Interest Groups (SIGs)

Business Writing and Speaking Center Special Interest Group
Coordinator: Sharon McMillan Cannon

Lili Powell
Nikki Graves
Courtney Wright
Katie Gerst

This interest group focuses on best practices in operating writing and speaking centers for business students. The group will:

• Meet regularly at the annual ABC convention
• Invite members to lead discussions related to directing effective centers
• Encourage members to develop ABC presentations and journal articles
• Support professionals running business writing and speaking centers
• Provide information to those interested in creating business writing and speaking centers
• Help ABC achieve its strategic plan objectives

Consultant’s Interest Group
Coordinator: Barbara Shwom

The Consultants’ Interest Group focuses on best practices in communication consulting and provides programs and resources for ABC’s consulting community. The Consultant’s Interest Group is closely allied with the Association of Professional Communication Consultants, which offers consulting resources on its website: www.consultingsuccess.org.

Intercultural Communication Interest Group
Coordinator: Sana Reynolds

The Intercultural Communication Interest Group has several goals:

• Promotes awareness of intercultural and international differences and similarities
• Fosters excellence in intercultural business communication research
• Honors and celebrates cultural diversity in classrooms, in businesses, and in corporations
• Helps ABC achieve its strategic plan objectives

The interest group works in the following projects

• Reviewing research works in progress
• Providing an Intercultural Bibliography for research
• Continuing the “Focus on Intercultural Communication” Column in BCQ
• Connecting ABC members to international activities via the Internet
• Sharing classroom teaching materials and intercultural scenarios

Link to intercultural communication cases for teaching

MBA Consortium
Coordinators: Tom Hajduk and Anne Grinois

The mission of this interest group is to advance excellence in management communication in MBA schools by

• enhancing the field and programs
• fostering innovative curriculum development
• encouraging research in management-level communication
• furthering the standing of communication faculty
• providing educational, training, and professional development opportunities for faculty
• developing policies and positions on communication issues relevant to business schools
• establishing relations between business professionals and academics
• promoting effective management communication in business through collaborative communication within the national consortium of ABC’s MBA members.
• Help ABC achieve its strategic plan objectives

Rhetoric Special Interest Group
Coordinator: Jennifer Veltsos

The main goal for the group is to spark ongoing discussion about the value of rhetorical scholarship for business communication. Initial ideas for activities include:

• Meet regularly at the annual national and international ABC conferences
• At these annual meetings, invite members to lead discussions about the application of rhetoric to business communication research and pedagogy
• Create a working bibliography of rhetorical scholarship in business and managerial communication
• Develop Rhetoric SIG-sponsored ABC presentations
• Create an online listserv for ongoing discussion, interaction, and the sharing of resources
• Continue to explore ways that this group can help can foster and support the application of rhetoric in research and pedagogy
• Work toward a special issue of JBC on rhetorical scholarship
• Help ABC achieve its strategic plan objectives

Teaching with Technology Special Interest Group
Coordinator: Gail Cruise

Traci Austin
Tina Bacci
Gina Barrett
Marsha Bayless
Ashley Bennington
Judi Biss
Molly Blume
Trudi Burge
Rod Carweth
Geoff Cross
D. Dina Friedman
Shannon Goodspeed
Donna Greenwald
Anna Haney-Withrow
Susan Jennings
Jane Johansen
Dorothy L.R. Jones
Holly Lawrence
Jeff Lewis
Xiaoli Li
Jennifer Loney
Edward McQueeney
Amy Newman
Barbara R. Oates
Rita Owens
Nancy Schullery
Joyce Staples
Susan Terkelsen
Kathleen Vance
Junhua Wang
Ann Wilson

The use and application of Web 2.0 technologies today has created new and efficient ways to communicate and conduct business in this global, networked economy. As business communication professionals and academics, our challenge is to prepare students for the changing face of business communication in this web culture. To meet this challenge, the Teaching with Technology SIG offers opportunities for discuss the impact of technology on teaching and learning, and considers the implications of technology on the rhetorical principles that inform business communication pedagogy.

Goals:

1. Discuss approaches and pedagogy to build knowledge, collaboration, and content sharing in this time of online, blended and technology-embedded courses.
2. Promote the importance of information systems literacy, and examine the role of digital and emerging technologies in business communication.
3. Seek innovative ways to use technology in our courses and assignments.
4. Conduct and/or share knowledge of research in the areas of Web 2.0 and Emerging Technologies.
5. Encourage dialogue between academics and industry professionals about the uses of technology in the field of business communication.
6. Support efforts to engage students in acquiring Web 2.0 literacy in a business context.
7. Discuss the broader implications of integrating technology into contemporary business communication practices. Among many considerations:
   • building collaboration and knowledge
   • communicating in a participatory web environment
   • exchanging of data and information worldwide
   • responding to rapidly changing web culture
   • examining emerging forms of scholarship and publications
   • adjusting to content explosions
   • defining shifting roles of instructors and students