Work/Business

Below you will find a selection of the most recent entries from bloggers in our Work/Business section.

To view the entries from individual bloggers, click on the links below:

Claire Doole - Claire Doole Communications

Claire is a former BBC correspondent and international spokeswoman who is passionate about helping people communicate with confidence. Since 2006, she has successfully trained hundreds of professionals in the art of presenting and public speaking, talking to the media, managing communications in a crisis, and writing for the web. In addition, she has coached C-level executives and public figures to give powerful TEDx and TED style talks in Europe and the Middle East. A Swiss and UK national, Claire trains and coaches in French and English.
Elizabeth Ballin - Life Coach

As a long time member of the international community in Geneva, Elizabeth Ballin has been coaching adults and students from all parts of the world. She has coached business professionals, musicians/artists, couples, families and adolescents. She is a fully accredited Life Coach by the International Coaching Federation. Elizabeth Ballin, Life Coach
Patrick Hoza - US Tax & Financial Services

Since 1990, Patrick has many years of experience with US individual expatriate taxation under his belt, including High Net Worth Individuals, streamline/voluntary disclosure filings and tax consulting, as well as working with large multinationals like Novartis, BP, Hewlett Packard and General Electric. He has extensive knowledge in serving both US expatriates and resident and non-resident aliens with their US tax-related issues. Patrick Hoza is a Tax Director at US Tax & Financial Services, with extensive experience in all aspects of Individual US tax and Expatriation, including Hight Net Worth Individuals and large multinationals.

Patrick started his career in 1990 in California, with Westpro Ltd., as a Senior Tax Consultant, then spent the middle part of his career working at KPMG and Ernst & Young. During his time with Ernst & Young, he worked and lived in Russia, France and finally Switzerland. He has gained a valuable working knowledge of the respective income tax regulations in all of these countries.

Patrick holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Colorado, is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and is a Certified Acceptance Agent.

Melitta Campbell - Business Coach
Business Coach and Mentor with nearly 3 decades of business experience and a passion for helping women confidently build a business they love. She is also the founder of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Club and president of the Swiss Riviera Toastmasters Club in Montreux. Originally from Wales, she now lives in Montreux in a chalet she has renovated with her husband overlooking the Swiss Alps.
Sunita Sehmi - Walk The Talk
Founder of Walk The Talk, Sunita has been training, developing and now coaching Business Communication skills in both companies and educational establishments for over twenty years. She has a passion for helping people to maximise their potential and created Walk The Talk with the sole aim to drive each and every client to perform their best.

Robert Harris- Forth Capital
With over 25 years experience working for some of the major financial institutions in the City of London, Robert is a founding partner of Forth Capital, the leading expat financial advisory company in Switzerland. Regulary quoted in newspaper articles and magazines, he is well placed to advise expats on a variety of financial issues that may arise during their time living in Switzerland.

Debbie Croft - Croft Coaching
As the founder of Croft Coaching, Debbie has a passion for helping people overcome challenges, embrace change and live life to the full; with an ethos of “work hard, play hard”.
Sarah Santacroce - Simplicity
A certified social media, internet marketing, and virtual event specialist, Sarah enjoys every aspect of small business marketing. Through her own business, Simplicity, it is her mission to help other small businesses and solopreneurs increase their visibility and use social media tools as part of their marketing strategy.

Diana Ritchie - SSC Sàrl
A Director at Swiss Career Connections, Diana will provide you with some useful tips for job hunting.

: Published: 26 October 2023

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By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

Last month I ran a communications workshop for a regular client on a remote German island in the Baltic Sea for environmentalists from Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

For many years I have taught them the art of drafting a press release – a useful skill for simple, clear and concise writing in general.

This year though a participant sprang a surprise. He and his group decided to ask Chat GPT to write the press release. Have a look here and see how they went about it.

The results of the press release experiment

You can see he asked the right questions in terms of newsworthy content and style – simple with a conversational tone for the quotes. The headline is good but the opening paragraph should start with the name of the NGO and is too wordy. In general, the text needed sharpening, the quotes were too lengthy and the inclusion of a list of points made it read more like a report than a press release. A release should flow smoothly and ideally not exceed 500 to 750 words.

: Published: 14 September 2023

@Dennis Bouman

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

After the summer break, we are now back in the world of webinars, hybrid and in-person events.

I am being asked to moderate panel discussions - sometimes four or five consecutively on the same day - each with far too many people to have a real discussion. And if they are discussions and not “panel presentations”, they are far too scripted, predictable, and tell the audience little if anything they didn’t already know.

Audiences tell me that most panels are pointless. I would agree unless they are well-moderated, audience-centric, and have the right speakers for the subject.

It was therefore a joy in June to see a wonderfully moderated panel discussion at the Better Cotton Conference in Amsterdam where I was the Master of Ceremonies.

Hats off to Antonie Fountain from the Voice Network and Ashlee Tuttleman from the Sustainable Trade Initiative for leading a dynamic and innovative session on sustainable livelihoods. Here is what they did so well:

Antonie showed that you can take a serious subject and make it engaging. Through great use of simple visuals (slides for example with one word on them) plus video clips from Monty Python and Indiana Jones, he gave us a captivating keynote about the lessons learned from the cocoa industry in building more sustainable livelihoods.

Into the audience for questions

@Dennis Bouman

He and Ashlee then kept up the pace and energy by running a 20-minute quiz on Mentimeter for the online and in-person audience in which they debunked five myths about sustainable livelihoods. They went into the audience and engaged with them about their answers.

Into the audience for questions

And then the “piece de resistance”. They asked the three winners of the quiz to come on stage for an impromptu panel discussion.
The panelists were great, proving that often the real knowledge lies with the audience!

: Published: 03 July 2023

Carlotta graphic illustrator 980x653

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

Many of us are visual learners and images definitely aid recall. So, it is surprising that not more event organisers engage graphic recordists.

They visually map conversations illuminating what is essential in real-time.

“People learn by looking and reading and they will remember things better if all of the senses are engaged”, says Carlotta Cataldi – who for the past 13 years has been bringing ideas alive visually at conferences and meetings.

Carlotta draws on paper, on what is called a knowledge wall, as well as digitally.

: Published: 10 May 2023

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

As soon as the sound failed in the opening video, I knew the conference would be rock and roll. Fortunately, I had insisted on an earpiece. I told the hastily assigned director to put the video volume up and he subsequently told me in my earpiece when the last-minute replacement for the opening speaker had entered the room. In fact, he arrived too late to start the conference. It was just as well that I had minutes beforehand lined up the second speaker to open it.

And that is how the day went, constantly adapting the programme when speakers didn’t turn up, physically changing the number of chairs on the stage before each session and repeatedly checking the number of available microphones and whether they worked.

In theory, acting as the Master of Ceremonies, (MC) is less work than moderating panel discussions, which takes a lot of preparation to do well. An MC’s job is to make sure the event goes smoothly, link the sessions and speakers and engage the audience.

But if there has been no technical rehearsal the day before, and the team is a team of experts in their field but not in organising events - a situation I often face - the MC can find themselves in charge of a salvage operation - papering over the editorial and logistical cracks on the day as best they can.

: Published: 02 March 2023

By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com

Most of the people I coach do not write their speeches. They rely on a speechwriter who either fails to capture their voice or delivers a text that has been written to be read, not spoken.

This makes it incredibly difficult to deliver in a natural and convincing way.

Most senior professionals (or leaders) prefer to speak from briefing notes with key points, as this allows them to convey these ideas in their own words.

But sometimes, they have to deliver a keynote speech in a formal setting and cannot go off script.

So how to do you get your points across but not sound scripted?