Demicom researchers on site in Denver for world‑leading communication conference
Researchers Catrin Johansson, Elin Helgesson and Christina Grandien are currently in Denver, Colorado, where they are participating in the international conference International Communication Association (ICA) – one of the world's largest events in communication research.
Over five days, more than 3,500 researchers from all over the world will gather to share the latest research, make contacts and discuss this year's theme: Disrupting and Consolidating Communication Research.
We took the opportunity to ask our researchers a few quick questions – directly from the conference floor!
Hello there Catrin, Elin and Christina!
What are you most looking forward to with this year's conference?
Above all, we look forward to networking and meeting research colleagues that we have not met for many years. This is the largest and most prominent conference in our field, so it is important for us to know what is happening on the research front, and to create the conditions for collaborations with other researchers.
What will you present at the conference?
We have four different presentations - Elin presents Nordic perspectives on lobbying, we talk about our study of municipalities' climate communication, Catrin presents an article on organizations' communication maturity and Christina an article about CEOs' and communications directors' perspectives on the value of communication in their organizations. All articles are written jointly with researchers from other countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Denmark and the United States.
Have you had time to take part in any particularly inspiring presentations or meetings?
Yes really, it's hard to choose just one thing, we've made several new contacts, been asked about a book project from a publisher, and got inspiration and ideas for a research application and planned how to proceed with the publication of our articles.
What do you hope to take home with you to Mid Sweden University after the conference?
A lot of energy, inspiration, knowledge of the research situation, contacts for future collaborations.
If you could describe the ICA conference in three words – what would it be?
World-class research!