For readers of this blog who think all I do is lament the lack of appreciation for the print medium as a useful way to communicate with employees, here's your summer reading for this year. I thought it would be fun to dig up material I developed for my big pre-conference session at the 2006 IABC International Conference in Vancouver. Entitled "Communication Cookout: Everything I Know About Communication, I Learned From My Barbecue," it was the third-highest rated session at the four-day conference, behind industry luminaries Shel Holtz and Steve Crescenzo.
Leading up to the session, I used the IABC conference blog to workshop the material for the three-hour session, which, as the title implies, used outdoor cooking as a metaphor for communications. It was the moment in my career when my passions for barbecue and communication would collide, with tasty and entertaining results. Here's the menu:
- Grilled Asparagus with Roasted Garlic and Chipotle Mayo
- Grilled Quesadillas with Smoked Gouda and Jack Cheese with Fresh Rosemary and Granny Smith Apples
- Cedar-Planked Salmon with Whisky-Maple Glaze
- Classic Barbecued Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Tidewater Coleslaw
- Grilled Rack of Lamb with Balsamic Reduction
- Mission Hill Planked Pears with Rhubarb Compote and Icewine Reduction
It sounds like lot of food, but the portions were fairly small. With every course I served up some thoughts about organizational communication, using the food and how it’s cooked to represent the concepts presented. There was no PowerPoint show — just me and the food, and about five cases of superb B.C. wine.
In the following posts I’ll reprise my original material from the conference blog. Stay tuned.
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