Whatever happened to Inter-Comm?

In the UK there are at least three different bodies that represent internal communicators – the CIPR, the IABC and the CiB.  It’s mad isn’t it?

And that’s not counting bodies with an overlapping interest like the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

What’s the difference between them all?  Goodness knows. 

They all offer networking events, most do some sort of training and two offer formal qualifications.  And their subscriptions are roughly similar.

A few years ago we all managed to sit down together in a room and have some quite civil conversations.  We even did some useful work developing a model of the skills that people needed at different stages of their careers.  And we had a big event where several big speakers stood up and announced how wonderful the future was going to be if we all worked together.

But then what happened?  Not a lot really.

I have my own views on what happened – which may not accord with what other people remember.  But essentially people got bound up in protecting their political positions.  No one was to blame – when you’ve spent years building a membership body or developing a programme of courses you’re not going to be in a hurry to risk it all by letting another membership body get their paws on it all.

But in the meantime who is speaking on behalf of our profession? 

The CIPR seems mainly interested in media relations although Lee Smith is doing his best to change that. 

The CiB has a reputation for promoting excellence in channels but doesn’t seem to be making headlines about wider strategic issues and the IABC doesn’t seem to say much to the non-IC world outside the US.

That probably misrepresents just about everyone and is probably grossly unfair.  Maybe someone has a well considered programme of PR and lobbying to ensure that a well-informed opinion of IC reaches the ears of the great and the good.  If they have it’s very subtle.

But in these troubled times it would be great if people could bury their political differences to speak up about the role that IC should be playing.  Now, more than ever, we need a unified voice to sell better communications to embattled business leaders.

Anyone want to come to a meeting?

Liam

Comments

[Marc Wright]

I remember Ezri Carlebach trying to build bridges between IABC and CiB a couple of years back. Not much came of it but rather like the British and German troops in WW1 we did manage to do one shared Xmas party. Here are the pictures to prove it:
http://www.simply-communicate.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=516