Looking 'beyond the horizon' with Europe's leading communicators.

Brussels, 1-3 October 1998 - IABC's first European Conference

Spearheaded by the Belgian chapter and especially its president, Nelo Emerencia, the IABC Europe/Africa region decided to lead the way into uncharted waters and organise IABC's first European conference in recent years. They looked to the future and the three forces that are shaping it:

* Globalisation of Business

* The New Borders of Europe

* The Impact of New Technologies

"Beyond the Horizon: Learning, Leveraging and Leading in a New Europe" was held 1-3 October in Brussels and attracted more than 140 senior business communicators and more than 20 students from throughout Europe. Some attenders came from remote places such as Brazil, South Africa or Australia.

Key focuses of the conference were the profound changes that are imminent for the whole business communication field, resulting from new technologies, changes in the business map of Europe and Europe's ever-deeper involvement in the global economy. Speakers at the conference were invited primarily for their proven capacity to "see around corners" to issues that people are not even thinking about yet in the fields of corporate communication and marketing.

So what does it take to succeed in the new Europe? According to Professor Constantinos Markides of the London Business School, the secret lies in two words: Strategic Innovation. In a time where 85 percent of new market entrants will fail within the first four years of their existence and the remaining 15 percent only manage to win 5 percent of the market, Markides argues that companies will have to break "the old rules" and find a "different way of playing the game." In essence, employees need to move away from "passive thinking" (the way we have always done it) toward "active thinking" and question the traditional ways in which business has been accomplished. And how can one get people to openly and honestly question the essence of business and the way things have been done? By creating a positive crisis and 1) setting a challenging objective and 2) selling this objective to the employees and making them "true believers." Markides' tips on how to sell included:

* create an enemy

* ensure early victories

* continuously communicate the victories

* make the people who are involved feel special and reinforce this feeling with symbols

In an effort to stir in new ideas from outside the business field, IABC invited a leading British churchman Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of Wakefield, who is also the chairman of the communication committee of the Church of England. He not only demonstrated the similarity between running a business and a church, but also shared his experience in communicating nationally on difficult controversial issues such as financial losses by church commissioners, ordination of women to priesthood and human sexuality. Bishop McCulloch gained national prominence in the United Kingdom for his frank and effective style of communication with non-believers and also won respect and affection from the mining communities of Yorkshire as a result of his active support for them during pit closures.

Three plenary sessions and 24 break-out sessions were held over a period of two days. Seminar topics ranged from "The new borders of Europe," "The impact of new technologies," "Coping with communication in times of change," "Doing business in a global environment" to "Matters of Concern" and "Icons - the new weapons of persuasion." But time to play was also provided. The coffee breaks, lunches, receptions and dinners offered sufficient time to network and meet peers from other countries to discuss the newly learned theories, and of course to renew professional and personal friendships. Playfulness was also the theme of Kevin Thomson's presentation during the gala dinner at Brussels' famous comic strip museum. To demonstrate the different ways of communication, Thomson asked participants to choose whether their personality matched more with a box or a squiggle. The two groups were then charged to draw, with the help of caricaturists, a typical day at work. The results were fascinating!

The conference was organised with the co-operation of The Wall Street Journal Europe, the Confederation of European Public Relations Associations (CERP) and the London Business School. In addition, sponsorships were provided by the SAS Corporation (the conference primary sponsor), Alcatel e-Com, BLD Europe, CARMA International, ELLIPS Communication, EPPA (European Public Policy Advisors), Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy Public Relations, Shandwick and United Parcel Service.

Feedback from participants has been so overwhelmingly positive that the conference steering committee is already preparing to select next year's location, speakers and develop the programme. So look forward to the 1999 IABC European conference!