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April 2010
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An IABC ticket to fly
The conference, Flying through your Communication Career, was the brainchild of The International Association of Business Communicators Trinidad & Tobago Chapter (IABC T&T), the primary body for communication professionals in the country. Jointly hosted by The UWI and IABC, and free to final-year UWI Communication Students, the Conference was held on April 9 at the Institute for Critical Thinking, St Augustine Campus. “We wanted to host a joint, one-day workshop with UWI and have seasoned professionals share their experience and expertise in the field. It wasn’t long ago that we too were anxious about acing an interview, finding a job and starting a career. This conference is about paying it forward,” says Nicole Duke-Westfield, a former journalist, and current President of IABC T&T. Speakers at the morning session included UWI Lecturer Dr Tia Cooper, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, Prof. Funso Aiyejina, and senior business communicator Maria Rivas Mc Millan. Feature speakers included musician and theatre producer, Wendell Manwarren, who spoke on the importance of the arts to communicators, Human Resource Manager, Rachel Furlonge-Walker, who gave advice on resume writing for communicators and Managing Director Amanda Jardine who shared information on professionalism and imaging in the work place. “The conference was divided into two sessions,” explained Judette Coward-Puglisi, founding President of IABC T&T and who along with Anna Walcott-Hardy chaired the event. “We offered practical, let’s-make-you-shine at your interview advice in the morning.” At the speed communications session students asked numerous questions and gained insight into recruitment opportunities and real world experiences from experts in a broad range of professions: from theatre production to journalism, corporate communications to publishing and art direction. The presenters included Mariel Brown, Laura Dowrich, Dale Enoch, Nadine Johnson, Georgia Popplewell, Richard Rawlins, Maria Rivas Mc Millan and Margaret Walcott. The feedback from students after the conference was overwhelmingly positive as they looked towards the upcoming events in the three-tiered UWI/IABC programme, which includes university seminars and an IABC student scholarship programme. For more information please visit: http://tinyurl.com/http-www-facebook-com-IABCTT or write to: IABC T&T in c/o Mango Media Limited, 55 Dundonald Street, Port of Spain; or call 868-625-0176.
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On the cusp of sitting final exams and sending out scores of resumes and employment letters, close to 100 students in the Communications Studies programme at the Faculty of Humanities and Education, UWI, St Augustine, benefited from a one-day conference aimed at preparing them for careers in communications, journalism, advertising, media, public relations, entrepreneurship and more.
