Stagis A/S, the firm founded and run by Medinge Group member Nikolaj Stagis, has won the 2011 Danish Communication Award.
   The award was given by the Dansk Kommunikationsforening (Danish Communication Association) at the DR Koncerthuset (the Copenhagen Concert Hall).
   Five projects were nominated, with Stagis A/S’s one for Movia among them. It received nearly twice as many votes as the runner-up.
   The Movia project, dubbed ‘Chauffører med karaktér’ (bus drivers with character), was initiated and executed by Stagis. The project integrates efforts in the fields of organizational culture, corporate branding and corporate communication in order to create more character, pride, appreciation and job satisfaction for the bus drivers and managers in greater København. The ultimate aim is to deliver a higher level of service and create a better experience for the bus passengers and get more citizens to use public transportation.
   Three years ago Stagis set out with a test project that proved it was possible to change attitudes and pride within bus companies. Almost 7,000 bus passengers have sent their stories about “good moments” to the bus driver website www.buschaffor.dk, supported by a media effort, a training programme, and a Bus Driver of the Year award.
   Mr Stagis said, ‘We are really proud of the award and the acknowledgement we’ve received from our colleagues in the field of corporate communication … What makes me just as proud as receiving the award is meeting some of the bus drivers who has been involved in the project, and who tells me that it made a difference in their lives. Like the bus driver Linda, who was awarded the Danish Bus Driver of the Year on September 2 and is soon flying to Singapore to see public transportation there and meet bus drivers in that region. She loves the bus and the passengers and now she is going to board an aeroplane for the first time in her life to fly to Asia!’
   Mr Stagis collected the award with Movia executive Maja Nellemann and Stagis project manager Louise Kramer.
   Further information on the award can be found at the Dansk Kommunikationsforening website.

Muna Abu Sulayman is today announced as the winner of the Medinge Group’s 2010 Colin Morley Award, given to an individual who has contributed to the betterment of society through sustainable, socially responsible and humanistic behaviour. The award is part of Medinge’s annual Brands with a Conscience list, now in its seventh year.
   ‘It is a great honour,’ a delighted Muna Abu Sulayman remarked, when informed of the award last night by Simon Nicholls, of the Medinge Group, who made the nomination.
   In giving this award, the Medinge Group recognizes Muna’s outstanding work in educational development, poverty alleviation and strategic philanthropy; as Executive Director of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, developing and implementing operations for humanitarian assistance across the globe; her role as the first woman in Saudi Arabia to be appointed by the United Nations Development Programme as a Goodwill Ambassador; and for exceptional reporting as co-host on popular MBC-TV social programme Kalam Nawaem, in particular her advocacy of rights for women. As a public and media personality, she speaks about issues relating to Arab society, media, building bridges of understanding between the East and West. Since 1997, Ms Abu Sulayman has served as lecturer on American literature at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. She frequently appears as a panellist at the Davos World Economic Forum, Jewish Economic Forum, C-100 of the World Economic Forum, Brookings Institute Conferences and other venues.
   Medinge, an international collective of brand practitioners, meets annually in August at a secluded location outside Stockholm, Sweden, and collaborate on the list, judging nominees on principles of humanity and ethics, rather than financial worth. The Brands with a Conscience list is shaped around criteria including evidence of the human implications of the brand and considering whether the brand takes risks in line with its beliefs. Evaluations are made based on reputation, self-representation, history, direct experience, contacts with individuals within the organizations, media and analysts and an assessment of the expressed values of sustainability.
   Three years ago the group added a unique category commendation, the Colin Morley Award, recognizing exceptional achievement by an individual or NGO. Mr Morley, a member of the Medinge Group, died in the London Underground bombings on July 7, 2005. The award commemorates his visionary work in humanistic branding.

For more information on Medinge and Brands with a Conscience, contact: Erika Uffindell, erika@uffindellwest.com.