Happy New Year to you all! I hope 2010 has got off to a great start and you're excited about the year ahead.

Whatever you're working on at the moment, one area communicators won't be able to avoid this year is change. So, how hot are your change communication skills right now?

Colin Archer, head of people communications and community at the global information services company Experian, says in his profile on the Internal Comms Hub that one of his biggest change challenges is "bringing about culture change to a diverse and disparate organization in the midst of a global recession. Keeping people feeling like they still belong and more importantly, ensuring that they want to belong."

Take a look to find out more about how Archer is tackling this challenge, including how he's started a "Back to Basics" campaign to better connect employees with their senior leaders so everyone has a better understanding of who does what and why.

If you're looking to improve your change communication skills in order to tackle the inevitable change that'll be heading your way in some shape or form over the next 12 months, why not book a place on our Delivering Successful Change Communication conference that's taking place in March?

Colin Archer is one of the speakers, along with communication function heads from British Airways, Aviva and the Post Office, among others. Topics include communicating in tough times, winning internal buy-in for a new brand and engaging employees in transforming a buiness from loss to profit.

The two days will be action packed and with lots of senior internal communicators already signed up, can you afford to miss it?

Until next time,

P.S. This year the format for the change conference is different. With one day of case-study presentations from organizations like British Airways and E.ON, and the second day dedicated to workshops, you can attend just the conference day or both the conference and the workshops. The early bird discount runs until 31st January, and demand will be high, so secure your spot today!

Editor's Choice

Profile: Colin Archer Colin Archer, the Internal Comms Hub Like many companies, Experian recently faced the challenge of cost reductions in the workforce as a result of the economic downturn. Colin Archer, head of people communications and community, describes how his team managed messaging around the redundancies in a way that caused little disruption to engagement levels. Read more...

The internal communicator: The must have for 2010 James Bennett, the Melcrum Blog It's a new decade and a time for a new perspective, so what does 2010 hold for communicators? Read more...

Change communication no-nos Adrian Cropley, the Internal Comms Hub "We realized that the way the project was handled was like using napalm to kill a household fly!" says Adrian Cropley, of a particularly over-zealous change communication program. Don't go overboard with change communications, he warns. Read more...

Protecting confidentiality at Ericsson Helena Norrman, the Internal Comms Hub In this extract from Melcrum's recent report, "Delivering successful change communication", discover how the telecoms organization structures its communication cascade with precision timing to avoid confidentiality errors. Read more...