your organization right you know who
they are they’re the ones who are always
talking they’re the ones who are always
talking about messaging the messages you
want to get out and sometimes the
messages you want to stay in and in my
career as a communications person I’ve
come to find out a secret and I think
here today with you it’s a good time to
share the secret you don’t have to have
communications in your title you don’t
have to be the chief communications
officer or the communications director
or the communications associate or be in
that division to be a communicator in
fact each of you each of us is a
communicator if the enterprise has tens
of thousands of people globally or if
the family just has a few around the
table we all are communications people
and so today while we talk and while we
visit I’d like to deputize each of you
to think of yourselves as a
communications person and today as we
speak about communications about the art
and the science that go into it I’d like
us to think very hard about the need to
retool and how why today is a very good
time in human history for communications
people that’s me
that’s you to rethink the way we
communicate because communications
people anywhere whether they’re at the
corporate level whether they’re
activists whether they’re doing
something for the good of a country a
people or a good of a community they’re
the culture makers and right now there’s
a debate going on around the world who
are we as a culture what is the culture
that we as the people and throughout
history want to leave for our
grandchildren and for the next
generations
well communications people it’s time
that we take stock of what we’re doing
and how we’re doing it that is an honest
moment for me as a professional who has
the title in my business card but I hope
it’s a chance for us to think about how
we all do it it’s people now
communications people love to talk about
the fact that everything has changed
it’s in our DNA
in what we love to post and what we’d
love to publish we love the fact that we
live in an era where it seems like
everything is new there are new rules
there are people talking about new power
there are people talking about the way
the transportation technology the way
that ideas are changing everything in
the world around us we love to talk
about the fact that everything has
changed but are we ready for the
question about what hasn’t let me tell
you a story about how indeed some things
have changed I’m gonna tell you a story
about this thing this was my television
set growing up in Pasadena California ah
I loved this thing and on Saturday
mornings and I can tell that many of you
probably recognize a machine like this
but on my Saturday mornings I was able
to go up in front of this machine the
seemingly magical thing and I’ve had 13
choices of things that could happen unto
me that dial represented 13 things that
could happen 13 potential moments that
could happen to me now I don’t need to
tell you what not that many years later
happens when I bring home a television
to my house that looks like this what is
it that my young daughter barely over
two years old does when I take this
machine out of the box in my living room
she walks up to it and she goes like
this she swipes that machine
instinctively I didn’t give her a lesson
it didn’t come with the instructions but
my daughter she was swiping that machine
and she wasn’t looking for 13 things to
happen to her she was looking at
infinite possibilities around the world
and she was going to direct technology
to do something to feed her
internationally at a global level you
could almost see this happening what a
change because things have changed in
technology for a communicator means that
our palate is so much bigger the
spectrum that we can use in terms of
tools and tactics has gotten that much
more exciting so technology has changed
how we communicate it’s people it means
that we live in an era where our reality
includes virtual reality
intelligencia today are talking about
artificial intelligence palette is
amazing today as technology grows and
allows us as communicators to grow our
art and our science there’s exciting
things to be had when you realize that
these people young people spend
according to a study that came out in
2013 22 hours a day within a reach of
their mobile phone so for a communicator
that’s exciting 22 hours a day someone
is within a reach of a mechanism that I
as a communicator can use to push out or
to engage but as I say this to you I’m
sure you’re seeing that there is a down
side that means that for 22 hours a day
this person is linked or maybe locked to
something that is making it exciting for
me as a communicator it’s making this
person more connected is it making this
person more human because a similar
study that came out later revealed that
80% of people in their bed we will now
talk about what happens in their bed 80%
of people when they wake up in the
morning grab that mobile phone first
thing the first thing they do is that
you are we becoming a people today where
even before we stretch we stream even
before in the morning when we wake
before we pray we post is it happening
that in our beds before we touch we text
connectivity is amazing from a
communication standpoint it’s making us
more connected is it making us more
human these are the questions that as a
communicator and someone who’s thrilled
by the chance to talk about what’s
brighter better and more exciting the
taller the building the more exciting
the message we as communications people
love to discuss those skylines that look
only toward the future in just a few
years the world in fact will convene in
this city in 2020 the world will come
together and Dubai and indeed the
conversation there will be about the
future communicators like me will be
drawn
to those examples of what’s bringing us
together through technology what’s a
round the corner that’s great
but it’s a very good time to ask very
hard questions about what we communicate
because in a world of social media where
a majority of people now have access to
the Internet and where a majority of
those people use social media every day
what we communicate is determining our
culture or do we have a chance to take
that back and set the rules so that
we’re sharing a culture that matters to
us technology is a wonderful metaphor
it’s a beautiful messenger but it’s
human beings that make up the message in
fact maybe it’s time in this era of
connectivity in an era where technology
the digital era maybe that’s the best
time for us to be asking the questions
maybe we’ve got it wrong
maybe the communications people in
focusing so much on what’s new on what’s
now and what’s next maybe we need
someone to remind us that we also need
to be looking back I’m gonna share with
you three stories three examples of
three things that I consider masterworks
that have humbled me recently that have
taught me how I as a communicator need
to do better and perhaps that we since
we’re all communicators need to be
looking a little bit back and a little
bit more beyond I’m gonna share with you
the story about how a tomb in a painting
and a doodle reminded me that I need to
ask hard questions about what I’m doing
as a communicator in the digital era a
tomb taught me how to look back a tomb
here in this beautiful country of India
I’ll never forget the chance that I had
to first visit who Mayans tomb in Delhi
a UNESCO World Heritage Site I passed
through the two archways that lead you
up to the tomb and I was with a friend
and as we came into that site and saw
the beautiful work had been recently
renovated renovated through a
partnership a partnership involving the
on trust for culture the u.s.
ambassadors fund for preservation and of
course the local officials in the city
of Delhi so we walked up into this
beautiful site the person with me said
now who built that again and we talked
about the fact that was built by a
loving wife in memory of her husband the
emperor Humayun Wow he said she had
something to say and indeed cultural
patrimony things like this things 450
years old that are all around us and in
this beautiful culture there’s a rich
culture where there’s examples on every
corner a tomb has a message for us in an
era of terabytes because a tomb helps
remind us about what has it changed
devotion love faith and indeed the
partnerships that happen around these
cultural icons these monuments the
partnerships that are built around them
tell us stories about what’s happening
today about how people of multiple
faiths multiple backgrounds different
origins can come together in partnership
to preserve something whether or not it
reflects their background and tombs or
monuments these cultural icons will help
remind us where we’ve come from we live
in an era where we can talk about a tomb
today better with more technology with
more facility than ever before are we as
communicators looking back so that we
can talk about where we want to go a
painting helped remind me that we need
to look beyond you’ll notice that the
tomb the painting and indeed the doodle
these are not things that you turn on or
off they don’t have a switch they’re not
Bluetooth enabled but a painting
reminded me that in the digital era we
as communicators have a responsibility
the painting that taught me about this
lives in the beautiful dome end ashanti
II in France just about an hour or so
outside of Paris and inside the Chateau
this beautiful beautiful place inside of
an important collection in fact one of
the most important collections and all
in France is a painting that was the
subject
of an exhibition just a few months ago I
went to the exhibition hoping that it
would teach me about France hoping that
I would learn more about the artist and
appreciate more about this collection
but I left fundamentally changed as a
communications professional because of
the painting that was at the heart of
the exhibition the exhibition was all
about the massacre of the innocence
this is that gut wrenching moment when
for those of you who remember from the
Bible
King Herod ordered the extermination of
many children under the age of two now
this is a theme that is oftentimes used
by artists and indeed during the Baroque
period many artists use this theme many
artists throughout history have followed
with it this particular work is by
Nicolas Poussin and this masterwork from
the Baroque has within it incredible
amounts of emotion in fact the curators
of the exhibit help direct you to that
emotion in a very smart way and the ads
in the Paris métro leading up to the
exhibition featured this part of the
painting probably the most harrowing
part of the painting where you see the
grief and the anguish on the face of
this person I asked myself why would
they use this and publicizing the
exhibition I’m gonna go learn about an
artist I’m gonna logo learn about
Poussin I’m gonna go learn about the
massacre of the innocents will indeed by
the time I left this exhibition the
curators were helping me ask questions
connecting this subject matter to the
subject matter of today to the plight of
refugees around the world to how the
thematic of the massacre of the
innocence and how artists around the
world indeed photographers indeed people
who are chronicling what’s going on
around us or those modern or
contemporary artists who are asking
questions are looking beyond the canvas
to help us ask questions about our
current day they’re reminding us that
things that might have seemed
unfathomable back then are happening yet
today so I in an exhibition about
painting came out thinking about the
millions of people
the worlds were forced to live there
leave their home walking into an
exhibition trying to learn something
more about art and appreciate art
history I left wanting to make sure that
my voice was heard about the young
people who make up over half of the
refugees today what a powerful
communications lesson that had nothing
to do about something to click or
something to share but indeed it changed
me and the way I think about what we’re
communicating today about how we need to
look beyond we live in a high-tech world
and yet there are low-tech examples that
are high-impact
are we as communications people you as
your own broadcast network with your own
following and audience and influence are
you looking at the cultural patrimony
the history and making those connections
about what’s happened today in your
health the education of your community
and the well-being of our society I had
to ask myself am i doing enough or as I
am a communicator so wrapped up in the
tack I’m forgetting to think about the
issues final example of this low-tech
example of something that taught me
something important about communication
happened in this very city happened in
Bangalore the first time when I was here
what a dynamic place a place where
technology is alive and you live it and
where culture and heritage is alive and
you live it well the first time I came
to Bangalore I arrived I arrived on a
Sunday and I have the opportunity to go
to church well I thought I had the
address right I thought I understood
Bangalore traffic which I will never
understand and I found myself in the
church an entire hour early now this
could be historic in my own family
because I don’t think anyone in our
family has ever been early to church but
I was there an hour early and the only
other people in the church building were
a family of three a mother a father and
a small girl
well I’m an extrovert I like to meet
people I’d like to talk and I was in
India so I was very excited to connect
with these people but there was no
language in common
between us I did not speak the language
that the family spoke they did not speak
any English and so there we were for an
hour
a family of three and a lot of me in one
room well something happened a very
smart mother employed what you might
have heard of it’s called the doodle
that’s not the doodle you’re thinking of
it’s this one
taking out a small piece of paper but I
carry with me in my wallet
every day I received a masterclass in
communication from a young girl that
lives somewhere in this beautiful
country who was in Bangalore for the
first time and found herself caught
trapped in a room with me until church
started well let me tell you what the
girl did she would walk over with her
mother she would draw something on this
piece of paper one element let’s say the
house and then she would walk over to me
she would show me the house and that she
would point to her heart it was
important for her that that happened at
every turn and then she’d walk back with
her mother and she’d help her draw the
tree or maybe the road with the cars on
it and that she’d come over to me and
she’d point to her heart she would
almost make a motion that was like a hug
and she’d go back to her mother it was
important for her that in between each
of these moments of drawing she showed a
motion she showed me the action for
praying she pointed to her family and
she showed her heart this moment
involved no connectivity it involved no
technology it involved no Auto
translation tool but this young girl
reminded me that in an era of high tech
communications we might be forgetting
the most important the most transcendent
things of all are we talking about
family and faith and feeling are we
talking about those things which maybe
don’t have the most reach
in terms of social media but have the
most relevance in terms of our humanity
are we talking about those things on our
tools are we embracing a conversation
where we can share them or we shying
away from them to only talk about the
shiny things a little girl in Bangalore
has reminded me that in this era of high
tech we as communicators have a
responsibility to think about these
things to talk about them or else they
won’t be part of our modern culture
where we’ve been how we look beyond
what’s happening and how we feel that is
the palette communicators can be using
and what’s at stake is huge the health
of our planet is at stake
we live in an era an exciting era where
the nations of the world have come
together the United Nations has come
together and we’re all working toward
global goals we have goals that lead us
to a 2030 where if we can follow and and
find the right targets and if we can
really pursue these paths that are
innovative that involve technology that
involve people coming together we can
live in a planet that is healthier where
there is not poverty where there’s
opportunity for girls and women to go to
school where there’s opportunity for
people to be born in a healthy
environment where we can have access to
water and sanitation where people can
live together peacefully that’s a lot at
stake for you communicator that’s a lot
at stake for you the person who in your
hand has a powerful tool of
communication you have social profiles
you have mobile phones you have internet
connections you have the ability to
drive those conversations it’s time for
us as communicators to be excited and
energized by the technology around us
and as digital age communicators we need
to look back we need to look beyond we
need to make connections about what’s
happening today we need to embrace the
cultural patrimony that’s around us and
share it we need to look inside of us
and talk about feelings talk about our
family
talk in respectful ways about our faith
we as communicators we as people who
embrace communications as a tool for
change we should be talking not just
about platforms but about pluralism
about the fact that we can come together
and not just tolerate differences among
us but embrace them for the betterment
of mankind we after all are the ones who
can have an impact on culture this is
about not just better connectivity but
we as communications professionals and
people have the chance to be making a
better livelihood for all thank you [Applause]