.-based Direct Marketing Association gives a sobering reality check on the effectiveness of Internet communication when he points out that Microsoft and AOL each block 2.5 billion e-mails every day. Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D,, privacy commissioner for the Canadian province of Ontario, gets a laugh when she admits she, too, gets spammed with Viagra ads and Nigerian bank account offers,

Coffee break: Conference sessions are starting to blur together, Next conference, be sure to schedule in some down time,

"Becoming a More Persuasive Communicator." Ralph Beslm, ABC, says he's "a man on a mission" in this seminar, which has both personal and professional applications: "As communicators we're so busy selling the message, we don't know how to sell ourselves." He gives everyone a one page, two-sided handout, a tool to help plot out the ABCs of persuasion: Approach, Bridging to Benefits, Call to Action.

The tool simplifies the planning process (whether you're pitching a project or for a new job) from an all-day effort to, maybe, 20 minutes Agreattool for clarifying one's thinking.

IABC Research Foundation luncheon. A Lifetime Foundation Friend Award is presented to Charles Pizza, IABC member from New Orleans, past chairman of IABC International, a former chairman of the IABC Research Foundation, conference presenter and past president of IABC/New Orleans. When you think about it, he's volunteered thousands of hours to IABC.

Dine-around. It's chaos in the hotel's oh so appropriately named Vide Foyer (Latin: Vide, to see, or look in, a direction) as hundreds of people mill around, trying to find the IABC/Toronto volunteer who's their host at a local restaurant group. Looks like parties of 10 are swelling to 20 as people join in at the last minute and the volume rises proportionally. In the most casual and relaxed event of the conference, long-distance friendships are starting right here in the Vide Foyer, you can tell.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11: CATCH A RISING STAR, THEN YOUR PLANE

Today's the day for "all-star sessions"--seminars by presenters who've scored exceptionally well in their evaluations at previous IABC conferences.

General session on "Creating Positive Energy." Ken Nedd, M.D., a behavioural physician originally from Antigua and now teaching stress management in British Columbia (Canada's west coast province) has everyone on their feet and swinging to a calypso beat to loosen up. It's silly but it works: HOW formal can you be once you've demonstrated your best moves to a table full of strangers--and they've done the same?

Nedd puts everyone's priorities in perspective when he advises, "Take time for your health or you'll have to take time for illness."

All-star session on "Strategic Employee Publications." Steve Crescenzo's seminar is packed. As a consultant and editor of a newsletter on intranets, he's critiqued hundreds of print and online publications--and brought the good, the bad and the downright awful to show.

Crescenzo says the employee publication must cover the "tough" topics, taking the perspective of a trade publication instead of an internal one: "If you're not covering the issues everyone's really talking about, you have no credibility ... so put the dirt out front ... bad news never sinks a company; but bad news, badly communicated, can."

All-star session on "Calculating the Return on Investment on Your Communication." Angela Sinickas, ABC, shows how to translate communication activity into money earned, expenses saved or errors reduced. The formula (no need for an accountant or even a calculator) is so simple, so clear, so elegant, you can see people fighting the urge to smack themselves on the forehead as they have an "aha!" moment.

Lunch and Learning: "Leadership Is Taking Charge--of Yourself!" This is, unofficially, the closing event of a conference that feels at once like it just got started but has been going forever.

Author Dottie Bruce Gandy ends things on a positive note and with a personal challenge: "One quality of a leader is boldness. Think about an area of your life in which you could be 10 percent bolder, just 10 percent--that's completely doable. When you go home, be that 10 percent bolder.

"What are you losing, right now, because you're not 10 percent bolder? What would it yield if you were?

"Maybe your 10-percent-bolder action was your decision to come to this conference. Aren't you glad you did?"

The answer's apparent in the applause.

RELATED ARTICLE: Heard in the hallways.

by Shel Holtz, ABC

Some of the most interesting conversations took place outside of the formal sessions at this year's IABC international conference. These discussions occurred in the hallways during the breaks, over dinner and at the various receptions that punctuate the conference. And, as always, certain themes kept emerging from these conversations, reflecting the issues about which communicators currently feel most passionate.

So what was on communicators' minds at this year's conference? Based on my own observations and a thoroughly unscientific canvass of others who attended, the top five, more or less in priority order, were:

1. The economy. The current economy and its future prospects seemed to be top-of-mind for just about everybody. At the top of the heap were the independent communicators who wondered if their own businesses would see an upturn anytime soon. But even those working for institutional employers had concerns, They are expected to do even more with even less, they have to communicate the impact of the economy on the business to their audiences (including engaging in change management communication), and they are concerned about their own futures as companies continue to lay off personnel.

2. SARS. The conference was in Toronto, after all, one of the hot spots for severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS was also the reason the conference was more lightly attended than usual, as communicators opted not to expose themselves to any risk. A plenary session on communicating SARS to Toronto residents added fuel to the discussion.

3. The value of organizational communication. Despite its being a top-of-mind issue for years, we seem to be no closer to resolving this issue. Communicators everywhere struggle to get management to understand the value of communication, If only management "got it," we believe, we might earn that seat at the management table we seem to covet so deeply. Figuring out how to measure the impact of communication on the bottom line in a way that's meaningful to management was a central theme of these discussions.

4. Overload. Communicators expressed concern about a relatively new issue-message overload. Not only are their audiences facing too many messages through too many media, making it difficult to be heard through the clutter, but communicators themselves are overwhelmed by the volume of messages they receive. E-mail is the chief culprit, and communicators are struggling to find a way to continue to use e-mail effectively while dealing with their own bursting inboxes. A panel discussion on spam--unsolicited e-mail sales pitches--provided a new angle on the issue.

5. The opening keynote. An opening keynote talk should set the tone for the rest of the conference and stimulate some discussion. Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point," performed this task admirably. Not everybody cared for Gladwell's speaking style, but everybody talked about his message and how he or she can apply tipping-point concepts to organizational communication. In fact, I probably heard the term "tip"--as in "the thing that got the message to tip"more than any other buzzword during the conference.

There were certainly other issues being bandied about in the hallways: global communication, culture and diversity issues, the effective use of intranets and using communication to rebuild constituent trust. From where I sit, absorbing the opinions and knowledge communicators bring to these hallway conversations is worth the price of admission to conference.

--Shel Holtz, ABC, is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology in Concord, Calif., USA. He can be reached at shel@holtz.com.

Jane Naczynski is a freelance write and speechwriter with WordSource Corporate Communication! Toronto, Ontario, Canada She can he reached Jane.WordSource@sympatico.ca.