PR & Communications News Africa

IABC Quills 2009 judging panel announced

Entries to the IABC 2009 Quills close tomorrow, Tuesday, 3 February 2009. Shortly thereafter, the first tier judging in the African region will take place, and winners will be announced at a gala event on 27 March 2009. The judging panel includes experienced communicators across South Africa.

2009 judging panel

Professor Harry Dugmore

Professor Dugmore is currently MTN chair of Media and Mobile Communication at Rhodes University. He also founded Rapid Phase, under which the television and radio series, "Soul City" was created. Prof. Dugmore is also running a project which is funded by the Knight Foundation called “Indaba Ziyafika - The news is coming”.

Janine Lazarus

Lazarus has worked in the mainstream media as a journalist for the past 24 years. She has experience as an investigative journalist, radio talk show host, television presenter and researcher/producer for both local and international factual television programming. She is the head of Janine Lazarus Media Consultancy where she consults for several national and international organisations in media and communications.

Corne Meintjes:

Meintjes lectures at Monash University (SA) in the Department of Marketing, and School of Business and Economics. Subjects she has taught include; Corporate Communications, Public Relations, and Events Management, among others. She has presented a paper on her teaching at The Melbourne in Australia and acts as a judge in both the PICA Magazine awards and the PRISA PRISM awards. She is a member of SACOMM and PRISA (PRP).

Polly Modiko:

Modiko has experience in community development, development and corporate communication, project management and materials development. She has a flair for languages and speaks Italian. Polly has delivered papers at SA Council of Communication Management conferences, among others. She was also nominated best marketing and communications specialist, and is currently heading up corporate communications at Sentech.

Lawrence Molai:

Molai has more than 15 years experience in marketing and advertising, covering areas like market research, strategy development, CI development, brand management and media relations. In 2001, Lawrence joined Telkom as a senior manager: corporate brand management. He spent three years in Nigeria where he was with Econet Wireless International. Molai is currently an active director at Frank Talk Communications, a company he founded.

Sejamothopo Motau:

Motau is a businessman and independent communication leadership consultant, specialising in public relations, corporate communication, personal branding and public speaking. He is chairman of Sabinet Online Limited and also past president and current ambassador of PRISA. Motau has experience as a journalist and was also named The Star's PR Man of the Year 2000. He has received The President's Award for outstanding services to PRISA.

Daniel Munslow:

Munslow is the executive strategist at Newsclip Media Monitoring. His extensive experience within the media industry includes magazines within the Caxton stable, journalist for 94.7 Highveld Stereo and research for Carte Blanche. He's also produced, presented and written for SABC 3 news, and features for SABCnews.com. Daniel is regularly interviewed on SABC regarding media-related issues and to also comment on media trends in various publications.

Professor Gustuv Puth:

Puth is the founder and head of department of Marketing and Communication Management at the University of Pretoria. He is the author of numerous articles, eight books and television texts. He also designed modules on leadership and change management for the Presidential Leadership Programme for senior public service officials under custodianship of former-President Mbeki.

Taryn van Olden, ABC:

Van Olden has more than 14 years experience in strategic communication and publishing. In 2002 she started Cyan Sky Communication. She was appointed chief executive officer of Project Management South Africa. She is also an Accredited Business Communicator (ABC), conferred by the IABC. She is a past winner of the Gold Quill award, for excellence in communication and serves on the board of the IABC's Pretoria Chapter.

Marilyn Watson:

Watson has 16 years in public relations and communications, predominantly in the ICT sector. She is currently external communications manager at Multichoice. Her recent career highlights include, managing communications and public relations for launch of HDPVR, SDPVR, Phuthuma Nathi and the CNN Multichoice African Journalist of the year awards.

Dr. Amanda Hamilton-Atwell:

Dr. Hamilton-Atwell is the CEO of Business DNA, an organisational communications company she started in 2000. She has 33 years in the communications industry starting as a journalist and lectured at University of South Africa. Dr. Hamilton-Atwell was the first woman in South Africa to obtain a Doctorate in Communication Science. She has been chairperson of the Board of Child and Family care society, founder member and secretary of SACOM and she is also deputy president of the Africa Chapter of IABC. Amanda is also an accredited business communicator.

The judges will evaluate the Quill submissions and provide feedback. Every entrant receives the judging score sheets with the scores and comments from judges. These comments are deemed valuable for future entries as well as for improving future campaigns. To find out more, go to www.iabc.com/awards.

Let's do Biz