Each month, IABC/Tulsa features one of its members in the “Meet A Member” section of the newsletter. If you’re interested in being highlighted, contact Shannon Frederick, IABC/Tulsa’s Communications Chair.

She’s a new communications professional – working her first job as a communications consultant for ONEOK. This month we learn more about Megan Lewis, secretary of the IABC Tulsa chapter.

IABC/Tulsa: How long have you been a member of IABC?
Megan: I think I just hit my one-year anniversary.

IABC/Tulsa: What is the best IABC meeting/seminar/conference you have ever attended?
Megan: Of all of the local luncheon/meetings, I really enjoyed the Walmart presentation on using social media for internal communications. It was interesting to see what a company as big as Walmart has done to engage its workforce and offer a unique way to communicate and interact with fellow employees. 

IABC/Tulsa: Your current job is your first since graduating from college. How is it going?
Megan: I love learning aspects of communications that couldn’t be taught in a classroom, learning more about the business world in general and seeing where communications fits into it all.   

IABC/Tulsa: As someone who is fairly new to the profession, how has IABC helped with your professional development?
Megan: So far the best thing for me has been the opportunity to meet other communications professionals. I have only been in Tulsa as long as I have been working for ONEOK, so IABC was great way for me to meet other people in my field and learn from people who have been where I am right now – just starting out and trying to learn. 

IABC/Tulsa: What do you like to do in your spare time?
Megan: I love to visit my friends (who have all spread out since college) and I love to run. I did my first marathon last summer back in my home state of Iowa and I am training right now for the San Francisco marathon next month. 

IABC/Tulsa: The future of the field of communications…
Megan: … is exciting and continuously changing. Even in the couple of years I’ve been in the “real world,” I’ve noticed changes. It’s fun to be in a field that is constantly challenging us to learn more and keep up with the changes. You can’t really afford to be stuck in your ways when you’re in this profession – and that’s what I love about it.   

IABC/Tulsa: What advice would you give to communications professionals who are just entering the workforce?
Megan: I AM a new communications professional… so any advice you have, please feel free to send my way! 

by Steve Higgins, IABC Tulsa President

Toronto is in the headlines this week, as the G20 summit and all of its attendant chaos descend on the otherwise mild-mannered Canadian city. Earlier this month, though, Toronto was besieged by another, somewhat less rowdy group – about 1,500 professional communicators.

The IABC World Conference didn’t make international headlines or draw attention from law enforcement (aside from a 2 a.m. prank fire alarm that could not definitively be linked to an IABCer). But it did offer a wealth of ideas, inspiration and dialogue for a profession in the midst of a sea change.

Some speakers hit it out of the park (Guy Kawasaki, Craig Kielburger and Steve Crescenzo, natch). Others managed only singles. Overall, the experience drove home three main points:

The role of the business communicator is changing. The transition of the communicator from tactician to strategist is nothing new. But the preponderance of new media is making our role even more critical – and visible – than ever. Podcasts, internal video reporting and blogs are moving communicators out of the shadows of anonymity to a more front-and-center role in their organizations.

• The one-way, top-down communication model is gone for good. We’re kidding ourselves if we think the traditional CEO memo or press release will ever again be as effective as they once were. People are far too media savvy. They expect to participate in an interactive, two-way dialogue, rather than passively letting information drop upon them from the heavens.
• ‘Safe social media’ is an emerging trend. Safe social media is kind of like safe sex, only more controversial. Most companies are too scared of what their stakeholders will say about them to engage in truly open, authentic two-way dialogue. Problem is, those conversations are happening with or without the company’s participation. Communicators (like Crescenzo and William Amurgis of AEP) are working on corporate social media strategies that executives can get comfortable with.

If you haven’t been, I hope you’ll consider attending an IABC conference in the future. This was my first World Conference, but it won’t be my last. Besides being fun and enlightening, it reaffirmed my belief that IABC is the right organization to help define this brave, new era of business communication.