There’s no shortage of articles, blogs and general discourse about the challenges plaguing our society. Common throughout much of the discussion is one word – disconnect. We hear about social disconnect all the time, with reminders on social media platforms [...]
Better Public Engagement: Build trust with a WELCOME strategy. Hosting a public or stakeholder engagement session? Ensure that your team makes a great first impression (and fosters credibility and trust) by being ready well before the earliest of early birds [...]
Guest Blog from Cindy Filipenko. This piece originally appeared as The Perky Pundit column in the Whistler Question. Hello new councils. My congratulations to all of you who bravely threw your hats in the ring for a chance to help shape our communities. [...]
In February 2014, I traveled to Sochi, Russia for a meeting that didn’t exist yet. As project manager for the City of Vancouver’s Host City Pride Mission, I accompanied City Councillor Tim Stevenson on our quest to get a meeting [...]
News over the past couple of weeks has served to make “public trust” more of an oxymoron than ever. I wonder how our governments expect to maintain the notion of public trust when almost daily there are reports of secret surveillance, monitoring of private communications and misuse of public funds? And yes, I’m talking about governments that celebrate and trumpet their successful democracies and commitment to freedom, freethinking and free opinion — countries like the U.S. and Canada. […]
This week’s blog is by recovering journalist and guest blogger, Cindy Filipenko. She still makes a living from writing the truth. You can visit her at www.cindyfilipenko.com. Journalism used to be about getting to the truth. Today it’s become a game of getting it first instead of getting it right. […]
In early April, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) BC Chapter invited me to be part of an event entitled, "What I Know Now That I Wish I Knew Then". They invited 10 senior communicators to impart five minutes [...]
Like millions of others, I watched in fascination as Commander Chris Hadfield and his crew on the International Space Station returned to earth this week after five months in space. Living and working aboard the Space Station for five months is an impressive and taxing feat, but I’ve been even more impressed by Chris Hadfield’s command of public engagement. […]
Within seven days of reading this, British Columbians will head to the polls to elect our next provincial government. Election day is Tuesday, May 14. So, never mind the standard question, “Who are you going to vote for?” How about [...]
So I went to a hockey game and a public meeting broke out. Sorry — I had to. Following up on last week’s blog, I attended a public meeting in Pemberton last Thursday to learn more about the potential community-owned independent “run of river” power project on Pemberton Creek. While this “CPP” as it is more commonly known, had been a very quiet concept for several years, it recently grew into a contentious issue. This was triggered by the Village of Pemberton’s call for Requests for Expressions of Interest (RFEI), inviting independent power plant operators to submit a proposal outlining their interest in this particular project. […]
