Inclusion: Let's talk current trends and gender

What is our role as professional communicators in supporting inclusion? How does our profession measure up? Introduced by Monique Zytnik and facilitated by Gloria Walker, this is a recording of an inclusion and gender focused webinar held on 29 October 2020 featuring Ann-Marie Blake, Alex Malouf and Ana Adi. Our panellists draw on their own personal experiences and recent research including the Women in PR eBook published by Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, which has contributions from many of our international IABC Members including Zora Artis, Mike Klein and Sia Papageorgiou. Our facilitator, Gloria Walker, is a highly experienced public relations and communications practitioner with both global in-house and consultancy experience. She has taught at universities in the US, UK and Thailand, has published in professional journals, and has given presentations at professional and academic conferences in the US, UK, Slovenia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Dubai and Turkey. Gloria is currently an adjunct professor in the MA Public Relations programme at the London College of Communication (UAL) and teaches undergraduate business and communications classes at the London campuses of Hult International Business School and Fordham University. She is a Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy and an active member of several professional associations including being the current treasurer of IABC’s EMENA Region board and member of the PRCA Council. Our first panellist, Ann-Marie Blake, is a communications consultant and leadership coach. She has a wealth of experience leading communicators and advising leaders in the world’s largest financial services organisations. Ann-Marie holds Chartered PR Practitioner status and sits on the International Executive Board for IABC. She is also a founder member of PRCA’s Race & Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB) that exists to create both immediate and long-term proportional racial equity within the PR and communications industry. Ann-Marie is based in London. Also with us is former IABC EMENA board member Alex Malouf, a marketing communications executive who has spent the last 17 years in the Middle East. Alex has lived across the region in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. He is the Corporate Communications Director for the Middle East and Africa at Schneider Electric. In his previous corporate communications role at Procter & Gamble, he was responsible for diversity and inclusion. Alex currently based in the United Arab Emirates. Our third panellist is Dr. Ana Adi, Professor of Public Relations and Corporate Communications at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. She is the Chair of the Digital Communication Awards, host of the Women in PR podcast and co-editor of the Women in PR ebook. When not writing about what communicators can learn from protests and social movements, she focuses on mid-term solutions for the professionalization and future-proofing of communicators. Thank you all for joining us! We hope you enjoy our podcast from our region. Follow us on Twitter: @iabceme and add your thoughts to this topic by using #iabc_inclusion.