Tribe Pictures’ Vern Oakley Addresses New Realities of Leadership Communication
New York, New York (PRWEB) March 31, 2016 -- What does it take to achieve a sense of authenticity when leaders need to communicate on camera? That was the subject of a recent speech delivered by Vern Oakley, CEO and Creative Director of Tribe Pictures, an award-winning corporate video production company.
An acknowledged expert when it comes to coaxing authentic performances out of business, corporate and educational leaders, Oakley shared insights and experiences in a talk entitled “Nowhere to Hide: Leadership Communication and the New New Authenticity.
The speech was delivered to members of the New York Speechwriters Roundtable and the Corporate Communications International program of Baruch College/City University of New York. (For more on the event, click here.) The setting was the Newman Vertical Campus of Baruch College on the East Side of Manhattan.
As Oakley points out, video has become ubiquitous in today’s society. “In the corporate world, the use of video to help CEOs and other top leaders connect with their stakeholders has exploded in popularity,” he comments. “We’ve been carefully tracking this trend and shared with the audience different ways in which authentic communication can humanize and strengthen leadership in today’s climate of transparency.”
Oakley revealed how working as a theatre director led to a passion for coaxing honest and believable performances out of actors. Since transitioning from the world of drama, television and feature films into corporate video, he’s worked with numerous leaders at Fortune 500 companies, ranging from CEOs to heads of Corporate Communications, Human Resources, Investor Relations, Marketing and other disciplines.
“What we’ve found over the years is that today, nobody needs a video,” he told his audience. “Rather, when corporate clients have communications problems, what they need are solutions. And in today’s digital world, those solutions can often take their most powerful form in video.”
Oakley screened a variety of video clips to serve as case studies for the points made during the speech, including snippets of “The West Wing” as well as segments showing leaders or employees of such companies as Coty, Hess, Mondelez, KPMG and others.
Among the points stressed were that leaders who convey a sense of authenticity in their on-camera performances can positively impact everything from staff morale to recruitment to a company’s valuation in the financial markets. “Today’s leaders have to express their humanity and vulnerability so audiences can believe they’re authentic and easily relate to them,” Oakley told the corporate communications professionals and speechwriters in the audience. “Helping them get there is a journey for all of us in this room.”
The speech marked Oakley’s return to the Baruch campus, where he was an Adjunct Professor in the school’s graduate corporate communication program at the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences and taught a course titled “Strategy and Storytelling: Video and Graphics for Corporate Communication.”
About Tribe Pictures
Tribe Pictures is an award winning, full-service video production company with offices in New York City and Chatham, New Jersey. Tribe specializes in strategic video and film solutions for Fortune 500 corporations and leading colleges, universities and non-profits. For 30 years, Tribe has successfully produced purposeful films through an artful blend of strategic messaging, storytelling and a fine-craft perspective in filmmaking. With a mission of “humanizing the most successful companies in the world,” Tribe has created compelling content for such household names as Allergan, American Express, Colgate-Palmolive, Coty, Hamilton College, Hess, Kenyon College, KPMG, Montefiore Medical Center, Stanley Black & Decker and others. The company brings subject-matter and storytelling expertise to areas such as culture change, human resources and investor relations, and is known for its work with corporate CEOs. Led by Founder and Creative Director Vern Oakley, Tribe’s work has been recognized with over 500 awards including a Gold Dolphin from the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards, a Gold Camera from the US International Film & Video Festival, multiple Golden Eagles from CINE (Council on International Nontheatrical Events), scores of best in shows from Telly Awards, Aurora Awards, CASE Awards and many other industry accolades.
Lurdes Borges, Tribe Pictures, http://tribepictures.com, +1 (973) 635-2660, [email protected]
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