Turning News Into Knowledge

Just before 9:00 a.m. June 6, 2010, a couple MediaMiser staff and myself boarded a VIA train to Union Station in Toronto.

We were headed to the IABC World Conference in Toronto.

For those who don’t know what the IABC is, the acronym stands for the International Association of Business Communicators, which I and few other MediaMiser staff are members of.

IABC is an association that promotes and encourages excellence among those engaged in communicating to both internal and/or external publics, whether it’s PR, marketing, advertising, media production or human resources.

It doesn’t matter to whom you communicate; as long as you are in the business of communicating messages, IABC is an organization that helps in the art of getting your point across.

Therefore, this is not only a conference MediaMiser should be attending to learn how we can better build products to aid in the process of communication, but is one that, from a business perspective, we should be exhibiting at.

As soon as we got to Toronto, we quickly got settled into our accommodations and headed out to see the Blue Jays play the New York Yankees. Our staff works hard and we need to give back to them every chance we get.

On that note, Yankees won 4-3 ): However, Blue Jays took the series 2-1 (:

Next we headed out to the opening conference events. From a business perspective, the welcome session at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) was the most valuable.  Both the food and atmosphere at the ROM was excellent. Most importantly, we were able to meet other attendees and exhibitors.

I met both prospective and current clients, and other people with whom I shared a professional interest. Being able to establish a rapport with them could be very important in the days to come.

Monday, June 7

On Monday, our team was able to quickly set up our booth and demos. We had a good position on the exhibitor floor with good traffic, and IABC did an amazing job to promote the exhibitors. They had passport cards that people needed to get stamped, which was an excellent idea. My only criticism is that free WIFI should have been supplied to everyone at the conference. This would have enhanced both the conference organizers and exhibitors ability to reach out to the attendees.

Awards Gala

The 2010 Gold Quill Awards gala, which recognizes outstanding communication projects, was well organized and entertaining. Terry O’Reilly, CBC host for the The Age of Persuasion, was an excellent choice to MC the event.

Again, full marks to IABC.

The Next Day – Tuesday

IABC continued to impress us with the quality of speakers and, again, the continued support of exhibitors.

I was very impressed with Craig Kielburger, a Canadian activist for the rights of children — especially since he stood to talk to people for over an hour. He came across as genuine and passionate about his cause.

At the end of the day we packed up our booth quickly and planned to do the Toronto Dine-Around event. Attendees who signed up for Dine-Around event could make reservations at various restaurants in the Toronto core with other attendees. However, our team decided to go to a private product launch party hosted by Caroline Kealey of Ingenuim Communications.  Caroline created a very impressive PR planning tool, Results Map, of which I was able to get a quick demo.

The last day

As the rain came down that day and barricades for the G20 conference were going up, it seemed to signal it was time to leave.

The conference finished with a keynote by Guy Kawasaki, formally of Apple. It was entertaining, and I learned that MediaMiser was positioned high and to the right (Those who attended the keynote will get the reference).

With that parting thought, I was satisfied that the IABC conference was a resounding success.

MediaMiser Booth at the IABC World Conference