The July 2006 PR Week conference on Internal & Corporate Communications in London I found a great event.


Admittedly I had to be persuaded to attend with a crowbar by my mentor as I was previously and wrongly convinced that unless I was speaking or exhibiting then there was little return to be had for my hard earned cash.

I was particularly struck by three speakers ~ sorry if you were one of the others, you were all good, promise..!

• Jenny of Barclays UK Banking
• Cameron of Scottish Windows
• Chris of HM Revenue & Customs

What struck me in particular was the way they had all linked the importance of internal communication with straight forward PR and external marketing. Not rocket science in itself but to hear the real live case studies of how the drive for progress and performance improvement is creating a shift within long established and well
structured business was refreshing.

The clarity, precision and passion each brought to their role will be, I guess, a major reason for their influence on their own Board's of Directors. Each certainly presented a valid and robust case for an integrated approach to facilitating change pulling Human Resources ~ Organisational Development ~ Internal Communications, Marketing and PR together.

Hmmm ~ love to be a fly on the wall in some of those Board Room meetings. These guys & girls are most definitely making a harmonised approach work.

It made me think back to my Hospital days where I first heard the term ~ Multi-disciplinary approach ~ and having experienced some of the Client 'team' meetings where Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Social Workers, Nurses and Doctors came together to apply the theory 'When it works it's great but when there are turf battles'

What is your experience of pulling different disciplines together?