The Word - April 2006

Welcome to the sixth issue of The Word, which brings you the latest news from Word Association

SIGN UP FOR WORK/LIFE BALANCE CONFERENCE

Tired of trying to juggle all the stresses that work and life throw at you and your workforce? Find out how to reach the right balance at the national Work / Life Balance & Flexible Working Conference 2006.

As the first marketing consultancy to be awarded the national Work - Life Balance Standard, Word Association is hosting this Conference on Friday 7th April at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

It’s been specially designed for all public sector senior managers and human resources personnel who’ll gain a whole host of valuable advice from the experts on getting the work / life balance right. Find out more about working from home, creating more flexible working and motivating your workforce.

A top line-up of speakers includes Mark Thomas, Chief Executive of Word Association, Peter Thomson, Director of the Future Work Forum, Tony Wareing, Director of WiseWork and Jon Watkinson from London Borough of Lambeth Housing Association. Plus, Jill Mortimer from the Employers Organisation will be unveiling the findings of the national survey into flexible working within local authorities in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

To book your place at a cost of £95, click here or call 01455 614333.

HYGIENE WARRIORS LAUNCHED

With around 5.5 million people affected by food poisoning every year, Word Association has been working with Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council to promote a new website offering a feast of information on food safety and healthy eating.

An exciting new interactive games zone has just been launched specially for children on the award-winning nbbcfood.info website. Spud’s Zone aims to be fun, challenging and competitive with children encouraged to compete against each other on an interactive leaderboard.

The Word Association team used Spud, the website’s mascot, to launch the new children’s site at a special roadshow in Nuneaton’s Rope Walk shopping centre. During the launch, an innovative video wall advert promoted both the nbbcfood.info site and the new interactive games zone.

Spud also handed out food safety leaflets and entry forms for a children’s poster competition themed around the essential four Cs – cleaning, chilling, cooking and cross contamination.

Want to know more about how we can promote your organisation? Click here to email Julie Horwood or call her at Word Association on 01455 614333.

NEWS IN BRIEF

SHARING EXPERTISE
Word Association Chief Executive, Mark Thomas, has been sharing his expert knowledge with organisations UK-wide. During the past year, he’s been giving presentations at a variety of conferences and workshops. Having lead specialist sessions on dealing effectively with the media at the CIH’s ‘Communications in Housing’ seminar, he ran more general workshops for housing management staff at national conferences in York and Bournemouth.

Public sector human resources professionals learnt more about getting the work / life balance right at the Housing Quality Network event in London, while Mark discussed ‘Housing inspection – communicating results’ at the National Housing Federation’s specialist Communications and Marketing Conference 2006. As a result of his CIH sessions, the Centre for Sheltered Housing Studies has asked the CIH to run full day training courses on ‘Spread the Word – Effective Marketing for Today’s Sheltered Housing’. Three sessions have already been agreed in Leeds, Birmingham and London.

SPEAKING YOUR LANGUAGE
At Word Association we certainly speak your language. We can translate literature into any language quickly and accurately. For example, Moseley & District Housing Association’s Audit Commission survey highlighted the need to be more inclusive and so we stepped in and have been translating a variety of publications into community languages including Benagli and Urdu ever since. We also offer a range of other services to support inclusion including producing material in Braille and large print or on audio cassette.

Word Association is an award-winning full service public relations and marketing consultancy which works to change people's lives through the power of communication. The consultancy provides specialist communication advice and support for a wide range of both public sector organisations including councils, housing associations and regeneration initiatives, and private companies. Services include Advertising, Corporate Identity, Events, Exhibitions, Marketing Strategy, Media Relations, Publications, Research, Training and Website Development.