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| Soundings |
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| Making some noise about Gong | Issue 16 | October 2018 |
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| Gongs for Gong |
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| STOP PRESS: Gong has been shortlisted in the PRCA Awards for Employee Engagement for its work on the Dive In Festival for Diversity and Inclusion in Insurance. |
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| We are also shortlisted in the Marketing Week Awards for Diversity & Inclusion Champion for the same client, the Lloyd’s Insurance market. |
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| Greentech Challenge |
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| For two days in June, the Copenhagen-based GreenTech Challenge opened its doors in London to the latest cohort of 12 carefully selected environmentally focused businesses to help them meet their dream potential investors. |
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The event is the brainchild of three Danes who share a vision for a greener and more sustainable world.
Gong was one of the firms mentoring entrepreneurs on how to build profile that supports their business ambition, from attracting the right investors to landing the right messages with potential clients. From sustainable sanitary products to floating sea bins that clear up plastic, the event culminated in an investor evening where they had the chance to pitch to some of the most notable sustainable business investors. The challenge is due back in London next year, watch this space! |
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| Sustainable Supply Chains |
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| On 7th June, Gong moderated a discussion at X Supply Chains at an event organised by ‘The Crowd.’ The event focused on transformative technology innovations, such as robotics, automation and AI which are helping shape a future in which supply chains are more digital, connected and transparent. |
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| Among all of the focus on tech, our session explored the crucial role of stakeholder engagement for supply chain transformation. Speakers on the main stage who anchored the event before the round table discussions included BT’s Head of Sustainability & Governance and the President of Interface carpet tiles for EMEA who inspired us to check out their carbon negative carpet tiles as part of our planned office refurb (proving categorically that you can make sales from conference platforms). |
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| Culture Club |
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| We’re on a roll with Culture. In May we asked the question, ‘Does the organisation have the culture it needs to achieve its business objectives?’ |
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We captured the thoughts of our diverse panel in the short film here which features author John Grant, Kevin May of Seattle based Sticks Company and Dineshi Ramesh from Board Intelligence. Yvonne Smyth, Hays D&I lead provided valuable insight into what workers want from their annual survey of the same name.
In September we revisited the subject to focus on CultureTech and the different ways in which technology is helping to measure culture and predict behaviour. In a fascinating panel, chaired by the FT’s Work & Careers Editor Helen Barrett, we heard from a potential corporate user, (giffgaff) a VC (Anthemis) a leading edge supplier (Culturescope) and a content expert (Paddle). Read our event report here.
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| CSR – Refugee Support and Holy’s |
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| Positive conservation stories in the news are regrettably rare, so when we heard about the Uganda Conservation Foundation’s role in contributing to the recovery of the 1,500 square mile Murchison National Park, it got our attention. |
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@UgandaCF aims to conserve and protect Uganda’s parks and wildlife alongside developing skills and building partnerships with surrounding communities to support sustainable livelihoods.
As part of a pro bono project, we helped design and build a new website for the Foundation – it wasn’t too much of a chore to source pictures of baby pangolins, lions and elephants!
Check out the new website and learn about the brilliant work UCF get up to here.
Meanwhile for another of our charitable giving projects, three of our London team raised £1400 for Gong's sponsored charity Holy's Home for Children by completing the Rough Runner obstacle challenge in September. You can watch them falling, diving, and crawling to earn their cash here! |
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| Investing with Impact in South Africa |
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| Launched in 2011 to address education infrastructure development and support the provision of affordable education, OMAI’s Schools and Education Investment Impact Fund is the first and largest education impact fund in South Africa. |
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We have supported the business to strategically roll out a bank of video assets on LinkedIn and demonstrate the advancements made so far. To date it has allocated R1.4bn (USD 104 million), providing access to quality schooling for 18,000 learners in 34 schools across the country and employing around 1,000 teachers.
To see how impact investing enables greater access to schooling and transforms the lives and career prospects of South Africa’s youth, make sure to visit the campaign page. |
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| Spotlight on Media Training |
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| Broadcast interviews can be intimidating, whether you’re fresh off the blocks or a seasoned pro, and all it takes sometimes is a well-placed question to send you into a bit of spin. |
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To ensure you make the most of every media opportunity, here are some simple top-tips from media training 101 to keep you cool, calm and nailing your narrative!
- Speak slowly and clearly. Leave pauses in between sentences. This is especially important on radio.
- Relax! Shoulders down, breathe deeply and don’t fidget
- Show your passion and enthusiasm. Smile!
- Keep eye contact with your interviewer and don’t interrupt them or fellow panellists
- Make sure you ‘land’ your 3 messages, even if the interview doesn’t invite you to speak about them directly
- If you don’t know the answer or don’t want to answer, there is the ‘ABC’ technique = Acknowledge the question, Bridge to a topic you are comfortable with, Continue with one of your key messages. For example:
- ‘I don’t know that off the top of my head, but I can tell you that…
- ‘That’s an interesting question, but I think the most important thing is…
- ‘Before we can tackle that, we first need to…
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| IFT Chicago event |
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| In July, we joined Olam Cocoa at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting and Food Expo, in Chicago. Beyond the endless snacks - there were no complaints from one satiated Gonger - the ingredient and food innovations on show were eye opening, clearly responding to fast moving consumer demands, for example non-dairy, plant-based proteins. |
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Highlighting their premium cocoa powder, deZaan D11R, Olam Cocoa offered a non-dairy, iced mocha beverage that masked the bitter flavour notes typical of plant-based protein formulations, unlike many other samples tested, (purely for market research reasons of course!).
It wasn’t just the flavour of the ingredients that took centre stage, but also their provenance with traceability a key topic for discussion among delegates. Now more than ever, we are concerned not just with how something tastes, but how it was grown, sourced and processed. With innovations like Olam’s AtSource showcased, agriculture companies are able to guarantee not just quality, but sustainability too. |
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Africa 7s Champions, the LIONESSES celebrate championship win
at Garden City |
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| Meanwhile in Nairobi, the popular Garden City Mall hosted Kenya’s National Women’s Rugby Team [The Lionesses] to celebrate their recent championship win at the Africa Rugby Women’s Sevens Cup that was held in Gaborone, Botswana in May. |
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The reigning Africa Rugby Sevens Champions had a chance to interact with 60 school girls from Ruiru, Tatu, Githunguri and Ngewe Primary Schools in Ruiru at the Garden City central park, running a mini training program to encourage them to play rugby.
In the spirit of the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Cup that were held in San Francisco, the players practised with the school girls - some of whom are aspiring to be professional rugby players. Basic rugby skills included kicking a ball, passing and receiving a ball and defending a ball from an opponent, among other training drills.
The Kenyan Lionesses hold the 2018 crown for the Africa Women's Sevens, the continental championship for women's international rugby sevens in Africa. |
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| ‘Best for the World’ B Corp list announced: Join us |
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| In May, B Corp, the international ‘business as a force for good’ movement (that includes Danone and Patagonia) announced its ‘Best for the World’ honorees. |
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| To be listed in the ‘Best For The World: Workers’ category, certified B Corp companies must score highly for how they treat their people through compensation, benefits, training and ownership opportunities. The category also focuses on the overall work environment within the company by assessing management/worker communication, job flexibility, corporate culture, and worker health and safety practices. Gong Communications is one of just 12 UK B Corps who made it into the ‘workers’ category. So with that in mind, check our vacancies page to see if working at Gong is something you’d like to hear more about. |
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