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David Spark and Ryan Williams joined host Shel Holtz for this week’s FIR podcast to talk about…

• Henry Blodget’s recent presentation on 14 things you’ll want to know about the future of media
• Some of the ways communication and marketing annoy us that communicators and marketers may not realize are annoying
• Whether internal communications still needs to prove its value
• How one Brazilian media company managed its digital transformation (by focusing on people instead of technology)
• The conference trend toward high-profile speakers who are completely irrelevant to the focus of the conference
• In his Tech Report, Dan York reports on Snapchat’s new design, Twitter’s expansion of Twitter Lite, and Mozilla’s annual report (and its focus on its work for an open Internet)

Connect with David Spark on Twitter at @dspark and with Ryan on Twitter at @willy26.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About our guest co-hosts:

David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and founder the brand journalism firm Spark Media Solutions. Spark has worked with brands such as IBM, Microsoft, HP, and Indycar Racing. He’s reported on the tech scene for more than 18 years in more than 40 media outlets, and is the author of “THREE FEET FROM SEVEN FIGURES: One-on-One Engagement Techniques to Qualify More Leads at Trade Shows” available at ThreeFeetBook.com.

Ryan Williams specializes in internal communications, research, and leadership development. He has a passion for servant leadership and shares the positive impact it can have on the lives of employees and organizational performance. His experience has involved strategy development, service improvements, communication audits, change management, and employee engagement. He facilitates planning, designs research, constructs effective questions, communicates results, and produces action. Ryan has won five International Association of Business Communicators’ (IABC) Gold Quill Awards and was recognized by the International Public Relations Institute (IPR) with the Golden Ruler Award of Excellence for Measurement in 2004 for his work with the Alberta Medical Association. Ryan earned his Masters of Arts in Leadership from Trinity Western University in 2007, and has a Bachelor of Arts in Recreation Administration with a major in Community Development from The University of Alberta.

Links for this episode:

• Henry Blodget’s 14 things you’ll want to know about the future of media
• 10 ways companies are annoying us…and don’t even know it
• Does internal communication need to keep proving its value?
• How a Brazilian media company managed its digital transformation
• The greatest distraction on earth: the intractable draw of the celebrity presenter at Dreamforce
• Salesforce is everywhere: What does it do again?

Links for Dan York’s Tech Report

• Snapchat is separating social from media
• Introducing the new Snapchat
• Snapchat Remakes Itself, Splitting the Social From the Media
• Twitter Lite in the Google Play Store in 24 more countries
• Twitter Lite for with lower data usage becomes available in 24 new countries
• Mozilla’s 2016 annual report

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is director of Internal 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