Aspic at 20: moving on up

We’ve come a long, long way together… looking back on 20 years of the Association for Strategic Practitioners in Internal Communication (Aspic)

“We’ve come a long, long way together, through the hard times and the good. We have to celebrate you baby, we have to praise you like we should.”

If you attended Aspic 20^th anniversary event last Thursday you’d be forgiven for still humming these annoyingly catchy lyrics from Fatboy Slim under your breath. They were the inspiration for a special event that explored the changes and challenges we’ve experienced in internal communication – ever since Aspic members first gathered in a Slough hotel way back in 1997.

Held on the 24^th floor of the Shard, the event brought internal communicators together to share ideas and fears on hot IC topics, and hear from top industry experts, including communication professionals from Harrods, Vodafone and the Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust.

Watch this space! We’ll soon be sharing the top takeaways from the day in our highlights video and a special issue of AQ magazine. But in the meantime, here’s a first glimpse at some of the insight shared in our four roundtable discussions…

Want your leaders to make an impact in the workplace? Check their behaviour against Martin Brooks’, The Impacttologist, three magic Cs: credibility; confidence; competence.

Whether you’re running an intranet or ESN (enterprise social network), bringing people together in digital groups to share creativity and content will create communities that stick in the physical workplace too.

The group’s top tips for using the power of storytelling to maximise your message included making it real, timely and emotional. What are yours?

Effective measurement isn’t just about having time and the right tools; first we need to decide what success looks like. After all, if we don’t know where we’re going, how will we know when we’ve arrived?

For more information about Aspic and to find out about our upcoming events join our community on LinkedIn and follow @sequelgroup.