Sometimes it seems that exercising creativity in a corporate environment is a contradictory practice. One writing instructor wryly noted, “At some point, communicators stop writing for their audiences and start writing for their bosses.” You know just what he meant: Stilted language, excessive corporatese, heavy use of acronyms…

But you can be creative in your communication efforts. In fact, if you want to capture the attention of your audience, you must be! After all, the pressure is always on to come up with the next big idea. Four Fellows from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) will talk about how to create strategies for ensuring that innovation and creativity flourish in your organization.

The panel is set for 12 p.m. EDT on Thursday, May 26, 2016.

Participating on the live panel — and ready to take your questions live — will be…

• Pixie Emslie — From the George Area of South Africa, Pixie is an author and freelance journalist. Her latest book, the thriller “Cry of the Rocks,” has been optioned for a feature film.
• John Gerstner — John had a 15-year career as a communicator for John Deere before leaving to found Communitellgence, an online peer learning network. He also recently worked as a senior consultant of Enterprise Communications for Florida Blue.
• Leticia Narvaez — Founder Partner and CEO of Narvaez Group, Leticia was previously director of Corporate Communications and external Affairs for Sanofi-Aventis Mexico. She has also worked in communication leadership positions for Merck and American Express in Mexico.
• Mark Schumann — Mark is founder and partner of re-communicate, a communications consultancy. he also teaches communication at Fairfield University. Mark is a former IABC chair. He spent 26 years as a communication consultant and practice leader at Towers Perrin.

The FIR Podcast Network’s Shel Holtz (also a Fellow) will serve a moderator. Among the topics the panel will discuss:

• How to continually develop insights to fuel both your organization and your career
• How to explore creativity exercises that work
• How to address what blocks or enables innovation and creativity inside companies.

The panel will be held as a Google+ Hangout on Air where you can ask questions in real time. If you can’t be there live, you can also watch the video at your leisure, or subscribe to listen to the audio podcast. To participate live, come back to this page and watch below or visit the FIR event page.

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, SCMP, ABC, IABC Fellow, is senior director of Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio