Digitization means a profound transformation of organizations. It’s more than just supporting existing processes with digital tools – the task is much more about completely reshaping processes. Communications departments have a dual role to play here: On the one hand, they are expected to accompany the transformation process of the entire organization. On the other hand, they must ask themselves what position they will occupy in the future and how their value contribution to the company will change. For the heads of communications departments, this means a major challenge: They have to actively shape the change, take their departments along with them, and are themselves just beginning to grasp the paradigm shift. We want to accompany communicators in this “sensemaking” through exchange and first practical examples.

The cluster meets every third Monday of the month from 17:00 to 18:00 for a virtual ideas workshop. Each session begins with a short, practical keynote speech. The first meeting is on March 18, 2024.

The goal of the cluster is to quickly and effectively achieve concrete results on current issues around tech, tools and trends. This is intended to give PR practitioners more clarity in the thicket of challenges of modern communication in a simple and direct way. Especially the question about the possibilities of AI are on everyone’s lips since the launch of ChatGPT and the integration of the tool into the Microsoft search Bing and the browser Edge. Interest in the artificial intelligence initiative is correspondingly high. For this reason, this was again somewhat “drilled out” and an additional subgroup was formed. The cluster meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month from 17:00 – 18:00.

The stakeholder journey describes how the complex relationship between a company and its stakeholders can develop – if communication measures are planned skillfully in the digital space. The goal must be to increasingly activate the stakeholder over time as part of communication campaigns. Initially, it is about making the stakeholder aware of a position or product. But the journey continues and after “attention” come the stages of “interest”, “impact” and “connection”. Content management systems, which are becoming increasingly important in the day-to-day work of communications departments, do not yet adequately map the stakeholder journey process. The experts in the Stakeholder Journey topic cluster want to change that. Using Scompler – one of the leading editorial systems or content command centers – as an example, the team develops a practical structure for the Scompler software. The aim is to optimize communication campaigns along the stakeholder journey.

“You can’t control what you don’t measure.” This insight is as old as it is banal. However, the vast majority of communication departments today are not able to collect and process the available data in such a way that it can be used for two essential tasks:

1. Measuring success, i.e. tracking what successes the communications work has delivered in the past. These measurements are mainly used to argue internally that the communications department is doing a good ob.
2. Far more important is the use of data to optimize communications work. This involves using data from the (recent) past to learn for future communications work.

The impact measurement cluster is working on solutions for these two tasks in order to provide colleagues with the most practical assistance possible.

Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast What good is the best technology if nobody uses it? What good is data without insight? How do we ensure that data is not seen as a foreign body, but as an integral part of any communication strategy and daily work? How do I create a glow in the eyes instead of the shock of numbers? All of this and what it means for roles, skills and leadership will be examined from various angles in our group. The following focus groups are currently at the start:

• Checklists for setting up Commtech with Jacqueline
• Data Culture / Commtech Culture with Annette