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Trainer Profile: John Holland

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John Holland is a former journalist turned media advisor who loves telling stories, listening to stories and being in the middle of stories. A former United Press International bureau chief in Vienna, John was also senior correspondent and Frankfurt bureau chief for CNBC Europe as well as a radio correspondent for CBS News. He has interviewed dozens of prominent figures, including CEOs, prime ministers and the former President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević. John’s career has spanned many continents, with the highlights including reporting live from Baghdad during the first Gulf War, being in Prague when the communist government fell in 1989 and covering the Rwandan genocide. He now helps clients master media interviews, speak more confidently in public and tell better stories.

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Ha ha journalism

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John Oliver and the rise of investigative comedy

It speaks volumes about the current state of journalism in the United States that it takes a 38-year old British comedian to draw attention to topics much of the mainstream media has chosen to ignore, using investigative reporting methods many of these organisations have long abandoned.

Take Donald Trump. A lot has been written and aired about the bombastic billionaire Republican presidential candidate. But when John Oliver – the host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight – turned his fire on Trump Sunday, he touched a nerve that even other presidential contenders had failed to. After trashing Trump’s business record and denouncing the property magnate turned reality TV star as a “serial liar,” Oliver launched a campaign for the Donald to be referred to by his ancestral German name ‘Drumpf.’ By March 2, the #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain campaign was trending on Twitter and the episode had been viewed by more than 50 million people on YouTube.

This is the kind of crowd-pleasing trouble-making that has helped make Oliver one of the hottest tickets on American TV. Since April 2014, the British stand-up has used his satirical show to deal with some of the thorniest issues on the planet. Among the topics tackled: Net neutrality, the rise of Islamic State, Europe’s refugee crisis and corruption at the governing body of world football FIFA. Along the way he has interviewed luminaries and heavyweights such as whistleblower Edward Snowden and scientist Stephen Hawking. Read More

Clear Europe is Hiring

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Clear Europe is looking for a communication officer to join its small but growing team in Brussels.

We are searching for someone who is media-savvy, super-techy, passionate about communication and enthusiastic about working for an exciting start-up.You would be expected to produce presentations, update the website and social media, promote training sessions, market the company, write and edit copy for clients and attend events and conferences in Brussels. Plus the usual office stuff nobody likes but everybody has to do – invoicing, creating spreadsheets, doing accounts etc.

We are looking for someone with the following skills:

  • Native or near native English.
  • Other languages – particularly French.
  • Strong technical skills – especially social media & Wordpress. Ability to code a big plus, as are graphic design skills.
  • Communication/marketing experience.
  • Business nous and willingness to talk numbers.
  • Photography/camera skills.
  • Interested in politics & knowledge of EU.
  • Excellent writer – in English. Tender-writing experience a plus.
  • Ability to work independently.

This is a full-time position starting as soon as possible. Competitive salary based on experience.

Please send a CV and cover letter explaining why you want to work for Clear Europe and what you would add to the company to: Gareth Harding, Managing Director:  gareth@cleareurope.eu.

There’s more information about Clear Europe here: http://cleareurope.eu/

 

 

 

Ten Commandments for Conference Organisers

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Opinion piece by Clear Europe Managing Director Gareth Harding on why most conferences are so boring and ten ways to make them less torturous.

I hate conferences. Always have. Always will. Maybe it’s because of my fidgety metabolism and intolerance of bullshit-peddling. Or maybe it’s because, champagne and canapés apart, conferences are usually a colossal waste of time and money.

Either way, I highly doubt one of my death-bed regrets will be “I wish I had spent more time away from my loved ones listening to long-winded PowerPoint presentations in stuffy conference rooms.”
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Explaining the EU: United in Complexity

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EUobserver article by Clear Europe Managing Director Gareth Harding explaining how needlessly complicated the EU is.

With over 20 years experience describing how the European Union works, what it does and what challenges it faces in speeches, articles, lectures and trainings, I thought I could explain what the EU is all about in terms that anybody could understand. How wrong I was.

In the last month I have given half a dozen ‘EU in an hour’ talks to visiting groups of American politics, journalism and international relations students – who are all extremely keen, bright and willing to ask questions. But almost invariably, the students leave the classroom flabbergasted at how needlessly complicated the EU is and suspecting that I have made up some of the Byzantine decision-making procedures just to mess with them.

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The Art of Storytelling with Danny Scheinmann

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According to Danny Scheinmann, we are all storytelling animals. There is something in all of us that just wants to know what happens next.

Danny, an actor, award-winning filmmaker and best-selling author, led a storytelling masterclass at Clear Europe on June 10th. He talked to the nearly 30 participants about how storytelling isn’t just used to teach lessons to children and to inform friends and family about our travels. Storytelling also has an important role in the work environment, as stories are often the best way to pass on a company or organisation’s values to customers, clients and employees. Read More

Experiencing writer’s block? Take some tips from the greats

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You have a deadline to meet and you want the article to be top-notch, but your mind is blank and you find yourself staring at your screen struggling to put thoughts into words. Unfortunately for all frustrated writers, there is no push-the-button solution for writer’s block. But to give you a shunt in the right direction, find out what some of the greatest authors have to say about the art of writing. Read More

10 Things You Need To Know About The EU Press Corps

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Thanks to the 50-60 people who came to the launch of ‘Mapping European Foreign Correspondence‘ at the Brussels Press Club today. The book, which is edited by Professor George Terzis and published by Routledge, is the first Europe-wide study of foreign correspondents and their reporting. Many who attended the launch asked if I could send data from the chapter about the Brussels press corps, which I co-authored with Prof. Terzis. Rather than post my presentation, I have picked out 10 essential facts you need to know about the journalists who report on the EU. Unless otherwise specified, the data is from the ‘Directory of Journalists Accredited to the European Institutions’ issued by the European Commission in May 2012. If there are are any errors, don’t hesitate to tell us. Read More

Five Social Media Trends you Need to be Ready for in 2015

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According to research done by Duke University  in 2014, companies spend around 9% of their advertising budget on Facebook and Twitter ads, and that spending will increase to more than 13% in 2015.

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It’s obvious that companies understand that some of their budget needs to be spent on social media, but about half of the marketers interviewed stated they have a hard time justifying that investment because it doesn’t show much value. Read More