Don’t miss out: Dates for the diary

Conference and award season is in full swing with various options available for professional communicators to choose from including offerings by the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC), Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and Melcrum.

As mini Miller is due to make an appearance any day now (fingers crossed!), I won’t be out and about attending the events this year. So I thought I’d summarise the ones that I’m aware of and also appeal for comms pros to get in touch with me if you’d like to take the opportunity to write your opinions on what you experience for Diary of an internal communicator. It goes without saying that I wouldn’t have been able to go to all of these! But I’ve written a fairly comprehensive list below and for all stages of careers, to give you a flavour of what is around.

If you work in comms and are planning to attend an industry event, do check out my guest article guidelines and get in touch to let me know what you’re going to and would like to write about.

Why write about industry events?
As we all know, money is tight in the budgets this year and companies are increasingly making tough decisions about what can and can’t be afforded. Unfortunately it seems offsite learning and networking often gets cut and you have to miss out. Well, not any more – I see the value in reading about events that have taken place, yes it’s not the same as actually being there, but hearing the latest industry trends, who is talking about what and seeing examples of that loveliest of all phrases – ‘best practice’ in action, from the perspective of someone who was there, interests me and your feedback shows that you like it too.

The list is below. If you’re going to any of these events and would like to put your hat in the ring to write about them for my blog, do contact me. Are there any others that you’re aware of? If so, do add them below by commenting, thank you, Rachel.

Dates for the diary

• Weekly: #Commschat takes place on Twitter
• Monthly: #SimplyTV webinars
• Throughout the summer: CIPR summer social series
• Ongoing: Melcrum’s Black Belt programme
• Ongoing: CIPR Strategic Management Series
• Ongoing: Regional events for CIPR groups
• Ongoing: Year-long schedule of conferences by PR Week/Haymarket
• 10 May: CIPR, Integrating traditional and social media, London
• 22 May: IoIC, Social media for internal communicators training, London
• 22 May: IoIC, Game Changers event featuring Sarah Hodges, nr Winchester
• 23-25 May: Institute of Internal Comms annual conference, near Birmingham
• 24 May: Social Workplace Conference in London
• 25 May: Deadline for Melcrum’s SCM awards
• 28 May: CIPR Excellence Awards, London
• 29 May: Ask the guru: Practical answers to internal comms dilemmas, London
• 7 June: Running an effective internal comms department, London
• 12 June: Deadline for CIPR Pride Awards
• 13 June: CIPR, Measurement training, London
• 15 June: IoIC Awards, London
• 26 June: VMA Internal Comms showcase awards
• 27 June: Melcrum, IC 101: An introduction to internal comms
• 12/13 June and 12/13 July: The internal comms model (four days), IoIC, London
• 11 September: Melcrum: Intro to Sharepoint for internal communicators
• 9-11 October: Melcrum’s Strategic Communication Management summit, London
• 10-13 October: Communication Directors’ Forum, Aurora