One of the biggest challenges and exciting opportunities I'm working on this year is the upcoming Leadership Institute for the Europe-Middle East Region of the International Association of Business Communicators (EMELI), which will take place in Amsterdam on 18-19 July.

Having attended a considerable number of events and conferences in my career, I've staked as a personal ambition a desire for EMELI to take participants out of their shells, comfort zones and assumptions and create an event that is transformative both for the participants and for the region. 

While most participants will be members and leaders within IABC in Europe and the Middle East, the experiential nature of the Institute and the focus on using IABC-EME as a live case example for developing communication strategies that combine traditional organisation-building with a focus on leveraging social communication networks and tools that will make the event valuable even for participants who are not active with IABC.

Because the focus of the Institute is on creating tangible outputs and outcomes, the cost of participation is kept to a minimum--with this year's fee being a princely EUR 85 for members and non-members alike. 
For more information, and to register, visit http://emeli2008.eventbrite.com