{"id":133280,"date":"2020-11-12T17:42:20","date_gmt":"2020-11-12T16:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=133280"},"modified":"2020-11-18T15:50:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:50:02","slug":"what-a-crazy-year-cipr-national-conference-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/what-a-crazy-year-cipr-national-conference-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What a crazy year\u2019: CIPR National Conference 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time in its history, the CIPR National Conference (rounding off today) was an all virtual affair. With its agenda formed by a survey of members in May to confirm what would be most useful in such an unprecedented (more of that word later\u2026) year, its themes were \u2018What is this new world?\u2019, People and <\/strong>\u2013 today\u2019s focus <\/strong>\u2013 business. <\/strong><\/p>\n

That the way business is done in PR and comms has had to change this year is without question – which lessons we all take forward beyond this time was what KPMG<\/a> head of communications Tom Goddard explored in his speaker session \u2018The value of communications \u2013 reflections on a crazy year\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Well\u2026 what<\/em> a crazy year,\u2019 was how Tom began, openly admitting to feelings of exhaustion, times of fear and a more relaxed approach to presenting than usual (from his loft room, in jeans and slippers, rather than a standard business suit and tie for big industry events). Introducing the three pillars of Instinct, Action and Polish as his main takeaways from this year, it was the idea of polish that was pinpointed as particularly important to consider.<\/p>\n

\u2018Trust expressions have rocketed into clich\u00e9 faster than ever before,\u2019 said Tom, pushing away from overly polished and performative language. \u2018I don\u2019t want to use words like \u201cunprecedented\u201d today, nor do I want to \u201cpivot\u201d at any point.\u2019 Instead of that \u2018u word\u2019, Tom talked of \u2018nervous, uncomfortable\u2019 days at KPMG during the start of the pandemic, a time of struggle for businesses everywhere, and more immediate troubles for Tom and his team as KPMG\u2019s UK chair Bill Michael was taken ill earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

With 2020 the year KPMG was due to celebrate its 150th anniversary, planned campaigns, firmly-structured meetings and sign off processes had to be abandoned and switched up. \u2018Senior leaders needed our advice and common sense instead,\u2019 said Tom, who spoke of the need for authenticity, instinct and swift action from businesses and their leadership teams, using examples from brands like BP, McDonald\u2019s and Tesla.<\/p>\n

Action at KPMG included the launch of \u2018DIY-aesthetic\u2019 The WFH Podcast (which featured guests including Alastair Campbell, Alain de Botton, Bonnie Greer and even Mr Motivator) and paid time off for colleagues with family duties on the announcement of school closures in March. The results from KPMG\u2019s comms during the first few months of the COVID-19 crisis \u2013 the highest engagement levels they\u2019d ever experienced.<\/p>\n

Where have the events of 2020 left us? \u2018We\u2019re all feeling quite exhausted, but we need to use this moment \u2013 the challenge now is to build on what we\u2019ve learned,\u2019 believes Tom, who ended his session with a message to everyone in comms working towards better days and future challenges.<\/p>\n

\u2018Comms has to be on its toes, bringing challenge and conscience. If we manage commercial needs with the importance of being human, we really earn our stripes. I believe it\u2019s our time; let\u2019s not waste it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Catch up with more from this year\u2019s CIPR National Conference on <\/strong>the CIPR website<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time in its history, the CIPR National Conference (rounding off today) was an all virtual affair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":133279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272,3725],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133280"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133343,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133280\/revisions\/133343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}