the simplypodcast

comms across continents #1Rachel Kaplowitz, CEO Honey Intranetsimplycommunicate's first ever comms across continents podcast features Rachel Kaplowitz, Founder and CEO of Honey Intranet.Rachel started the company in 2014 almost by accident, realising there was a lot of potential in creating an employee experience which can ease the burden and pressure on the employee through offering digital solutions that makes life easier.Hear from Rachel around how to connect with a workforce through a comms plan that puts people first, her predictions for future trends in digital comms, and those ‘a ha’ moments where they make a real difference for their clients.

comms across continents #2For our second episode of comms across continents we meet Céline Schillinger, Founder and CEO of We Need Social.Céline has worked across three continents during her career, including in countries such as China and Vietnam. She has worked in a wide range of roles, including in the comms, HR and commercial operations spaces, and has worked within a range of industries, including spending 18 years at pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.Listen to the episode to hear more about Céline's experiences, the nuances in comms in different countries, and whether the email is truly dead.

Sam Bleazard is the Employee Communication and Engagement lead at Fortnum & Mason, best known for their decadent hampers and extraordinary food. He has been part of the Fortnum & Mason team for almost a year and has almost two decades of experience in the internal comms space.Previously, Sam has worked in internal comms roles across many different industries, working for companies such as Royal Mail Group, the Cabinet Office, Unilever, John Lewis, and Liang O’Rourke.Listen to the episode to find out more about Sam's experiences in internal comms, why he started his podcast Comms from the Shed, and what skills the modern communicator needs to have for a career in internal comms.

Larraine is Chief Strategy and Operations Advisor at New Statesman Media Group, as well as Founder and Managing Director at Inspiring Conversations, an independent consultancy for internal comms.Larraine has spent over two decades in the comms space, and has worked with clients in many different sectors, including Thomson Reuters, Global Ventures, Monster, and FTI Consulting. Her specialisms include global comms strategy, leadership communications, culture change programmes, HR and strategy development, employee engagement, business coaching, and intranet deployment.Listen to the podcast to find out more about her work with New Statesman, her take on some of the challenges businesses are facing at the moment with hybrid working, and how the hybrid and digital working age has changed how internal comms professionals are interacting with the C-suite.

For this month's episode of comms across continents, we meet Steve and Cindy Crescenzo, founders of Crescenzo Communications.Both Steve and Cindy have been in the comms space for over 20 years, and work with IC professionals to take the 'corporate' out of corporate communications and replace it with 'creative.' They have delivered their own talks and workshops across Europe, Canada, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, and have completed consultancy projects with companies in a broad range of industries worldwide.Listen to this episode to find out more about why they set up Crescenzo Communications, some of their experiences working with teams across the globe, and some tips and tricks to ensuring campaigns land well.

As part of our Women in Comms series, we caught up with our Head of Consulting at simply, Sonya Poonian.Sonya has been part of the simply team since April, and has previously worked in various roles, including as Chief of Staff at BT and EE. We spoke to Sonya about her experience working at the nexus of the comms and tech space, what got her interested in digital transformation, some of the challenges she’s seen businesses face as a consultant and what some of her learnings were from her time as Chief of Staff.Listen to the full episode to find out more!

Ritu Mohanka is EMEA Managing Director at Syndio, a tech company that helps companies measure, achieve, and sustain workplace equity to find out more on the topic of equity. Ritu joined the Syndio team in April 2022, and prior to this has worked for companies including as the EMEA VP of Strategy & Business Development for LinkedIn, and Senior VP in Europe for IBM Smarter Workforce.Listen to the full episode below to find out more about her experiences, what equity is and how it comes together with DE&I, some overall trends and more.

As part of our Women in Comms series, we caught up with Advita Patel and Carly CookCarly is a creative communications practitioner specialising in bringing brands to life to elevate the employee experience. With a decade of experience advising and leading not-for-profit communications and creative teams, her background in the arts, events and operational management underpins her strategy and outputs, allowing her to seamlessly move between sectors to execute excellence.Advita is the Managing Director of CommsRebel, an internal communication and employee experience consultancy based in Manchester, U.K., the co-founder of A Leader Like Me, a global membership programme which helps underrepresented women of colour succeed further in their career and a co-host of an award-winning podcast called CalmEdgedRebels.Listen to the full episode to find out more about their experiences, some of the challenges they face as consultants in the comms space, and some advice they have for future comms professionals.