Autumn
2006 Training Course/Seminar Series
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Communications, External Relations And Financial Education
4-day intensive residential programme, 12 - 15 September
2006
Venue: King’s College, Cambridge University
Course Chairman: Lionel Price, Former Chief Economist, Fitch Ratings
& Bank of England
Series Adviser: Charles Goodhart, CBE, Professor Emeritus, London School
of Economics, Financial Markets Group
Details of how to register are here
COMMUNICATIONS, EXTERNAL RELATIONS AND FINANCIAL EDUCATION
This course aims to equip delegates to handle the exacting communication challenges that central banks and regulatory agencies face today. It is designed for those charged with the responsibility for external relations as well as press officers and aims to help them in the effective management of their organisation's communications policy.
Participants will learn to think strategically in order to manage the risks inherent in communication, and to create and maintain contingency plans for those emergencies which recent history has shown can materialise all too easily.
Participants will learn also how to communicate with a host of very different audiences. Each of these requires distinctive treatment. The wide range of audiences includes the financial markets, the press, governments, parliaments, the international community, television and the general public. All have radically differing information needs.
Participants will learn all the tricks of the trade in managing communications effectively.
To facilitate this, key elements of the 2006 programme follow a case study format.
Throughout the week delegates will split into small working groups to consider particular communications challenges and create strategies to address them.
Experienced facilitators will critique and challenge delegates work in order to equip delegates with practical real world approaches to critical challenges such as crisis communications, and dealing with troubled banks.
Educating the public about finance
In addition, the 2006 course will examine how central banks and supervisors should provide essential financial education to the public.
Central banks and regulators can encourage better decisions regarding savings and pensions. In many countries, they reach out to “unbanked” communities. But how to do this effectively? It is not so easy.
A key session this year examines how such “financial education” initiatives are in fact undertaken successfully.
Delegates will be able to compare their current strategy against those of other monetary and regulatory authorities, so as to create all the critical elements of a successful communications strategy.
The expert presenters will provide delegates with an unusual opportunity to draw on tried-and tested experiences of similar institutions around the world.
We look forward to welcoming you to King’s College, Cambridge.
Yours sincerely,
William Clarke,
CBE, PhD Chairman
Introduction
and roundtable workshop
led by
Lionel Price
Chairman
What are the key challenges facing
communications experts in central banks and regulatory agencies? What
issues are proving most difficult to communicate? How are new media
actors affecting the role and functions of the central bank office press
office? This session will call on delegates to identify and explore
the most pressing issues facing themselves and their institutions. Delegates
will benefit from each other’s expertise and experience in confronting
common problems.
Reaching diverse audiences
Elisabeth
Ardaillon-Poirier
Director of Communications,
European Central Bank
Central banks must meet high standards
for external communications if policy is to be effective. The Eurosystem
central banks operate in a multicultural environment with many different
cultures and languages. Above all, it is critically important to have
clear goals for communications function and to follow a proactive strategy.
This session examines how the European Central Bank has approached the
challenge of ensuring effective, coordinated explanation of Eurosystem
policy.
David Ruffley
British Member of Parliament
A crucial step in a successful strategy is to identify key audiences and become familiar with their specific needs. This keynote session examines relations with parliaments and the political realm. Independence requires central banks and most financial regulators to account for their actions to politicians, often in parliamentary committees. Central banks rely on political support for their legitimacy, especially in times of crisis. Relations with parliaments and politicians can suffer badly if communications are inappropriate or insensitive. How in fact can relations with parliaments and politicians best be managed? This discussion is led by a leading UK parliamentarian.
Television: how central banks can reach a mass audience
Speaker to be confirmed
Typically, central banks receive limited television coverage. But television allows central banks to transmit their message to a wide audience, much of which would otherwise be entirely ignorant of their work. How can central banks increase coverage – and do they always want to? When central banks do succeed in provoking interest from television, how can they ensure coverage will be fair and that the general public will understand its actions?
How to communicate with the financial media
Chris Giles
Economics Editor, Financial Times
In the rough and tumble of economic debate central banks and supervisory authorities have to fight hard to retain a positive image. Some financial media may be well-informed about monetary and regulatory policy. Others may be generally uninterested in the complicated technical information central banks are most skilled at explaining. Consequently the press often follows people rather than issues, which can be frustrating. How can official sector institutions deliver the information journalists find useful and get their case across at the same time? This session adopts the perspective of the financial press, and asks how this relationship can work best in practice.
Communication monetary policy
Lionel Price
Chairman
In an age of transparent central banking, “black box” explanations of policymaking are no longer possible. Written and spoken communications now form essential parts of policymaking in a central bank. Indeed its credibility rests on it. In this session, the group will evaluate different approaches to releasing information: how much detail about forecasts and the models underlying them should be made public? What type of reports should a central bank produce? What should they say, and how?
How
to talk about troubled banks
Vernon
Everitt
Director of Retail Themes,
UK Financial Services Authority
Best practice in central bank communication
Peter Bakstansky
Former Head of Public Information and Senior Vice President,
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
What is “best practice” for central bank communication? How, in fact, do leading institutions approach communications policy and what do they understand to be the principal challenges in their institutions? The session aims to outline key points in “best practice” for central bank communication, drawing on the communications policies of the New York Fed (and the Federal Reserve System as a whole) and their contribution to establishing and sustaining credibility for the central bank.
Group case study: communications scenarios
Led by Peter Bakstansky
Alongside long-term strategic goals, central banks and supervisors must also be ready to react to emergencies. The ability to do so can only be established by careful contingency planning and training. This case study will challenge delegates, working in small groups, to consider how they would handle a crisis situation. They will be asked to formulate an effective response under time pressure. The chairman and other delegates will then critique the proposed approaches and, critically, examine the preparations that could be put in place to prepare for future crises.
Best practice
for central bank websites
Brent
Eades
Senior Consultant, Web Communications,
Bank of Canada
A professional and actively
managed website for any public organisation has now come to be expected.
The quality and usability of a website will affect the public’s
perception of an institution, and expectations are rising. Central banks
and regulatory authorities need to think carefully how to meet these higher
expectations. A well-thought-out internet policy is essential. This interactive
session will examine the latest methods used to build a world-class website,
and look at how group members’ own institutions have addressed these.
How “media training” can
improve performance
Steve
Levinson
Managing Director, HBL
Media
Central banks and supervisory agencies
are coming under heightened pressure to provide greater media access and
interview opportunities. One way of dealing with this emerging trend is
the use of media training to enable senior staff to deal with uncompromising
journalists and unfamiliar situations. This session examines how delegates
can deal with the media to their best advantage, using media training
techniques to promote their key messages. It looks at what media training
seeks to achieve, how a media training programme can be structured and
analyses the differing demands of the print and broadcast media.
Financial education: what central banks
and supervisors can achieve
Barbara
Smith
Senior Analyst, Financial
Affairs Division, Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development
The privatisation of financial provision presents central
bankers and regulators with a new challenge: how to educate and involve
the public in understanding financial markets. An educated public will
make better decisions about savings and pensions, and will have more realistic
inflation expectations. Many regulators and central banks are now explicitly
tasked to deliver the “financial education” this requires.
This session, drawing on the OECD’s financial education research,
examines successful financial education initiatives, and examines the
current ideas of best practice.
Lessons and action points
Lionel Price
Chairman
The group will finish the week by reviewing the lessons
of the course and their applicability to participants’ own institutions.
Delegates will be asked to review the week’s discussions and formulate
action plans based on the themes and issues highlighted throughout the
week.
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