Good news: I’ll take care of the FAO Emergency web activities

This week I have a very good news!

I’m  going to take care of the FAO Emergency Division website together with the related social media and the internet communication.

This is a very important news!

And now let’s  start working on the open issues.

First question is: how many people do browse the website and who are they?

Social Reporting during the FAO Conference

After the very positive event in Dakar for the FSCA-PISA Workshop on ComDev, it is now time for a new experiment of Social Reporting.

This time it’s happening during the 37th FAO Conference which is taking place this week at FAO in Rome.

It is the first official experiment of this kind for FAO and I think it is going to be a very interesting experience for the organization. It is important to offer the house a perception of what social reporting could be during such an event.

We chose a very light approach with few people in the Team (mainly @faonews, @permreps_unrome and myself @neoluk) and a list of selected events during the week to follow and tweet about.

Follow @neoluk

Organizing the FSCA-PISA Training Workshop on ComDev

One of my main tasks in this period is the organization of a training workshop on Communication for Development from 11 to 15 April 2011 in Dakar, Senegal. This training is a direct outcome to the recommendations of the FSCA-PISA project team during the latest Regional Workshops.

We consider this event being fundamental for the progress of the project: it aims at enhancing the communication skills of project staff and key stakeholders, and at strengthening the linkages among the various FSCA projects and harmonizing communication approaches. The workshop also aims at addressing the specific training needs expressed by the individual projects.

Our first worry was to design a highly participative workshop, where trainees are asked to contribute with their own experiences, know-how and visual material from their own projects. These will constitute the basis for interactive sessions during which all participants convene around themes of common interest, prepare case studies, share successes, approaches and lessons learned through tools such as World café, Open Space, Chat Shows and other modern km techniques.

Each project is asked to propose a team of maximum 7 participants among whom we suggest representatives of Ministries of Agriculture, involved in the activities, members of farmer based organizations, partners and the communication consultants. The selection process is fundamental because these people play a crucial role in the management of the projects. A focal point will be designated to coordinate the participation of the whole country team.While waiting for April to come, we don’t want to loose time. So, the training will consist of two distinct phases: a pre-workshop distance learning step and the proper 5 days face-to-face workshop:

Phase I -  The distance learning step must be completed in advance. It basically consists of a data collection exercise about the projects and about the participants themselves. Our team of facilitators will soon contact them individually and guide them through the process. This phase will help in solving part of the problems due to distance and differences of the 7 countries involved in the FSCA-PISA activities. The more data and objects related to the activities will be collected the better. They will be used to give the other Teams the feeling and the sense of what each project is like.

Phase II – Face to face workshop will be held over a 5 day period in Banjul, Gambia. In addition to the theoretical presentations, there will be practical, participatory labs for communication tools such as web, video, photography, rural radio and mobile telephony. The training sessions will run in parallel for both English and French groups.

The Cynefin framework

Thanks to IFAD and @rsamii we had a very interesting morning yesterday meeting Dave Snowden for a lecture on his Cynefin framework.

Dave talked for more than one hour and I was overwhelmed by an incredible flow of inputs, suggestions, questions and doubts. These kind of moments are fundamental for professionals like me who have to afford the complexity Dave is describing in his approach.

To be able to “probe, sense and respond” we must be always open and willing to look for and receive new inputs from outside.

@snowded said: “We must create new architecture where applications work”. To do that our brain must be always stimulated and fight the risk of being stuck on our desks, behind our monitors, locked in our rooms.

World Press Photo 2011

Bibi Aisha is 18 years old and her face was terribly devastated: her picture won the World Press Photo 2011.

Visit the Winners’ Gallery.

Where can I find a good excel template to produce GANTT?

Write an answer on Quora: Where can I find a good excel template to produce GANTT?

The 2010 FRI’s scriptwriting competition winner is…

Alice Bafiala Mutombo, an independent radio journalist from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My congratulations!

She won first prize in an Africa-wide scriptwriting competition on healthy communities organized by FRI.

After the selection of a long and interesting list of 68 proposals, here is the complete list of winners in alphabetical order by country is:

• Kpénahi Traoré, Burkina Faso – Composting human waste is a healthy way to reduce disease and feed the soil
• Alice Bafiala Mutombo, Democratic Republic of the Congo – A clean village for a healthy life
• Gabriel Adukpo, Ghana – A family fights malnutrition with local leafy vegetables
• Simon Mukali, Kenya – Talking to teens about unsafe sex
• Charles Kemboi, Kenya – Empowerment saves youth from drug abuse
• Lawrence Wakdet, Nigeria – Occupational and nutritional therapy for people living with HIV and AIDS
• Oluwakemi Aduroja, Nigeria – Empowering communities with participatory community enumeration
• Ugonma Cokey, Nigeria – Florence saves girls from human trafficking
• Bonaventure N’Coué Mawuvi, Togo – Collecting plastic waste: Cleaning the city and generating income
• Filius Chalo Jere, Zambia – AIDS support program gives positive people a new lease on life

More details on the FRI scritpwriting website.

Ten tips to improve your presentations

Engaging people during a meeting is one of the most difficult tasks a professional can face.

While listening to a recent presentation, I put together some suggestions:

1. Content is fundamental BUT the way to present it is at least as important as content
2. VARY THE WAY to present your content to the audience. Do NOT adopt common methods but use a different style. The surprise will “shake” the audience and attract the attention, provoking emotions: this is the reason why, NOWADAYS, my suggestion is NOT to use .ppt presentations. They have been abused and, as a consequence, not able to stimulate reactions any more as the audience is TOO used to them
3. AVOID the term PRESENTATION: it is always better “to meet people”, “to dialogue with them”, “to discuss about a certain topic” rather than to PRESENT them something, giving a clear one-way direction to the meeting
4. Your VOICE is fundamental. The TONE and the VOLUME are key elements to engage with people in front of you
5. Use IMAGES and CARDS as they can help to provoke emotions and reactions in the people listening to your speech
6. Start speech with the CORE of your message, to capture the attention of the audience, and THEN provide more details and explanation of specific aspects
7. DO NOT SIT behind you laptop during the presentation. Stand up and walk around the room. You need to add dynamism to the situation. If you have ten people sitting around a table, standing there for 1 hour or more, they need continuous stimulation to maintain their attention vivid and to the point. Otherwise you will loose their attention
8. KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) Principle has to be always in your mind. Even if you like to talk, try to be as short as possible and keep your talking to the point (be sure with previous assessment and questions about what the exact point is)
9. PREPARE EVERYTHING WELL IN ADVANCE and be sure that everything works in front of the audience at the right time. Otherwise you will offer a bad idea since the beginning
10. Make your audience LAUGH. It always works

Note: if you see people yawning or leaving the room in advance, it is a clear sign that you have to go quickly to either the point or the conclusion of the speech!