Gatehouse Group - Communicate - Change

London

+44 [0] 20 7754 3630

Midlands

+44 [0] 121 202 4777

Email

info@gatehousegroup.co.uk

Gatehouse Blog

Meat no cheese when it comes to employee events

Now that we at Gatehouse are officially in the events business (our live events arm Gasp! is now around six months old and growing nicely) I find myself pondering more and more the role of big set piece events as part of the employee comms mix – and questioning the tactics some organisations a…

Continue reading Meat no cheese when it comes to employee events...

Lee Smith on 19/11/09

A thought-provoking day at the 2009 CIPR Internal Comms conference

Earlier this week I spent the day in London at the annual CIPR internal comms conference. The event was chaired by my CIPR Inside committee colleague, Hill & Knowlton’s Scott McKenzie, and was attended by around 60 communicators from a wide variety of sectors and organisations. I ran a brief w…

Continue reading A thought-provoking day at the 2009 CIPR Internal Comms conference...

Lee Smith on 18/09/09

The employee expo – a tactic with real potential

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by a large utility company to attend its annual employee exhibition. They’ve been doing one for years apparently – taking over an large exhibition hall for a few days and inviting their people (and suppliers) to come along for a few hours to see what’s going…

Continue reading The employee expo – a tactic with real potential...

Lee Smith on 17/07/09

Podcasting Perfection – a last minute bargain for internal communicators

CIPR Inside is running a special one-day interactive workshop this month on podcasting – and the good news is we’ve just slashed the price to a more recession-friendly £99+VAT for CIPR members, charities & NGOs (£125+ VAT for non members). I’m sure you’ll agree that’s an absolute bar…

Continue reading Podcasting Perfection – a last minute bargain for internal communicators...

Lee Smith on 02/04/09

CIPR Inside leadership comms event this Thursday – new speakers just added

We have just confirmed two great new additions to the panel of business leaders and communicators lined up for the CIPR Inside leadership communication event taking place in London this Thursday (22 January).  In addition to the excellent speakers already confirmed (see below) we will now be jo…

Continue reading CIPR Inside leadership comms event this Thursday – new speakers just added...

Lee Smith on 18/01/09

CIPR Inside event: Leadership Communication & Authenticity – London, January 22

Do leaders really understand internal communication? Do internal communication practitioners really understand the challenges that leaders face? Do we even speak the same language? As we face a dramatic economic downturn – with many organisations restructuring, consolidating their operations and l…

Continue reading CIPR Inside event: Leadership Communication & Authenticity – London, January 22...

Lee Smith on 06/01/09

CIPR exclusive: an audience with Bill Quirke – London, Tuesday 4 November

You’ve heard the positive things I’ve had to say about Bill Quirke’s recent speaking engagements (see my report below from the recent Melcrum SCM Summit) – now it’s time to make up your own mind…  Next Tuesday – for one night only – Bill will be l…

Continue reading CIPR exclusive: an audience with Bill Quirke – London, Tuesday 4 November...

Lee Smith on 27/10/08

Views from the SCM Summit – day two, final instalment

Following Bill Quirke's inspiring talk on recession-proofing the internal comms function we chose specific conference tracks and broke into smaller groups for much of the remainder of the day. More insights from Bill First off I chose to join Bill again for a more intimate 'clinic' on le…

Continue reading Views from the SCM Summit – day two, final instalment...

Lee Smith on 22/10/08

Views from the SCM Summit – day two, part one

Another good, thought provoking day in Kensington today… Day two of Melcrum's SCM Summit was an interesting journey through the world of employee comms and engagement. During the nine hours between 0800 and 1700 we covered a host of hot topics, including communicating outsourcing, recessio…

Continue reading Views from the SCM Summit – day two, part one...

Lee Smith on 16/10/08

Views from the SCM Summit – reporting on day one

I missed out on most of the proceedings today, so much of the following report comes courtesy of my Gatehouse colleague Howard Krais…  Melcrum’s annual SCM Summit opened with a buzz in the room. The large audience (maybe suggesting that training budgets are not being radically cut j…

Continue reading Views from the SCM Summit – reporting on day one...

Lee Smith on 16/10/08

Employee communication during turbulent times – reporting from the CIPR conference

On Monday (it’s been a busy old week!) I chaired the annual Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) internal communication conference in London. Having largely designed the event and, with my CIPR Inside committee colleagues, found many of the speakers, it was a day I had been looking f…

Continue reading Employee communication during turbulent times – reporting from the CIPR conference...

Lee Smith on 02/10/08

New events for internal communicators

Unlike the British weather, the autumn/winter events season is really hotting up, with a host of new conferences and seminars recently added to the Talking Internal Comms calendar. Among them: On 29 September the Chartered Institute of Public Relations is hosting ‘Inside Story’, a one day confer…

Continue reading New events for internal communicators...

Lee Smith on 18/09/08

CIPR internal comms conference – now open for bookings

In just over a month – on Monday 29 September 2008 – the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) will be hosting its annual internal communication conference in central London. This full day event takes place at the Inmarsat Conference Centre, EC1, and features an impressive line-…

Continue reading CIPR internal comms conference – now open for bookings...

Lee Smith on 21/08/08

‘Podcasting Perfection’ workshop in Birmingham

If you’re interested in podcasting as an internal communication channel, you might want to come along to an event my CIPR Inside colleagues and I are running in the West Midlands early next month. Taking place at the University of Birmingham’s excellent Media Centre on Tuesday 3 June, th…

Continue reading ‘Podcasting Perfection’ workshop in Birmingham...

Lee Smith on 06/05/08

New events and training courses

If you take a look at the Talking IC calendar (via the link on the right) you’ll see that I’ve added a stack of new events and training courses over the past week or so.  Melcrum (website down for maintenance at time of writing) has recently launched a plethora of one and two day tr…

Continue reading New events and training courses...

Lee Smith on 25/02/08

Romance or one night stand?

Last Friday Simon Wright and I spoke at the CiB Central event, The Rules of Engagement, in Stratford-on-Avon. Our topic, rather appropriately for an event based near the birthplace of the man behind Romeo & Juliet, was client/agency relationships – or rather the trouble and strife that sometim…

Continue reading Romance or one night stand?...

Lee Smith on 06/02/08

Wanted – your client/agency horror stories

I need your help. Together with my fellow director at Gatehouse, Simon Wright, I am speaking at a one day Communicators in Business (CiB) conference in a few weeks’ time on the subject of client/agency relationships.  The event is the Rules of Engagement conference, which takes place in S…

Continue reading Wanted – your client/agency horror stories...

Lee Smith on 22/01/08

Communicating the hard stuff

If you’re kicking around London on Monday afternoon and have a few hours to spare, why not head over to Hill & Knowlton’s office on Soho Square at 1500 for the latest CIPR Inside event? ‘Communicating the hard stuff’ will look at the vital role internal communicators play…

Continue reading Communicating the hard stuff...

Lee Smith on 10/11/07

Hot new events added to Talking IC calendar

I’ve just added a number of exciting new events to the Talking IC calendar, which you can access via the right hand panel on this blog. If you’re a UK communicator and you haven’t yet subscribed to this free service, why not do so now – just click though to the calendar and s…

Continue reading Hot new events added to Talking IC calendar...

Lee Smith on 30/10/07

New Talking IC events listing

The latest Talking IC events listing is out today.  If you don’t already receive it, just click on the calendar link to the right of this post and select the ‘subscribe’ button. You’ll then receive a free bi-weekly update on UK based events for internal communicators. Si…

Continue reading New Talking IC events listing...

Lee Smith on 23/04/07

PM Forum event resources – Making social media work for your firm

In my role as chair of PM Forum in the West Midlands, I helped organize an interesting event recently in Birmingham. Entitled ‘Blogging & podcasting – making social media work for your firm’, it explained why professional services firms should embrace Web 2.0 tools. It was led …

Continue reading PM Forum event resources – Making social media work for your firm...

Lee Smith on 22/03/07

Chewing on Crescenzo’s nuggets

I’ve spent the last two days at the Steve Crescenzo Masterclass at London’s Kensington Close Hotel. Organised by Simply Communicate, the event saw one of our profession’s leading voices visit London for the first time. And what a debut it was. No stranger to our peers across the pond, Steve ha…

Continue reading Chewing on Crescenzo’s nuggets...

Lee Smith on 28/10/06