Ahead of the Chapter Annual General Meeting, IABC Asia Pacific has released their Chapter Report.

Michael Ambjorn, the 2015-16 executive board chair of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), has announced Ginger Homan, ABC, and Jennifer Andrewes, as recipients of the 2016 Chairman’s Award.

"These two exceptional leaders have each made contributions to IABC that have had a global impact advancing the association and the profession. Both are role models for IABCers around the world" said Michael.

"Jennifer Andrewes brings to life the best of IABC in the field. As an organization we believe that in today’s world, communication can be a force for good in business and society. To make that happen we need to reach into boardrooms around the world. Jennifer and her chapter team out of Wellington, New Zealand, raised the bar in terms of depth and breadth reached. Opening doors for IABC with leading government departments, blue chip corporates and agenda-setting non-profits – and those who influence them as strategic advisors. This is true leadership both advancing and enhancing the profession."
​
The Chairman’s Awards were presented at the Excellence Awards Gala 2016 as part of the 2016 IABC World Conference in New Orleans.

On behalf of all regional IABC members, congratulations Jennifer! 

Read the full release from the IABC Chairman here: https://www.iabc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Chairmans-Award-Press-Release-2016-FINAL.pdf

On Monday 20 June the IABC Asia-Pacific region will hold a virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) to elect our new Region Board.
 
Time:
Mumbai/Channai                                     8:30am
Hong Kong/Singapore/Manila                 11:00am
Tokyo                                                       2:00pm
Sydney/Canberra/Brisbane                     1:00pm
Auckland/Wellington                                 3:00pm
San Francisco                                         8:00pm (Sunday 19)
 
All members are invited and encouraged to attend – please RSVP to receive meeting details. Members may now vote on the proposed board slate. Email iabcasiapacific@gmail.com to cast your vote.
All electronic voting must be received by 12noon in your location on Friday 17 June so that they can be tabulated before the AGM.
 
Agenda

1. Welcome
2. Chair’s Report and Finance Update
3. Election of Proposed Region Board
4. Questions
5. Close

 
As this is the first APAC Region AGM held in recent years no previous AGM minutes will be tabled.
 
About the proposed board slate
 
All IABC members in the region were invited to self-nominate for the Board in April/May 2015. Nominees were then reviewed and evaluated by a nominating committee that included IABC APAC Executive Board members and one external expert adviser.
 
The proposed 2016-17 IABC Asia-Pacific Board is:
 
Chair:                  Dr Rajeev Kumar (Mumbai)
Vice Chair:          Ben Shaw (Singapore)
Secretary:           Tammy Kusama (Japan)
Treasurer:           Jonathan Champ (Sydney)
Director of Communications:
                            Susi Maclean (Auckland/Fiji)
Director of Chapter Relations and Member-at-Large Outreach:
                            Jennifer Andrewes (Wellington)
Director of Professional Development and Recognition:
                            Lisa McNally (Brisbane)
Director-at-Large (Communications):
                            Saima Sharif (New Delhi)
 
The current Chair (Leanne Joyce, Canberra) will automatically succeed to Past Chair.
 
Thank you in advance for your participation in our region’s growth and governance.
 
If you haven’t already, please be sure to join our APAC Linkedin group to stay connected with members and activities in the region, visit us at http://asiapacific.iabc.com/ and follow us on Twitter @IABCAPAC.
 
Kind regards
Leanne Joyce
IABC Asia-Pacific Chair, 2015-16

IABC has announced the entries that have been selected as 2016 Gold Quill Special Award winners and the shortlist for the Agency and Team of the Year Awards.
 
Special Awards recognising outstanding approaches to business issues and the use of research have been won by Australian communicators from Cabrini Health and ANZ (Australia).
 
Business Issue Award: Awarded to the entry that best used strategic communication to address a critical business issue that may have threatened the well-being of an organization.
 
Winner: Cabrini Health (Australia) Louise Gates
Entry: “Let's Go Cabrini: Accreditation 2015”
Description: Cabrini Health is required to satisfy independent accreditation involving a five-day process, which assesses quality and safety performance against National Standards. The communication challenge was to create staff awareness and understanding of all the new Standards, without causing confusion, stress and added work pressures to employees.
 
The Jake Wittmer Award: Awarded to the entry that showed the most outstanding approach to research in addressing a communication issue or opportunity.
 
Winner: ANZ (Australia) Paul Edwards, Amanda Gome, Francesca Rizzo, Stella Walsh, Melissa McCann, Darren Sibson, Shane White
Entry: “Notable Women”
Description: The Notable Women program was created to position ANZ female leaders as experts who can create content, share expertise with customers and stakeholders as well as to add value and help realize ANZ’s vision.
 
In addition to the winners of these Special Awards, regional communicators are finalists in the following categories.
 
Boutique Agency of the Year (five or fewer employees)

• JAW Communications, Victoria, Australia
• Metzger Communications, Otago, New Zealand

 
Small Agency of the Year (six to 20 employees)

• Glass Tower Ltd, Christchurch, New Zealand

 
Corporate Communication Department of the Year

• HSBC, Hong Kong/London, Hong Kong

 
In total, IABC has in 2016 recognized 223 Gold Quill Award entries as world class
with 85 Excellence Awards and 138 Merit Awards announced. Winners come from all parts of the world, with 12 countries represented in the winners' list. They represent a cross-section of public and private sector organizations, both large and small.
 
For more than 40 years, IABC’s Gold Quill Awards have recognized and awarded excellence in strategic communication worldwide. The Gold Quill Awards honor the dedication, innovation and passion of communication practitioners on a global scale with a focus on achieving solid business outcomes.
 
All the Special Awards, Best of the Best Awards and "Of The Year" Awards will be presented at the IABC Excellence Gala at the 2016 World Conference.
 
In addition, the IABC Victoria chapter are hosting a Gala to recognise Australian winners and Victorian Bronze Quill winners on 19 May 2016.
 
In total, IABC has in 2016 recognized 223 Gold Quill Award entries as world class
with 85 Excellence Awards and 138 Merit Awards announced. Winners come from all parts of the world, with 12 countries represented in the winners' list. They represent a cross-section of public and private sector organizations, both large and small.
 
Read the full release from IABC https://www.iabc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IABC_Gold-Quill_Press-Release-Final.pdf
 
More information on the Gold Quill Awards program, including the full list of
winners: http://gq.iabc.com/
More information on World Conference (#IABC16): http://wc.iabc.com/

Deadline extended: Board Nominations by 2 May
Full details of the commitments and requirements are included in the information pack (doc). The nomination form (doc) must be lodged by 2nd May 2016.

In this edition:

• Congratulating our APAC Gold Quill Winners
• Apply NOW for Scholarships for World Conference
• Invitation serve on the APAC Regional Board
• Have your say on the development of the Regional Conference

There are a number of opportunities to apply for this month. Please note individual deadlines for scholarships and Board nominations below.

APAC shines in the 2016 Gold Quill Awards
The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) has announced the Excellence and Merit winners (PDF) of the 2016 Gold Quill Awards program (#IABCGQ).

There are 31 winners across the Asia Pacific Region, with recipients in Hong Kong, India, Philippines, New Zealand and Australia.

“The Gold Quill Awards are unique in the industry because they recognize work that makes a significant contribution to business or organizational outcomes,” said Monika Lancucki, ABC, Chair of the IABC Awards Committee. “Also, unlike many other awards programs, evaluators review each entry against IABC’s standard of excellence rather than against other entries. This encourages the pursuit of excellence rather than competition.

The diversity of awards and overall high standards of work from entrants is a reflection of the professionalism of communicators across Asia Pacific.

The Gold Quill Awards will be presented at an Excellence Gala, to be held on Monday 6 June, as part of the IABC’s World Conference in New Orleans.

From APAC to New Orleans - Making the Most of World Conference
There will be a strong delegation from APAC at this year’s World Conference. In addition to the full WC conference program, there are two additional events for APAC delegates.

• Friday 3 June – Evening APAC Welcome Reception
• Saturday 4 June – 11am – 3pm APAC Delegate Pre-Conference Workshop

Please factor in these opportunities to connect with other APAC delegates in your travel plans. Delegates will be sent additional information closer to the event.

Apply for a World Conference Scholarship by 22 April
We are keen to ensure the maximum participation from the region at World Conference. We are pleased to announce the following support:

• 2 x Conference Scholarships valued at US$1600 (in the form of reimbursement)
• 1 x Complimentary conference registration (Value US$1540)
• 1 x 20% Discount conference registration (Value ~US$310)

Apply for these opportunities by 22 April by completing this form and returning it to iabcasiapacific@gmail.com.

You can also check with your local chapter for any additional opportunities.

Priority will be given to applicants who may not have attended a World Conference and/or those who can demonstrate a capacity to build ongoing strong regional and international connections by attending World Conference. Evaluation of applications will take into consideration both financial need and merit.

Invitation to nominate for IABC Asia Pacific Board
Members in good standing are invited to nominate to serve on the IABC Asia Pacific Regional Board for 2016-17.

Becoming an IABC region leader provides members with an opportunity to make a positive difference for IABC chapters and members

Region board leaders make decisions that support the health of the region’s chapters and guide the professional development of our members, the future of IABC and the profession.

Full details of the commitments and requirements are included in the information pack (doc).

The nomination form (doc) must be lodged by 2nd May 2016.

Have your say on the IABC Asia Pacific Regional Conference
Regional Conferences are popular throughout IABC, providing an outstanding opportunity to network and learn from communication professionals throughout your region. As we explore options for an Asia Pacific Regional Conference we would like to gather feedback to better understand your goals and expectations from such an event. Please take the time to complete this short survey. This is an opportunity to help shape the program to best meet your needs. We thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey.

Print isn’t dead – for CW Online
During IABC Global Chair Michael Ambjorn’s visit in 2016 feedback on the IABC website included the need to be able to print CW articles cleanly. Feedback accepted and acted upon, this is now in place.

Stay in touch
Don't forget to follow @IABCAPAC on Twitter and visit http://asiapacific.iabc.com/ for more updates and news on events and professional development.

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) has announced the Excellence and Merit winners of the 2016 Gold Quill Awards program (#IABCGQ). The program recognizes business communication excellence globally, and is acknowledged as one of the most prestigious awards programs in the industry. 
 
There are 31 winners across the Asia Pacific Region, with recipients in Hong Kong, India, Philippines, New Zealand and Australia.
 
Hong Kong: 1
India: 2
Philippines: 3
New Zealand: 8
Australia 17
 
“The Gold Quill Awards are unique in the industry because they recognize work that makes a significant contribution to business or organizational outcomes,” said Monika Lancucki, ABC, Chair of the IABC Awards Committee. “Also, unlike many other awards programs, evaluators review each entry against IABC’s standard of excellence rather than against other entries. This encourages the pursuit of excellence rather than competition.
 
“Gold Quill winners are communication practitioners who are living testament to IABC’s mission, that communication can be a force for good in business and society. They deliver strategic impact for their organizations and clients, taking communication to the next level.” 
 
Winners from the region submitted entries in the following categories:
 

• Internal Communication
• Human Resources and Benefits Communication
• Change Communication
• Leadership Communication
• Marketing, Advertising and Brand Communication
• Media Relations
• Issues Management and Crisis Communication
• Nonprofit Campaigns
• Special Events
• Digital Communication
• Audio Visual
• Publications

 
The diversity of awards and overall high standards of work from entrants is a reflection of the professionalism of communicators across Asia Pacific.
 
The Gold Quill Awards will be presented at an Excellence Gala, to be held on Monday 6 June, as part of the IABC’s World Conference in New Orleans. 
 
More information on the Gold Quill Awards, including the full list of winners: http://gq.iabc.com/
More information on World Conference (#IABC16): http://wc.iabc.com/
 
About the Gold Quill Awards:
For more than 40 years, IABC’s Gold Quill Awards have recognized and awarded excellence in strategic communication worldwide. The Gold Quill Awards honor the dedication, innovation and passion of communicators on a global scale with a focus on achieving solid business outcomes.

The outcomes of the APAC Leadership Institute include a CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS for a Regional Conference Committee. Apply by 29 January.

In planning the 2015 APAC Leadership Institute several objectives were set by the regional Board. These were:

• To provide leadership development opportunities for current and potential Chapter leaders.
• To build stronger ties between the IABC Asia-Pacific Region Chapters through an exchange of knowledge and experience. To foster links between peers and chapters to find ways of working together towards mutual learning and professional goals.
• To share information about IABC’s Global Strategy.
• To collectively brainstorm and begin formulating an IABC Asia-Pacific strategy that takes into account the global, regional and local priorities of member countries and chapters.

A comprehensive report on the LI has been produced for all members. In addition to creating new connections between chapters, hearing first hand from the Global IABC Chair, a number of strategic priorities emerged as a focus for the Regional Board and Chapter Leaders.

There are a number of ways to get involved, create connection and develop your skills and networks. Highlights from the session have been blogged and shared by a number of delegates, as well as through other chapters and regions.
 
Strategic Priorities
Delegates identified five strategic priorities for the region as a result of the discussions at the LI.
 
1. Sponsorship
Improve our offering. Give opportunities to sponsors to reach IABC members across the region, not only at a local level. There are opportunities for greater scale and efficiency in how we approach sponsorship which can both benefit our members and raise the profile and financial strength of IABC in the region.


This will continue to be a discussion in 2016 between chapters. By the end of January, the Regional Board will reach out to each chapter’s Sponsorship Chair to facilitate discussions on opportunities in 2016. We acknowledge the support of Randstad in working with chapters and the regional Board to support the Leadership Institute.
In terms of partnerships, we are pleased that in 2016, IABC has again partnered with the Corporate Affairs Summit to provide members with a 10% discount (using code IABC10).
 
2. Professional development 
We need to continue to build awareness for our Global Standard certification. By doing this we can create demand while also increasing the credibility of IABC and value to our members. We need to work on local and regional deliverables to enable this.
 
The APAC Region has two its first two graduates of the GCCC CMP certification, Patricia Mallam, from Fiji Development Chapter, and Mardi Stewart from Canberra Chapter.
The next CMP Exams for the region are in Melbourne on 9 April 2016. Look out for a feature on preparing for certification in the coming weeks.
 
There are opportunities to extend skills through the Professional Development resources and the IABC Leadership Institute to be held in February.
 
3. Event support at international level
If we can focus on bringing high level, senior speakers to our regional and local events we can differentiate ourselves from other organisations.
Chapters are in the process of planning their 2016 events, with many using the Global Standard as a framework for topics and events. In addition, two initiatives to create connection through international events have been initiated:

• World Conference APAC Pre-program. To coincide with the IABC World Conference, a pre-conference event is being conducted on Saturday 4 June in New Orleans for all WC delegates from the APAC region. Further details of this unique opportunity to gather with other communicators from the region will be released soon.
• Establishing a Regional Conference Committee. Recognising the strong desire for a regional conference from many delegates, a Regional Conference Committee is to be established. We are calling for volunteers to participate in this, in order to identify feasability, potential locations and timings. If you are interested, please download the call for volunteers and submit your application by 9am Friday 29 January. 

4. Alignment and consistency
We should work on standardising the brand experience for IABC members across chapters. Each chapter should have its own value proposition and then work on delivering common levels of messaging reach and impact. It would be nice to have some format for the onboarding of new leaders within IABC.
 
The session on Value Proposition led to a draft of a value proposition at regional level. Additional skilling on embedding the brand values and consistent messaging are on the agenda for the APAC Board to consider in January.
 
Our members develop their communication knowledge by connecting with like-minded individuals, empowering professional development. Our members become industry leaders who are recognized for their outstanding communication work and contribution
 
5. Collaboration
Bringing closer engagement between Chapters and also with the regional board will help deliver more consistency to our work and help us spread knowledge efficiently. We should also make use of our alumni, getting insight and feedback from members who have previously served in a management role. It would be good to have a platform for information sharing
 
The development and delivery of the range of outputs from the LI represents the continuation of a collaborative approach across the region. While there is a role for the APAC Board to facilitate and create connection between roles, chapters and networks, IABC is an organisation where members will always lean in to support or help with a challenge. 
 
There is also a recognition of the diversity and breadth of chapter needs across the region. Finding ways of extending the opportunities for collaboration to all chapters and members at large - such as through participation in the Conference Committee is necessary to keep the ‘International’ in our region.
 
Platforms for communication across the region and tools for sharing information between chapters are being investigated. The review of this site is one aspect of that, and from February there will be ongoing outreach to each chapter to identify how best to collaborate around the initiatives on this list of priorities. 

With hundreds of members across our region, staying in touch and on top of the activities and news can be a big task. As communicators, we often rely on curation as an approach to manage information overload. As a result, IABC Asia Pacific is trialling the use of a paper.li newsletter to aggregate content from key IABC accounts across the region.  

The prototype features a number of the formal chapter twitter feeds, as well as key hashtags. Currently it is set to a weekly update. 

To have your content picked up by the feed, include the hashtag #IABCAPAC. Feedback on this initiative will help us provide you with better communication resources. 

IABC Asia Pacific Board Member Subhamoy Das' guide to social media trends in 2016 has been a very popular article in the last edition of Communication World. 

New social media trends appear at a rate that seems capable of outpacing even the speed of trending topics on Twitter. Making year-end predictions in such a fast-paced enviroment is daunting. The only constant is that every passion year opens up new frontiers, making viewing, sharing and creating social content faster, better and easier. 

Read more on the CW website