European Association of Communication Directors

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The European Association of Communication Directors (EACD) is a multi-field network for communication professionals across Europe. The EACD was founded in Brussels in November 2006 by over 100 in-house communicators from 23 countries. As of March 2015 it counts over 2,300 members. [1] It organises regular regional debates across Europe on topics related to communications, and has subsets of working groups where members discuss specific issues arising from their work.

Europe Continent in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere

Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Asia to the east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia.

Brussels Capital region of Belgium

Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region. Brussels is the most densely populated and the richest region in Belgium in terms of GDP per capita. It covers 161 km2 (62 sq mi), a relatively small area compared to the two other regions, and has a population of 1.2 million. The metropolitan area of Brussels counts over 2.1 million people, which makes it the largest in Belgium. It is also part of a large conurbation extending towards Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven and Walloon Brabant, home to over 5 million people.

Contents

Initiatives

Through various initiatives the EACD offers a number of activities and services for its members, including publications, research programmes, events and awards ceremonies.

Publications

Communication Director is a professional specialist magazine for corporate communications and public relations in Europe. It documents opinions on important strategic questions in communication, discovers transnational developments and discusses their relevance from a European perspective. [2] A section of the magazine focuses on EACD activities and projects as well as highlighting and profiling members. Communication Director is published quarterly in English, with a total of 100 pages. All members of the EACD receive the magazine for free. [3]

Public relations (PR) is the practice of deliberately managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. This differentiates it from advertising as a form of marketing communications. Public relations is the idea of creating coverage for clients for free, rather than marketing or advertising. But now, advertising is also a part of greater PR Activities. An example of good public relations would be generating an article featuring a client, rather than paying for the client to be advertised next to the article. The aim of public relations is to inform the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders and ultimately persuade them to maintain a positive or favorable view about the organization, its leadership, products, or political decisions. Public relations professionals typically work for PR and marketing firms, businesses and companies, government, and public officials as PIOs and nongovernmental organizations, and nonprofit organizations. Jobs central to public relations include account coordinator, account executive, account supervisor, and media relations manager.

The European Communication Monitor is an international research initiative conducted by the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) in partnership with the EACD and Communication Director magazine. This study aims to monitor trends in strategic communications.

The European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) is an organization working to promote and combine research and practice within the field of public relations in Europe.

The EACD regularly publishes service brochures that focus on specific communications-related topics. Previous brochures include "Reputation management", "The Value of Data in Digital Corporate Communications " and "The EACD Guide to Brand Management". [4]

Reputation management refers to the influencing and controlling of an individual's or group's reputation. Originally a public relations term, the growth of the internet and social media, along with reputation management companies, have made search results a core part of an individual's or group's reputation. Online reputation management, sometimes abbreviated as ORM, focuses on the management of product and service search website results. Ethical grey areas include mug shot removal sites, astroturfing customer review sites, censoring negative complaints, and using search engine optimization tactics to influence results.

In marketing, brand management is the analysis and planning on how a brand is perceived in the market. Developing a good relationship with the target market is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; its look, price, and packaging, etc. The intangible elements are the experiences that the consumers share with the brand, and also the relationships they have with the brand. A brand manager would oversee all aspects of the consumer's brand association as well as relationships with members of the supply chain.

Research programmes

The European Communication Professional Skills and Innovation Programme (ECOPSI) is an EU-funded project which aims to identify and evaluate the current and future communication management skills of practitioners based in Europe. The project is designed to build a European theory of communication management and to establish a framework to support the professionalisation and ethical development of communication professionals. [5]

The EACD also conducted a research project that examined the membership of communication professionals in executive committees. The C-Suite project, which was conducted by the Amsterdam School of Communications Research (AsCoR), in cooperation with the EACD and Russell Reynolds Associates, analysed the prevalence of Chief communications officer (CCOs) on the executive committee of the largest global companies as well as their role and the type of organisation they were employed by. [6]

Russell Reynolds Associates

Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA) is a management consulting firm. Established in 1969, the firm assists international and domestic companies develop leaders, assess business processes, and recruit new executives. It provides leadership advisory and executive recruiting services.

Events

Co-hosted by the EACD and Communication Director magazine, the European Communication Summit is an annual two-day-conference in Brussels for in-house communication professionals. The event is open to communicators based in Europe and come from the fields of business, politics, associations and media. Over 60 speakers present and participate in discussions during the Summit. Participants have the opportunity to debate strategies, tools, methods and best practice within the fields of corporate communication, public relations, media relations and political communication. [7]

The Circle of European Communicators is an invite-only meeting held annually in a major European city. There corporate communications leaders are presented with expert opinions from across diverse fields – including the arts, business and politics to finance, sport and sociology. [8]

Awards

The EACD presents the European Communication Award in a gala ceremony held annually at the European Communication Summit. It honours outstanding communications achievements by those in Europe. The award is given to either an individual or organisation for their communication efforts from the past year. The award is granted based on the input of EACD members.

Another initiative, the Young Communicators Award, is targeted towards supporting young public relations and communications professionals working in Europe. This award recognises outstanding communications projects that demonstrate innovative ideas and execution. Shortlisted nominees present their projects at the European Communication Summit. The winner is then selected by those in attendance. [9]

Related Research Articles

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to public affairs:

Copenhagen Business School business school

Copenhagen Business School often abbreviated and referred to as CBS, is a public university situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is considered one of the most prestigious business schools in Western Europe and the world. CBS was established in 1917 by the Danish Society for the Advancement of Business Education and Research (FUHU), however, it was not until 1920 that accounting became the first full study programme at CBS. Today CBS has more than 20,000 students, 2,000 employees and offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programmes within business, typically with an interdisciplinary and international focus. CBS is accredited by EQUIS, AMBA, as well as AACSB, thus making it one of the few schools worldwide to hold the "triple-crown" accreditation, and along with Aarhus BSS, the only two in Denmark.

Investor relations (IR) is a strategic management responsibility that is capable of integrating finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company's securities achieving fair valuation. The term describes the department of a company devoted to handling inquiries from shareholders and investors, as well as others who might be interested in a company's stock or financial stability.

Internal communications

Internal communications (IC) is the function responsible for effective communications among participants within an organization. The scope of the function varies by organization and practitioner, from producing and delivering messages and campaigns on behalf of management, to facilitating two-way dialogue and developing the communication skills of the organization's participants.

Business communication is information sharing between people within and outside an organization that is performed for the commercial benefit of the organization. It can also be defined as relaying of information within a business by its people.

K. G. Suresh Indian journalist

DG, IIMC, New Delhi

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism schools at USC in Southern California, USA

The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC). Starting July 2017, the school’s Dean is Willow Bay, succeeding Ernest J. Wilson III. The graduate program in Communications is consistently ranked first according to the QS World University Rankings.

Corporate communication is a set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at creating favourable point of view among stakeholders on which the company depends. It is the messages issued by a corporate organization, body, or institute to its audiences, such as employees, media, channel partners and the general public. Organizations aim to communicate the same message to all its stakeholders, to transmit coherence, credibility and ethics.

Betteke van Ruler

Alberta Arnolda "Betteke" van Ruler is emeritus Professor of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam.

CELSA Paris

CELSA is a French communication and journalism school located in the West of Paris, (Neuilly-sur-Seine) and is part of the Sorbonne University. The name CELSA is an acronym for the French phrase 'Centre d'études littéraires et scientifiques appliquées', i.e. Centre for Applied Literary and Scientific Studies.

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is a global network of communications professionals.

Prime Point Foundation, officially inaugurated in December, 1999, is a not-for-profit organization founded by Krishnaswamy Srinivasan. Srinivasan, also known as Prime Point Srinivasan, is a communication expert, social worker, Digital journalist and former banker. Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, an agricultural scientist, inaugurated the trust. The present trustees include the founder and S. Narendra, a former spokesman of the Government of India and former information advisor to the Prime Minister of India. The trust aims to create awareness about communication, journalism and public relations among the students of Indian universities and colleges. The Foundation also promotes positive journalism through its ezine PreSense

IEEE Communications Society organization

The IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) promotes the advancement of science, technology and applications in communications and related disciplines. It fosters presentation and exchange of information among its members and the technical community throughout the world. The Society maintains a high standard of professionalism and technical competency. The IEEE Communications Society is a professional society of the IEEE.

Professional communication, encompasses written, oral, visual and digital communication within a workplace context. This discipline blends together pedagogical principles of rhetoric, technology, software, and learning theory to improve and deliver communication in a variety of settings ranging from technical writing to usability and digital media design to more effectively communicate in the business world.

<i>Communicate</i> (magazine)

Communicate is a monthly trade magazine for the UK corporate communications community. Branding itself as ‘the single voice for stakeholder relations’, Communicate’s focus is on how organisations engage with their stakeholders: the press, investors, employees, regulators, the supply chain and the communities in which they operate. As such, Communicate covers corporate communications, public relations, investor relations, internal communications, corporate social responsibility, crisis communications and public affairs.

Maxim Behar Bulgarian and Israeli businessman

Maxim Behar is a Bulgarian businessman of Jewish descent. He is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of M3 Communications Group, Inc, a public relations and public affairs company and a Hill+Knowlton Strategies partner since 2000. Behar is also president of the International Communications Consultancy Organization, board member of PR Museum in New York, and a frequent speaker at national and international events. He is also Chairman of the Board of World Communications Forum in Davos.

Truth Initiative

Truth Initiative is a nonprofit tobacco control organization "dedicated to achieving a culture where all youth and young adults reject tobacco." It was established in March 1999 as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement between the attorneys general of 46 states, the District of Columbia and five United States territories, and the tobacco industry. Truth Initiative is best known for its youth smoking prevention campaign. Its other primary aims include conducting tobacco control research and policy studies, organizing community and youth engagement programs and developing digital cessation and prevention products, including through revenue-generating models. The organization changed its name from the American Legacy Foundation to Truth Initiative on September 8, 2015, to better align with its Truth campaign. As of 2016, the organization had more than $957 million in assets and a staff of 133 based primarily in its Washington, D.C. office.

Red is a Nigerian media company with interests in public relations, communication, media production and human development, with a focus on youth. Its headquarters is in Lagos.

Saurabh Uboweja

Saurabh Uboweja is the founder, CEO and chief brand strategist at Brands of Desire (BoD), a management consulting firm focused on building brands, based in New Delhi, India.

References

  1. ↑ EACD. "Idea and aims" . Retrieved 2014-05-22.
  2. ↑ Communication Director. "About" . Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  3. ↑ Communication Director. "Magazine" . Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  4. ↑ EACD. "Service Brochures" . Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  5. ↑ ECOPSI. "Home" . Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  6. ↑ EACD. "C-Suite Brochure" (PDF). Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  7. ↑ EACD. "European Communication Summit" . Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  8. ↑ The Circle. "Home" . Retrieved 2015-03-04.
  9. ↑ EACD. "European Communication Award" . Retrieved 2015-03-04.
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