Listen to episode eight of my free IC podcast

Welcome to episode eight of FIR presents All Things IC with Rachel Miller.

Every month I publish a podcast focusing on internal communication as part of the For Immediate Release (FIR) podcast network.

You can find a whole host of other podcasts to listen to in the network, including the iconic Hobson & Holtz Report, which is now in its tenth year. Find out more information via the network’s Google+ community.

Shel Holtz shared my podcast’s stats with me and I discovered of the 508 downloads to date that my last episode had, communicators in the US are the biggest audience (221), then UK (82), Canada (55), Australia (18), Italy (15), Russian Federation (10).

So wherever you are in the Globe, thank you for tuning in.

What’s in this month’s show?

There are two main topics in this month’s show and you can listen to it for free at the end of this article. Plus I have an exclusive competition to share with you for the chance to win a ticket to attend a conference in Berlin, Germany, later this year.

First up is The Big Yak unconference. This was a free event I hosted alongside my fellow The IC Crowd @theICcrowd co-founders Jenni Wheller and Dana Leeson, in London on Saturday 28 June.

The IC Crowd is a network of communicators we created a couple of years ago, which has grown, and we have been creating opportunities to gather the crowd face-to-face.

The Big Yak was an informal unconference held at eBay’s office in London and was attended by approx 150 internal communicators.

It was an excellent day and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing lots of familiar faces and also meeting new people.

Throughout the day I was roaming around between the sessions (being an unconference means the delegates determined what the topics were), and took the opportunity to ask professional communicators to share their thoughts on what they had seen and heard.

So half of this month’s podcast features the voices of comms pros who attended #thebigyak. You can discover what happened via The IC Crowd website, which is where we’re collating a list of blogs that crowd members have published post-event.

A new innovation for internal comms – introducing Beem

I had a conversation with Ciara O’Keeffe, @commsokeeffe, (pictured) VP Client Success at Beem to discover more about this brand new mobile app.

I’m always on the lookout for examples of new technology that can help communicators do their job better and was intrigued by Beem when I first saw it.

What makes it stand out is the integration between internal and external news and content for employees.

So in this month’s podcast Ciara talks us through what it is, how it works, who is using it and why companies are looking for new ways to address the continuing blurring of lines between internal and external communication.

You can read more about Beem via their website www.wearebeem.com and find them on Twitter @wearebeem.

Exclusive competition to join Beem in Germany at we.CONECT Social Business conference!

Social Business Collaboration 2014 conference is taking place from 29-30 September at the Kosmos Cinema Berlin, Germany. Thanks to Beem, one lucky reader/listener has the opportunity to be there in person and discover it for themselves.

What’s on offer?

• One free two-day delegate pass worth €2499.It includes:
• Pre-conference “Icebreaker” opening to get the show on the road
• Full access to all sessions, lectures & Business Partner exhibitions
• Exclusive evening reception on conference day one
• Lunch and refreshments during the conference
• Full access to we.CONECT Media Center
• Full access to the complete conference documentation and presentations
• Face-2-face Business Strategy meetings with participants, speakers and Business Partners
• Post-conference access to we.CONECT business think tanks: Your industry community for comprehensive and sustained business networking.

What to expect:
Advice and discussions around integration and management, global online communities, project networks and interactive applications, operational criteria and system integration, real-time video collaboration, knowledge management and activity streaming, metrics and methods and usability, content and security to discuss current challenges and the latest developments in social business collaboration.

Website: http://collaboration2014.we-conect.com/en/

How to win
The person with the most re-tweets, by 5pm (BST) Friday 11 July, of the following Tweet will join Beem in Berlin:

“Send me to #weSocBiz in Berlin with @wearebeem”

T&Cs from Beem (the important bit):

• Entrants must be 18 or over and have a Twitter account.
• Entrants cannot be solution providers or consultants (sorry!), or have attended one of the we.Conect events before.
• The prize includes entrance to the conference only
• You will need to fund your own flights, hotels, any transfers etc
• Prize is non-returnable
• Winner will be chosen by Beem based on number of retweets (RTs)
• Beem will be responsible for ensuring your ticket makes its way safely to you.

Thank you for this opportunity and best of luck to everyone who enters.

Let’s get back to the podcast – grab a cup of tea and I’ll guide you through what’s been happening in the world of internal comms this month.

Listen to FIR presents All Things IC with Rachel Miller episode eight here:

• Download the file
• Subscribe to the FIR presents All Things IC with Rachel Miller RSS feed
• Get the FIR app for your mobile device – iPhone | Android | Windows

You can also find FIR on Twitter @FIRpodcast.

What do you think of this month’s show? As ever you’re welcome to comment below or tweet me @AllthingsIC.

Missed a previous show? Catch up here.

Rachel.