The Comms Chat

In this episode of The Comms Chat, Chloe sits down with Phil Eyre, founder of Leaders, to explore how values-led leadership can foster stronger business partnerships and long-term success.With deep experience coaching senior leaders across the Channel Islands and beyond, Phil shares why purpose and culture alignment aren’t just moral choices, they’re powerful commercial assets. He and Chloe discuss how value mismatches can derail mergers, the difference between trusted partners and service providers, and why clear internal values matter more than ever in a volatile marketplace. Listen to the full episode for practical insights on building relationships rooted in integrity, trust and shared humanity.

In this episode of The Comms Chat, Black Vanilla’s internal events team sit down to reflect on the planning, delivery and impact of Guernsey’s 80th Liberation Day celebrations.With nearly 20,000 people on the seafront and activities reaching far beyond town, our team reflects on the months of preparation, the unexpected hurdles, and the incredible feedback received.With a focus on accessibility, teamwork and public engagement, the team explore how they pulled off a day of celebrations for all generations.

In this episode of The Comms Chat, Senior Account Manager Chloe Chescoe spoke to our two newest senior recruits - Sarah and Katy - who have finished their first few months at Black Vanilla.The ladies discussed their career journeys and time at Black Vanilla so far.

In this episode of The Comms Chat, Account Manager Krista Osborne spoke with Adam Parry, founder of Event Sustainability Live, about the complexities of sustainable events, exploring the challenges faced and the innovative solutions to overcome them.With a focus on transparency and honesty, Krista and Adam explore how organisations can navigate the intricate landscape of sustainability in event planning, from people to planet. 

Hear from Black Vanilla's newest recruit in the latest episode of The Comms Chat. Alec joined the BV team back in September as a JAE and has been supporting both the PR and events teams. Having finished his degree in Sports Journalism in 2023, Alec has a keen interest in writing and communication and has slotted into agency life seamlessly. 

On this episode of The Comms Chat, Senior Account Manager, Chloe Chescoe, spoke with crisis communications expert and PR consultant, Chris Tucker. This episode delves into Chris’s journey within the industry, the psychology behind crisis communications as well as trends and recent challenges of the changing media landscape. Chris shares some eye opening experiences which remind us to be open minded about how you may need to communicate, both internally and externally.

These last few weeks, we’ve seen the latest inflation figures in Guernsey and families are feeling the pinch, but so are businesses. Over the economic ebb and flow of Black Vanilla's director, Nichole Culverwell's 30 year career, she's seen how companies often cut their marketing budget first as an ‘easy budget win’, but is that short term thinking? Hear more from Nichole and messaging and marketing coach, Rachael Cumberland-Dodd on what organisations need to do to stay relevant and how to adjust their marketing strategies to respond to customer sentiment. 

On this episode of The Comms Chat, Nichole spoke with IoD Ambassador and chartered public relations practitioner Sarah Waddington about her latest research project. The Role of Public Relations in Strategic Planning and Crisis Preparedness is a joint report by the Institute of Directors and the CIPR, looking at ways in which organisations can best employ public relations to ride market turbulence and ensure they are fit for the future. 

In our latest episode of the Comms Chat, JAE’s Anna and Abbie speak about their first three months at Black Vanilla. Speaking with Account Manager Chris, our latest recruits detail their experience starting a career in the PR and events industry, what they do outside of work, and their goals for the future.  

Ahead of International Women's Day this year, Director Nichole Culverwell caught up with Deloitte Guernsey's Jo Huxtable, Digital Greenhouse's Lucy Kirby, IoD Guernsey Branch Chair, Wendy Dorey and Principal of The Ladies' College, Daniele Harford-Fox to discuss this year's IWD theme - #EmbraceEquity

Junior Account Executive Chloe Price caught up with Kareena Hodgson of Leaders Consultancy to talk about all things comms and leadership and how this may differ when working with the third sector. 

Since passing his AMEC Evaluation and Measurement certificate, Black Vanilla's Chris Leaman spoke to course tutor, Thomas Stoeckle, about the history and future of measurement in PR in the latest episode of The Comms Chat. Thomas is a tutor for the Bournemouth University and the PR Academy, a Partner at Dot I/O Health and also hosts the SmallDataForum Podcast.The pair also discusses the history of AVEs and top tips to help practitioners measure their campaigns. Listen to it below.

Committed to doing things the right way, Ben is a seasoned communications professional with a results-driven mindset. A creative and strategic thinker with 15 years' industry experience, working with household names across the technology, food and drink, healthcare and lifestyle sectors. A passionate content writer, Ben is a CIPR Accredited Practitioner, a Trustee for Wiltshire Youth for Christ and People against Poverty, and won the 2021 Gold CIPR Pride Award for 'Independent PR Practitioner of the Year'. In this episode, Nichole caught up with Ben about working with the third sector, and what it was like going freelance in the midst of a pandemic. 

Account Manager Chloe Chescoe spoke with two of Black Vanilla's latest recruits on their journey into the PR industry while facing the difficulties of the Covid19 pandemic.

We caught up with Ben Verinder about the CIPR #PRInAPandemic report which his company, Chalkstream, conducted the research for. 

Michael is a Director at Roxhill Media, the leading, real-time media intelligence tool for PR professionals. With over 20 years’ experience working within the communications industry, Michael has covered the whole comms spectrum, from agency to in-house roles, including a director position at Gorkana, where he headed up its corporate PR offering.Michael made the move to Roxhill Media with Founder Alex Northcott in 2015. In addition to supporting the sales team, Michael hosts Roxhill’s popular business breakfasts giving key insights into the journalists and media trends that are setting the news agenda. 

Today we are speaking with Kyan Frith of CentricalCyber; a cyber risk consultancy aiming to help business leaders move beyond ‘cybersecurity equals IT’, gain the support of key stakeholders and manage risk in a holistic, company-wide manner.We will be speaking about risk, reputation management and cyber security gaps in the Guernsey financial services industry.

In this episode we are joined by Rob Thurner, digital strategist and executive education facilitator specialising in Digital Transformation.  Rob is the CEO of Burn the Sky, a platform offering digital transformation training to a network of digital experts, learning design and delivery specialists, partners, and alumni from around the world. He runs digital training courses for clients like Google, American Express and HSBC.  Along with his training business, Rob has also written three best practice books, which you can find below.> Mobile Marketing Best Practice Guide, for Econsultancy> Mobile Marketing Strategy Guide, for Smart Insights> 10 Key Decisions for mCommerce Success, for a retail client

After a short break, we are back… and today we are talking to Ben Verinder. Ben is a founding-chartered PR practitioner, a lead-chartered status assessor and market and reputation research and consultancy director of Chalkstream Limited. Chalkstream is a specialist consultancy leading in reputation and comms research, public relations and communications training, strategic communications and strategic management. Ben is a regular speaker and lecturer on reputation management and measurement, public relations and research. He has contributed to several PR books, including the author of the CIPR AI and Data Ethics skills guide.

Dr Heather Yaxley has over two decades’ experience in vocational education. She has lectured in PR, is a course leader for the CIPR as well as a published author. Heather is an expert in strategic public relations, management capabilities, sustainable careers and professional reflective practice. She actively researches, writes, teaches and works with clients to support personal development.  She is also an active blogger and is one of the co-editors of PR Conversations - an international, well-respected PR blog.

Kerry Sheehan has extensive experience in the world of PR, data and artificial intelligence. She has been a leading industry voice on how artificial intelligence and data is used in the PR industry, the pitfalls and opportunities it brings, and how we need to navigate the ethics of communicating in our ever-changing world.

Phil is the founder of Leaders Consultancy. He works closely with clients on focussed projects and long-term retainers to raise leadership standards. He is a popular and inspiring educator and coach who, with the insights gained from psychometrics, is able to accurately detect the strengths and weaknesses in leadership teams and boards. He  has significant expertise in sophisticated psychometrics and in the application of human data for individual, team and organisational success. www.leadersconsultancy.co.uk

Advita Patel is a Board Director for CIPR U.K, founder of Comms Rebel and co-founder of A Leader Like Me. She has worked within the communications industry for almost 15 years, she’s a chartered PR practitioner and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. In 2018, Advita was named by the Northern Power Women movement as one of their future leaders, an accolade given to only 50 women every year and most recently she was named on the Northern Asian top 100 Power list and on the top 101 list for Inspiring Workplaces as one of the global influencers for employee experience. You can find the link to the next A Leader Like Me conference, Diversity in Action, below.https://aleaderlikeme.com/conferences/div-in-action-conference/

Our very first Comms Chat guest is broadcast reporter, Charlie Frost. Charlie’s career has taken her from regional radio to national television news, via a stint in the Channel Islands. She’s experienced the world of TV on both sides of the camera and she is now reporting for ITV in East Anglia.