Elaine’s Founder, Nikisha Toppin will speak at the IABC World Conference Toronto in June 2026 on the social enterprise’s project “Crochet for a Cause: Ridge to Reef”.
As a Communications Consultant with regional and international organisations, Nikisha continues to contribute to the arena of corporate communications through her involvement with the IABC. She was recently the Vice President Marketing and Communications for Barbados for the 2023-2026 period.
Nikisha’s proposal Communications and Crochet was accepted as a breakout session to the featured at the conference.
An overview of the presentation from the IABC website is below
Communications and Crochet: Live in Your Niche
16 June | 10:45 – 11:30 a.m.
Communications and Crochet: Community Impact Through Creative Disruption offers a fresh, unexpected approach to stakeholder engagement.
This session explores how corporate communication principles—including media relations, brand positioning, and reputation management—were innovatively merged with the art of crochet to launch Crochet for a Cause: Ridge to Reef, a regional environmental awareness and empowerment campaign across five Caribbean countries. Attendees will gain insight into how a non-traditional medium became a disruptive communication tool that drove community participation, government partnerships, and media coverage while maintaining strategic messaging and measurable outcomes.
Participants will walk away with:
- Best practices in transforming grassroots initiatives into media-attracting campaigns.
- Case studies on cross-sector collaboration with ministries, media partners, and community groups.
- Actionable strategies for integrating creative elements into communication campaigns to increase engagement.
- A hands-on micro-activity introducing crochet as a metaphor for connection, patience, and message stitching—making this session both practical and interactive.
This session is tailored for communications professionals in public relations, advocacy, social impact storytelling, community engagement, and government or NGO communications who are seeking unconventional yet effective ways to disrupt traditional messaging and spark audience connection.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe how creative practices, such as crochet, can be strategically integrated into communication campaigns to increase audience engagement and media interest.
- Identify at least three communication techniques used in the “Crochet for a Cause: Ridge to Reef” campaign that contributed to stakeholder participation and regional visibility.
- Demonstrate a hands-on activity that symbolises message crafting and community connection, using crochet as a tool for interactive communication and audience engagement.