Why the Future of IABC May Be Less Stage and More Circle

What happens when a conference has no keynote, no formal agenda, and no single expert at the front of the room?  

The new IABC International Chair calls this an “unconference” model. And it’s one glimpse of how professional associations can evolve: by creating space for communicators to learn directly from one another. 

Also in this episode – why community, credibility, and connection matter more than ever in a profession being reshaped by AI, shrinking budgets, and rising expectation, the changing role of communicators in the age of AI, and why earned media, credible third-party sources, FAQs, and even the press release may be gaining new relevance in AI search. 

Listen For

4:13 Why was the ABC Designation Considered Tougher than the SCMP?

5:34 How is AI Making Earned Media and Press Releases Valuable Again?

8:09 Why Should Communicators Bring FAQ Pages Back for AI Search?

9:56 Why are Chief Communications Officers Gaining a Stronger Seat at the C-Suite Table?

17:11 How Is IABC Rethinking Chapters With Community Models and Unconferences?

Guest: Richard Kies, Incoming IABC International Chair

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Transcript

Lady Emily (00:00):

Imagine a conference where no one takes the stage. No keynote is delivered and the most important voice in the room belongs to everyone. That's the idea behind the unconference and maybe a glimpse into the next dimension of IABC.

Doug Downs (00:18):

There's a conference room somewhere in your home city. No keynote speaker walks to the stage. In fact, there is no stage in the room. No panelists sit beneath branded lights. No agenda appears on a screen. No one checks the time waiting for the real session to begin. And yet inside this room, a hundred communicators have gathered. At first, it feels like something is missing. The familiar signals are gone. No expert at the front, no slide deck to follow, no carefully timed applause. Just chairs, conversations, questions, and a room full of people who have all been asked to do more with less, protect trust in uncertain times and somehow make sense of a world now being rewritten by AI and then something unusual happens. The answers don't come from the stage. They come from beside you, from across the table, from someone in another country, another sector, another kind of organization facing the same problem in a slightly different disguise.

(01:27):

A communicator from one city shares what worked. Another explains what failed. Someone else names the thing everyone has been feeling, but no one has said out loud and slowly the room begins to realize the speaker was never missing. The room was the speaker. It's called an unconference, no keynotes, no formal program just facilitated peer-to-peer learning. Richard Keys mentions this as one example of how IABC is rethinking professional connection, especially after the disruption of COVID and the rise of online everything. It's not the whole story in this episode, but it's a powerful symbol of where the association may be heading toward more community, more peer learning and more value that can't be downloaded from a screen. And that same idea runs through the rest of the conversation. Richard talks about AI and storytelling, the surprising return of earned media and the press release, why FAQ's incredible third party sources matter more than ever and why communicators may finally be earning that long discussed seat at the executive table.

(02:34):

He also talks about the Gold Quill Awards, Global IABC membership, the challenges facing associations and the value of face-to-face conversations with people who understand the work. Today on Stories and Strategies, we enter a room with no stage, no script, and no single voice of authority. Not quite the Twilight Zone, but certainly another dimension.

(03:14):

My name is Doug Downs. My guest this week is Richard Kies, the new IABC International Chair. Richard, how are you?

Richard Kies (03:19):

I'm very well. Thank you.

Doug Downs (03:20):

Now you're from Western Canada like me. You're from Regina now, Saskatoon previous.

Richard Kies (03:25):

Actually the other one- Another

Doug Downs (03:26):

Way around.

Richard Kies (03:27):

Regina originally born and raised, but I've been living in Saskatoon since 2012.

Doug Downs (03:31):

And I live, I would say in Canada's Rocky Mountains, but I live in Calgary because it sounds so much simpler. Welcome to Toronto. I grew up here.

Richard Kies (03:38):

Thank you.

Doug Downs (03:38):

You've been here a million times. I've

Richard Kies (03:39):

Been here a few times.

Doug Downs (03:40):

Yeah.

Richard Kies (03:41):

Yeah.

Doug Downs (03:41):

Have you checked anything out while you're here?

Richard Kies (03:43):

Not too much. It's been a pretty packed trip, so I had a lot of time, but I have spent some time here before. I was here. My wife and I were here a couple years ago to see Green Day at the Sky-Dome. At the what dome? I'm not familiar with that. Whatever that is. What is that? Yeah, it's still Skydone to me. Rogers Place. Yeah, exactly. Sorry, Rogers. But yeah, we've had a chance to tour around and do some of the touristy stuff, take the ferry out to Toronto, Center Island, things like that. Yeah, we've done that stuff. It was great. Yeah.

Doug Downs (04:13):

So Richard, you're a 30-year member with IABC. As you mentioned, Regina and Saskatoon, you're an SCMP and an ABC.

Richard Kies (04:22):

Yeah. So that's old school for the IABC members that have been around kind of pre 2010.

Doug Downs (04:27):

Gold standard

Richard Kies (04:29):

Back

Doug Downs (04:29):

In the

Richard Kies (04:29):

Day. And I will tell you that anybody that has the two designations will say that the ABC was much harder to get because it had-

Doug Downs (04:38):

It was arduous.

Richard Kies (04:39):

It was arduous. The process was essay questions and multiple choice and a 30 minute oral exam that they would spring on you, pull you out, give you a scenario, then you had to write a plan, present it orally, and then go back to the exam room to finish the rest of the ABC exam.

Doug Downs (04:57):

I've written my SCMP past it probably by one

Richard Kies (05:01):

Question. I

Doug Downs (05:02):

Have no idea.

Richard Kies (05:02):

Yeah, I don't know what the password was.

Doug Downs (05:04):

That was hard, man.

Richard Kies (05:05):

Yeah, it wasn't easy, but ABC was tough too.

Doug Downs (05:08):

How's the conference going for you?

Richard Kies (05:10):

It's been fabulous. Just great. There's a great buzz here. This is a great attendance. This is more attention than we've had the last couple of years. We were in Vancouver previously in Chicago before that. We were here in 2023, which was kind of a high watermark in the recent past in terms of conferences, but we're close to that attendance here and I've heard nothing but really good comments and feedback on the session so far.

Doug Downs (05:34):

There was a session you were telling me about that really stood out to you. It was about AI and storytelling. What leaped out to you from that?

Richard Kies (05:41):

Yeah, so that was a great session this morning. It was actually a panel discussion. And so it's been interesting because AI of course is a big topic of conversation with communicators around the world. But what I've seen, and it was reflected this morning, is a bit of a shift in the narrative, if you want to call that around the discussion of AI and the impact. So I would say a couple of years ago there was a talk at a conference like this and a lot of it was about AI is going to take your job as a communicator. What we're actually seeing now that AI is a little bit more in practice is yes, there's some tasks that AI does faster, more efficiently, maybe a bit of the grunt work if you want to call it that. But what's the real story that came out today is that things like earned media, which basically that's the work of public relations, getting stories placed in media, that is highly, highly valued by the AI algorithms.

(06:40):

So actually we were joking kind of before we started, the press release is back. It's

Doug Downs (06:45):

Back, baby.

Richard Kies (06:46):

It's back, baby, like Joe Castano would say because that type of content, when it's leading to earned media or kind of in the AI world like third party endorsement, that's very valuable content. And so AI or sorry, SEO is now migrated to AEO, right? So artificial or

Doug Downs (07:10):

GEO,

Richard Kies (07:10):

Whatever. But whatever acronym you want to use, that new AI generated search content really values earned media. And that is one of the things that's actually placing communicators kind of at that proverbial seat at the table that's again been discussed for as long as I've been an IABC member in this profession, we've always talked about wanting that seat at the table and it seems like maybe that AI is helping us get there.

Doug Downs (07:38):

So ultimately we want, it's not third party endorsement. It's a respected voice typically through a URL that has put our URL into their content. The role for the communicator is ultimately going to be who are those respected URLs? Because I would suggest mainstream media right now, yes, it still counts. It still has some punch in weight, but more and more and more the mainstream media is not becoming that source. It's the niche media that's

Richard Kies (08:09):

Starting. That's right. Yeah. So whatever source of media it is, that seems to be a favorite type of content that AI really values and elevates. The other thing that was interesting is apparently FAQs, which is kind of an old school thing that a lot of people have posted on their website and some people have taken it down because it seems kind of out of date. Well, apparently the algorithms really like that too. Why wouldn't

Doug Downs (08:30):

They?

Richard Kies (08:30):

So put that back up. If you're taking your FAQ page down on your website, put it back up and see what happens, I guess.

Doug Downs (08:37):

I have a thing at the bottom of our website. It says, Hey AI, and you click on it and it's just an FAQ, but describe us this way.

Richard Kies (08:45):

Well, that's another interesting thing. And I will not take credit for this because it was one of these speakers on the panel today and I don't want to get the name wrong so I'm not going to sort of guess who it was, but one of the speakers said, treat AI like an audience, talk to it like an audience because it has that ability to learn and you can challenge it and you can craft messaging for AI as an audience the same way you would create messages for any other type of audience, almost like a stakeholder. And that's another way that you can engage AI in a communication function that's kind of meaningful and then it actually will help you to achieve some of your objectives that you're working towards.

Doug Downs (09:26):

Universally, the people that I've been speaking to are so energized to be here. Part of that is seeing old friends. You would get that at any conference, right? Absolutely. Any of the member associations, your colleagues that are in the trenches sort of with you and you get to get together every year. But what are you hearing from folks, not just seeing old friends, but about the content that's here and about the role itself. Where are the wins of change blowing the rule from what you're reading?

Richard Kies (09:56):

So again, it seems to be a little bit of a shift positively that I'm hearing and kind of seeing. I had the opportunity yesterday to moderate kind of a fireside chat with Megan Noel, who's a chief communication officer. Watch

Doug Downs (10:09):

That

Richard Kies (10:11):

In the US and that whole CCO role now is getting that C-suite seat at the table, which there seems to be more of a recognition that communications is a strategic function. It's not just a support function. It's not just there to pump out the press releases or write the brochures or update the website because things around trust and reputation, those are critical business objectives now that have real impact on the bottom line, especially if it's, I guess whether it is a publicly traded company, if it's a government department, if it's a nonprofit, if you lose your reputation or you lose public trust and whatever mission or mandate that you have, that's devastating to your organization. So you need that communication expertise to be at the table with the executives making those strategic calls. And it seems like there's a recognition that seasoned professionals at a CCO position or level are being trusted and valued more and more these days at many organizations.

Doug Downs (11:22):

One of the recognized measurements within IABC is the Gold Quill Awards. I've got multiple pieces to this question, so I may ask them one at a time.

Lady Emily (11:32):

Sure.

Doug Downs (11:34):

How are you seeing the awards submissions and have they changed? How are they different? To say they're more digital in composition, obviously for the last 10 years or so, but how are you seeing them change?

Richard Kies (11:47):

So we've actually seen a fairly good uptake and uptick in terms of the number of entries, which is great. That's great to see and from around the world, not just North American centric. We've seen lots of entries from Asia, from Africa, from Asia Pacific area. So it seems like that recognition, it's not just the recognition too. And anybody who's gone through an award submission knows you learn a lot through the process. Even if you don't get the award, the feedback you get from the judges is absolutely worth its weight in gold. Also, as a volunteer, if you get the chance to judge a category and you get to see maybe half a dozen entries in whatever category you're assigned to. Yeah. The learning that you get as a judge and evaluator is priceless. So there also seems to be that recognition from both the entrance side and the judging side that this is a really good exercise.

(12:47):

You see the best of the best. And it's amazing to see best practices from different parts of the world learn from other communicators. And I think that's a big part of IABC's strength as a global association is that sharing. I mean, we have people from so many different geographies, different industries, different roles, but yet there's a commonality in the work of communications and it does a cut across ... Personally, I've spent most of my career in the charitable and nonprofit sector, but I can have conversations with people who do corporate communications or government or whatever industry it is. And we have commonality because we have the same issues and challenges, maybe just in a slightly different format

Doug Downs (13:37):

IABC. Membership organizations, as they always have been, are in a mildly competitive battle to draw more members to the organization. How is IABC doing? Where are geographic centers of

Richard Kies (13:55):

Focus,

Doug Downs (13:57):

All that stuff?

Richard Kies (13:57):

Yeah. It's a competitive landscape for sure.

Doug Downs (14:01):

And not everyone's a member of an association.

Richard Kies (14:03):

No, no. And I would say I obviously can't speak for every association, but a lot of them are facing challenges in terms of declining memberships. We've had our challenges with that as well. A lot of that was probably precipitated out of COVID because when everything kind of shut down, you think about an association that relies on a conference, regional events, local events, and you had no ability to get together in person. Obviously, like most other organizations, you pivot to virtual and again, coming out of COVID, it's now more of a hybrid. So you have virtual events, you have in- person events. But one of the challenges is people can get a lot of what they want in terms of whether it's professional development or education and whatnot. They can get it at home from their home office or the comfort of their couch through online resources.

(15:08):

They don't necessarily have to join an association, get involved. But what they miss out on is that opportunity to connect, create a community, learn and get exposed to different ideas and different people from different parts of the country or the world.

Doug Downs (15:26):

I mean, it's an internet world. I suppose at some point, yes, the information is there. I've never engaged with online as I have with in- person.

Richard Kies (15:38):

Right. There's great resources and it's great to connect with people across geographies through video chat and Zoom and Teams and whatnot, but the value of getting face-to-face with people is just a different level of engagement and connection. And I think like a lot of associations kind of struggled coming out of COVID with that because you lost that sometimes and you've got a younger generation coming into the workplace, sometimes they don't know what they don't know because they don't- Fair enough. ... because they never actually even had the opportunity to do that pre- COVID. And

Doug Downs (16:11):

There's a cost. I get that.

Richard Kies (16:13):

It's

Doug Downs (16:13):

Like a dollar a day

Richard Kies (16:14):

Basically. Yeah. So affordability and cost is an issue. And again, we're not unique as an association for sure. The other associations are facing similar challenges. So that's another reality. I mean, we continue to be ... We have a really strong membership in Canada. We've had some challenges in the US, but they've I think have turned a corner and now we're starting to rebuild and we're now starting to see other pockets of growth. Australia in particular has always been a strong pot for IABC.

Doug Downs (16:42):

Azi, Aussie Aussie.

Richard Kies (16:43):

But to see some of the other parts of Asia, like I said, there's people here from New Zealand. There's people here from the Philippines. There were some gold quill award winners from the Philippines that were recognized. So some other pockets that are starting to grow and that African presence as well. Yeah, the

Doug Downs (17:00):

Emina region.

Richard Kies (17:01):

Yeah. Europe is really taken out. One of the really- So

Doug Downs (17:04):

Eminem story

Richard Kies (17:05):

For

Doug Downs (17:05):

Folks that are not part of IABC. EMENA, meaning European, Middle East, North Africa. Right.

Richard Kies (17:11):

That's correct. Okay. That's what the acronym means. Nailed it. Yeah. And what's really interesting there is what they have seen gaining traction is ... So IABC has sort of had this traditional kind of local chapter model. So you have a local chapter with the president and some governance and you do local events. Well, we've actually coming out of COVID and some restructuring the last couple of years have created kind of a different way to connect as a community locally. So it doesn't require all of the governance structure, which can be a real challenge. Again, getting people to volunteer these days is also a challenge. Volunteer engagement is tough in this environment. People are really busy. There's lots of demands. So what has worked really well in Europe especially is the community model where they're able to engage as a community of communicators without having to create an administrative structure around it.

(18:06):

So cities like Berlin, Brussels, Warsaw have seen great engagement around this sort of community model where they can just get together. Sometimes it's just a pay as you go model. So it might be a lunch, it might be a cocktail after work, get together, whatever it is. The other thing that's starting to work really well in Europe- It's

Doug Downs (18:29):

Like you're dating the

Richard Kies (18:29):

Association. Kind of like that. You're

Doug Downs (18:31):

Not in a committed

Richard Kies (18:32):

Relationship. Yeah. You get to dip your toe into make the big commitment. That's right. The other model that's worked well so well in Europe, they're now bringing it over to the US is they've been very successful with a conference model that they sort of have dubbed the unconference. So it's a conference with no speakers, no keynotes, no agenda. It's just- Networking? Networking, it's discussions. It's a hundred communicators in a room in a facilitated discussion so they can get ... And the real value comes from the peer-to-peer or the group learning and that's worked so well in Europe. They're actually planning an unconference event in Washington DC in October.

Doug Downs (19:17):

Okay. What about here? I mean, that is a decentralized model of communication that I love. And I have to ask, is IABC looking at that, of course there's mentorship, there has to be in an association, but that whole decentralized,

Richard Kies (19:31):

I'm here

Doug Downs (19:31):

For the networking, that's gorgeous.

Richard Kies (19:33):

Yeah. And so I can speak to you in Canada, IABC, we sort of have two separate regions, East, which is Ontario East, and

Lady Emily (19:43):

Then

Richard Kies (19:43):

The Western region, which is everything west of Ontario. What has happened is those two regions are collaborating quite a bit on leadership development, on volunteer engagement. And they actually had a Canada conference in Ottawa last fall. So that was a Pan-Canadian conference. The Western region of Canada had a longstanding biannual conference that was quite successful. And so the two regions collaborated last year to bring a Pan-Canadian conference back. It's been a long, long time since there was a IABC Canada conference, but they had it in Ottawa the last October, very successful.

Doug Downs (20:21):

Fantastic. Wherever you live in this world, there is an IABC chapter at least relatively near you that you can belong to. That's the key part of this is that IABC is for you if you work as a business

Richard Kies (20:34):

Communicator. And if you are in a remote geography that you're not that close to a chapter, you can be a member at large and still be engaged and we'll reach out to you and make sure that you're involved from a regional level wherever you are.

Doug Downs (20:47):

It's fantastic to meet you and I really appreciate your time today.

Richard Kies (20:51):

Thanks, Doug. I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you. It's been lovely.

Doug Downs (20:57):

All right. If you're chatting with someone later today and there's a chance to say, "Hey, I heard on this podcast today, here are three ideas for things you could bring up." Number one, the room is the speaker. Richard's unconference example shows the future of associations may be less about experts on stage and more about peer-to-peer learning, shared experience and community. Number two, the press release is back, baby. AI search appears to reward credible third party sources, earned media and clear information architecture, which means classic PR work may be newly valuable. And number three, trust gets the seat at the table. Communications is moving beyond support work because trust, reputation, and credibility are now strategic business issues leaders just can't ignore. If you'd like to send a message to our guest, Richard Kies, we've got his contact information in the show notes. Stories and strategies is a production of Stories and Strategies Podcasts.

(21:53):

If you like this episode, leave us a rating, possibly a review. Thank you to producers, Emily Page and Jocelyn Floralde. And lastly, do us a favor forward this episode to one friend. Thanks for listening.