Webinar: Innovating those dreaded “Annual Reports”

And before we know it, we’re almost at the end of yet another year…

While most people are looking forward for a season filled with jingle bells, carols, presents and new year’s fireworks, many professional communicators have a different perspective: the end of the year marks the start of yet another dreaded process of preparing the organisation’s annual report…

But.. there is a light at the end of the tunnel: We are convinced there are ways to improve the data-collection process, and to present annual reports in more exciting ways than just a boring .PDF version of that same printed copy!

Once again, we’ll bring you an exciting webinar (or digital summit), co-organized by GLF (Global Landscapes Forum) and GFAR (Global Forum for Agricultural Research and Innovation). We’ve assembled an exciting speakers’ panel, who’ll share their tips and tricks on how to make innovative annual reports.

So, join us!

Our webinar “Innovative Annual Reports” (co-organized by GFAR and GLF)

Date: Wednesday December 6th – at 14:00 Rome time
Duration: 2 hours
(Use this tool to help you convert “Rome time” to your timezone)

We will give ample opportunity for all webinar participants to join into the discussion, either to share their own experiences, hints and tricks, or to ask questions to the speakers, or to the entire group.

This webinar is co-organized by GLF and GFAR. It is part of the GLF Digital Summits series.

Our speakers:

Stefanie Neno joined the The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in 2014 as Public Awareness Coordinator and became Communications Manager in January 2016. She supervises the Center’s corporate and strategic communications, story development, media outreach, events, web presence (website, blog, and social media), and design and publications areas.
Stefanie has worked in communications related to sustainable development for the past 15 years. She received a Master’s degree in Environmental Economics in 2002 and subsequently trained in strategic communications, outreach and policy influencing.
Prior to joining CIAT, she worked as Communications Manager for the Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and for UN-Water (2011-2013), as Networking and Communication Officer for the World Water Assessment Program of UNESCO (2007-2011), Project Officer at the World Water Council (2005-2007), and Research Assistant at the French Institute of Research for Development and at the Tunisian Institute for Arid Regions (2002-2003).

Joan Apio has a 10 year experience working with African Universities to strategically position themselves through turning scientific research into simple yet compelling communication products. Joan has worked as the Program Officer, Communication, Publicity and Marketing at the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a network of 85 universities in 35 African countries. She has engaged with stakeholders to design and implementation of Communication Strategies.
Joan is passionate about the use of social media for achieving impact in the agriculture and business sector. She has trained over 275 young people and is the founder of KAVIBE, a communications company that focuses on training and mentoring young people to be better communicators. She supports entrepreneurs and organizations in their communication needs.

Samuel Stacey is a digital marketing and communication consultant, specializing in websites, campaigns, social media and content creation. He’s currently Interim Communications Manager at the CGIAR System Organization, and has served as their Online Media Coordinator since 2014. Over the past 4 years, he has been involved in several interactive Annual Report projects, taking print versions and rapidly deploying fully featured, interactive, single-page websites.
Originally from Brisbane, Australia, he is now based in Lima, Peru, where he enjoys surfing, eating ceviche and exploring South America. He holds a Masters of Organizational Communication and a Bachelor of New Media Communication from the University of Queensland.

Jennifer Johnson is the Communications Officer for the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, where she works to develop innovative web content and annual reports to highlight the work being done by MAIZE and CIMMYT staff around the world. She began working at CIMMYT as a Junior Communications Consultant in 2014, and has been working with MAIZE since 2015.
Jennifer has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from American University in Washington D.C. and a certificate in Spanish Translation. She is originally from Frederick, Maryland in the United States. In her spare time she enjoys reading, cooking, traveling and exploring her adopted home, Mexico City.

Jemima Mandapati is a Senior Communication Officer at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India. She worked as a journalist in the Indian media for over a decade. At ICRISAT she started off as a Science Writer/Editor in 2014, working on annual reports, the newsletter and other publications besides taking on reporting assignments.
Jemima has a Master’s degree in Mass Communication and Journalism. She began her career with Deccan Chronicle, a newspaper based in Hyderabad, her hometown, and went on to work as Chief Copy Editor for the metro supplement of The Times of India. She loves gardening, reading and traveling.

Fiona Chandler is a communication champion who works in the agricultural development environment to mobilize communities and partnerships. After spending nearly 20 years working in communication, fund raising and organizational development for agricultural research for development organizations, Fiona knows what drives conversions, builds partnership, fosters communities—and it’s not just blasting your messages out. It’s how well you connect with the people you’re engaged with and nurture mutual collaboration.
Fiona has worked with both the doers and donors in international agricultural research and development including the CGIAR, GFAR and CSIRO.
Fiona holds a Bachelor Applied Science and a Masters in Environmental Management and Development.

Our moderator:

Peter Casier is an online media consultant working for various nonprofit organisations. Peter is originally trained as a printing engineer (hence the top picture), worked as a software developer, systems & networking engineer, telecoms technician, aidworker, disaster responder and ski instructor. Peter currently is the resident GFAR Community Coordinator and a GLF online media consultant. He also makes sculptures out of drift wood and hates working on annual reports.

Register now!

You can register for this webinar by sending a simple email to Peter Casier – p.casier(at)cgiar.org

Please mention the title of the webinar you want to participate in, your name, affiliation (organisation/institute) and function.

We will send you a confirmation email. You will get a reminder with the technical details to join the webinar, one day before the event.

Register fast! Our webinars are limited to 100 participants and the available “seats” are often taken in a matter of days. We encourage participants to actively engage in our webinars with feedback, questions, and sharing of their own experiences.

About the GFAR webinars

We, at GFAR strongly believe in the power of communications to bring – with our partners – our common messages to the public, and to network within our own communities and with our stake holders. That’s why we continuously support trainings, workshops and webinars on communications.

While the webinars are organised by GFAR, they are collaboratively built with the speakers, often presenting the work of GFAR partners. As such, the webinars are by themselves a proof how we catalyze between our partner organizations -and others- to work together towards shared GFAR goals. If your organisation is not a GFAR partner yet, join now!

Attendance to our webinars is open to GFAR partners as well as other nonprofit organisations or individuals working in the area of agriculture, ecosystems and sustainable development. Our webinars are mostly attended by scientists, students, communications staff as well as a wide variety of agricultural practitioners.

We do not ask for a participation fee, but we like all participants to actively engage into the online discussion during the webinar.

The webinars are moderated via BlueJeans, an online tool running within any internet browser. It only requires participants to have a good and reliable Internet connection and a computer/tablet running any browser.

Topics of our past GFAR communications webinars include:
A webinar on webinars
The art and science of webcasting and webstreaming
Showcasing “Communications Success Stories”
“Participatory communications and uptake communications”
“Participatory video”
“Email based newsletters”
The challenge of internal communications
“Building a bridge between scientists and communicators”
“An introduction to social media”
“How to read updates from hundreds of websites, easily”
“How to define and measure your social media performance”
“How to find and use pictures for your websites”
“Basic Search Engine Optimization”
“The Art of Website Revamps”
“The Crystal Ball: Predicting the future of online media”
“Farm Radio, Community Radio and Participatory Radio”

Top picture courtesy Willi Heidelbach (via Wikipedia)