In a post on his new blog More with Les (there, you see? I’m not the only one new to blogging), well-known International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) guru Les Potter, ABC talks about the importance of professional association membership to a career in communication/PR. I would add that there are reasons it’s extremely important to those of us in communications who are entrepreneurs.
I too belong to IABC as well as a local networking group, the Halton-Peel Communications Association (HPCA). They are important to me because as an entrepreneur, I spend lots of time in my own company. Generally, this is fine. There is nothing like a deadline to focus and occupy the mind, so I tend to work without being distracted (except occasionally by other people’s blogs and the treasure hunts they can lead to!). But sometimes I need to get out of my home office and meet and talk to people.
IABC has two “special interest groups” that speak directly to me. One brings together fellow independents (at one time called the Alliance of Independent Practitioners, now Professional Independent Communicators) and the other, IABC/Toronto Westend, is a mix of communicators who are connected by geography — we all live or work (or both) outside the downtown Toronto core.
What makes networking with these groups especially fun is that I have been very involved in them. With both HPCA and PIC, I’ve been on their boards, produced a newsletter, helped organize meetings and more. The Westend group is much less structured, but I’m also involved in organizing social outings, maintaining a contact list and circulating information to the group. As one of the organizers, I know the names of everyone, so instead of going to an event feeling that I won’t know anyone there, I go in looking forward to putting faces to names. It’s one more good reason, added to all of the ones Les listed, to get involved in professional associations.
