Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
Ciao! I'm Irene, an Italo-Swiss PR & strategic communications professional working at the intersection of storytelling, international affairs, media, and events. Today, as an Account Manager in Burson’s Sports Practice, I help shape communication strategies and bring high-profile sports projects and events to life, including Olympic bids and global stakeholder initiatives. My work focuses on strategic messaging, stakeholder engagement, media relations, and cross-functional coordination in fast-paced international environments. Over the past 10+ years, I’ve worked across international organizations (UN system), the Swiss federal administration, communication consulting agencies, and the private sector (Fortune 500 company), and I work fluently in Italian, French, English, and Spanish, with working knowledge of German and Portuguese. 💼 What I bring to the table - Strategic Communications & Public Relations - Stakeholder Engagement - Storytelling & narrative development - Project Management - Event Management (corporate, entertainment, sports, culture) - Media relations & public speaking - Data Storytelling, Research & Insights (former economist) 🎤 Alongside my communications work, I also perform stand-up comedy and have previous experience in radio journalism and live moderation - experiences that strengthen my ability to connect with audiences, think quickly, and communicate with clarity and authenticity. Let's connect! #PR, #communications, #media, #journalism, #entrepreneurship, #events, #womeninleadership, #sports, #researchandinsights, #careertransition
- Lead international communication strategies, strategic messaging, and event-related projects for sports clients, ensuring alignment across brand, stakeholders, delivery timelines - Support business development, including pitches and opportunity identification - Manage client relationships and coordinate cross-functional teams (PR, media, digital)
- Music radio journalism : coverage of concerts, festivals (e.g., EFG London Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz, Cully Jazz) and theatre shows (e.g., Globe to Globe - Hamlet show...). Among some of the artists I interviewed: Lisa Simone, John Abercrombie, Joe Lovano, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, José James; Stefano Bollani, Paolo Fresu 5tet; Zara McFarlane, Binker Golding & Moses Boyd; Hiromi; Etienne Mbappe, Jerry Léonide; Monsieur Periné. - Definition and measurement of audience and other key success factors - Assistance in building and updating business plan and strategy (lean canvas experience) - Support in fundraising for our association and recording studio at local festivals
- Development of the internal communications strategy for the function, including definition of key success factors - Event management, including webcasts and townhalls. My biggest achievement was leading the organization of a global multi-day in-person event for C-level executives, VPs, Regional and affiliate heads (300+ participants worldwide), in an external location, coordinating plenary days, parallel workshops sessions, dining, entertainment, and respecting the original budget - Content creation: design and management of the function's communication site and key documents storage (900+ users worldwide), development of weekly newsletter highlighting latest news in the public affairs domain (800+ subscribers worldwide) - Capability Building: support the central team with refreshing the capability building strategy, organization of online and in-person onboarding trainings for newcomers from the HQ and the affiliates - External engagement: Development of external engagement tools (e.g., case studies, best practices, methodology guidelines for internal and external stakeholders), and support affiliates in their external usage - Volunteering: Participant mentor to the company's global mentoring program; captain of the company' sailing club, responsible for newcomers onboard and training, fleet maintenance, advertisement; active supporting member of the company's rock climbing club
- Design and management of large datasets on value chain and consumer behaviour metrics (development, implementation of robust documentation system, data quality assurance, review) - Leading project team of IT specialists and designers to revamp global corporate Economic Research webpages and create interactive data visualization tool (13,000+ users worldwide) - Coordination of data collection review across markets and internal functions (150+ contacts) - Automation of data import, mining and transformation (reducing processing time by 70%) - Analysis of ESG ratings results (DJSI, Sustainalytics, MSCI), assistance in coordinating internal review and consolidating action plan for senior management team - Development of economic research supporting tools e.g., literature reviews, global mapping of survey questionnaires and methodologies on selected topics, market trends case studies, economic assessment guidelines for new products submissions
- External engagement, e.g. conference presentation at Swiss Days of Official Statistics 2018 in Zurich and giving interviews to Swiss National TV (RSI) and local radios (radiofr.) - Data mining for the Swiss Household Budget Survey (HBS), using SAS and VBA - Development and update of statistical methods internal supporting tools, e.g. drafting of a paper on imputation of missing data - Conceptual works, e.g. development of a survey on cross-border shopping and e-commerce - Main contact person for all Italian-speaking and English-speaking survey stakeholders (e.g. participants, media, institutions) - Organization and presentation of internal workshops on statistics theory - Translation of documents from/to French and German to/from English and Italian
- Event management: coordination of the E-commerce Caravan, a 2-week itinerant event across Switzerland at the UNO and eBay HQ to promote African and Middle Eastern SMEs working with ITC and sell their products - Organization of LDCs services seminars series at WTO & translation of documents from English to French - Contribution to a chapter, revision and editing of joint ITC-UNWTO report "Tourism and Trade: A Global Agenda for Sustainable Development", published at the occasion of the 21st World Tourism Organization General Assembly held in Medellin, Colombia - Data gathering and drafting of COMESA / LDCs / APEC / ... trade in services snapshots and regional overviews for immediate publication - Contribution to, revision and editing of joint ITC-CBC technical paper "Services in Comesa – An Industry Perspective. Integrating the Voice of Business in Policy" (forthcoming) - Contribution to the outline of forthcoming ITC Flagship publication "SME Competitiveness Outlook 2016" - Contribution to ITC publication on e-commerce "Bringing SMEs onto the e-commerce" (2016) - Drafting of statistical overview on trade in services global financing gap for upcoming publication on trade finance "Financing Developing Country Trade in Services" - Drafting of articles for fortnightly ITC Global Services Newsletter (mainly on trade in services statistics, report of events) - Participation to trade-related events and writing of reports/minutes - Assistance in the creation of a Services SME database - Assistance in conducting phone survey for Caribbean Coconut Industry Council - Research assistance for TiVA technical papers - Research assistance for E15 Initiative technical papers on trade in services