IABC joins with Royal Roads University to create a weeklong accreditation program for senior professionals.

New accelerated ABC seminar offers leadership challenge

In this fast-paced world, where "re-tweets" are becoming more commonplace than retreats, it is essential to make a personal commitment to lifelong learning, meeting career goals, and taking time to balance our professional and personal lives. IABC'S new Executive Accreditation Seminar is just such an opportunity. Scheduled for 21-26 March 2010, the seminar will allow you to focus on the Accredited Business Communicator (ABC) process and exam in a single week, and to develop your communication leadership abilities in one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations.

The seminar was developed by IABC and the accreditation council with Royal Roads University, a public university whose curriculum is designed for working professionals. The accreditation council immediately saw the benefits of condensing the existing accreditation program into the weeklong seminar, giving senior professionals an additional opportunity to deepen their professional knowledge, build contacts across disciplinary and industry lines, and pursue their goal of measuring their work against a global standard.

The particular value of the Executive Accreditation Seminar is that it combines the oral and written exams and portfolio development and evaluation in one week, with sessions led by experienced ABC instructors and Royal Roads faculty. What's more, it gives communicators a chance to step back from the hurry-up world and recharge their batteries at Royal Roads, located on one of Canada's most beautiful and peaceful academic sites, just outside Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island. The seminar will take place on the former estate of one of British Columbia's most historically influential families, the Dunsmuirs. Located on the coast amid some 250 acres of forest, and with a turn-of-the-century Edwardian castle at its center, the campus is an extraordinary place to learn.

The seminar will feature a communication leadership challenge, and will benefit from Royal Roads' expertise in executive education and graduate-level communication education. Royal Roads was an early leader in online education, and features a blended cohort model--a learning-community approach to education that combines on-campus and online study--so that adult students can pursue graduate studies while remaining at their jobs, with their families, and in their lives.

Over the years, IABC has recognized significant interest from senior professionals seeking an accreditation program better suited to their business experience and schedules than the traditional ABC approach. The accreditation council has been committed to maintaining IABC's global standard of accreditation, so it has introduced this format to ensure that the program is in tune with participants who believe in the process of strategic communication and recognize its contribution to an organization's success.

The Executive Accreditation Seminar is aimed at senior-level practitioners who want to take on more significant leadership roles within their organizations and meet the needs of a changing workplace.

"Royal Roads, with its commitment to adult-oriented pedagogy, applied and professional learning, and innovative curricula is a place of experiment in university education," says David Black, Ph.D., an associate professor in the School of Communication and Culture, and a liaison to the seminar. "Our relationship with IABC is precisely what RRU was created to do. We welcome this chance to work with a communications organization so dedicated to the welfare of its members."

Learn more about the program at www.iabc.com/abc.