Facilitation, Moderation and Communication
“Phoebe supported me to help develop a workshop and approach for a European bank on the topic of circularity. This was part of a wider project aimed to broaden the bank’s understanding and offering on circular services and a more regenerative vision and purpose for the bank. We worked on the topic for several months and, despite the pandemic, decided to go ahead with an online format. Thanks to Circulab, the C-Suite of the bank had the opportunity to take part in a workshop with a series of feasible solutions and a good atmosphere.” (July 2020, Lille).
“Since 2016, Phoebe has accompanied the internationalisation of the French Observatory for CSR (Orse). The organisation’s members include major French groups, unions and professional bodies. In practice, Phoebe regularly supports our team by moderating webinars in English. A tour of Europe on the theme of Diversity has been done, with a focus on a given country: Spain, Germany, Italy have all had their turn.
Presentations of what we do, as well as works around CSR criteria in remuneration have also featured in the webinars. These moments are particularly appreciated by our members with international networks who like to connect and exchange with us. Due to her expertise in CSR, her lucidity and her analytical skills, Phoebe is a much appreciated resource at Orse, also for the quality of her translations.” (June 2018)
G. Fort, Déléguée générale, Orse
“Phoebe Blackburn a fait un bilan des supports communication d’Initiatives & Changements et une cartographie de nos partenaires actuels et souhaités, pour cerner nos besoins et définir les supports à mettre en place en priorité dans l’optique d’optimiser notre communication. Elle a également contribué avec beaucoup d’énergie à mettre en place un de nos espaces de dialogue à Belleville, en rencontrant des acteurs locaux de la Mairie et au niveau associatif.
Elle a fait preuve de beaucoup de sens relationnel pour cela. Son enthousiasme, sa créativité et sa souplesse ont fait d’elle une coéquipière appréciée. Elle a animé plusieurs espaces de dialogue interculturel à Paris et a enseigné l’anglais chez nous. Nous la recommandons vivement comme conseillère en communication, en développement de partenariat et comme animatrice”. (Septembre 2014, Paris).
“Phoebe Blackburn and Roland Fuhrmann, a Berlin artist, facilitated a 5-day workshop for 15 master students of product development, architecture, interior architecture and urbanism and spatial planning, at our annual International Design Week (IDW). They worked alongside 26 other selected tutors from across the globe and over 250 students. This year the week focused on the topic of Commons. The applied project and the workshops took place ‘extra muros’ in the Luchtbal quarter of Antwerp, in the apartments of a housing estate due to be renovated. Students had a week to design structures to help bring together two diverse communities of the city following the over grounding of the major ring road in the next years.
The participants learned about the circular economy approach and how to bring it into their model designs (made mostly from materials from the local rubbish skip) as well as in the purpose and design of their structures. By the end of the week the work was exhibited, and guided tours were organized to show and explain inhabitants and visitors the results of this intensive week of exploration, speculation, and experimentation.” Faculty of Design Sciences (February 2020)
“Phoebe Blackburn and her Circulab colleague Michel Wolfstirn from Biomimicry Norway facilitated a 2h workshop on circular economy at our Baltic region Circular Design Forum at EUREF Campus Berlin in June 2018. Thanks to Circulab, around 20 participants had the opportunity to take part in a playful workshop and to benefit from a practical approach to circularity in a very welcoming and good atmosphere.” (July 2019, Berlin)
“Phoebe is a great addition to The Llangwm Literary Festival, in Pembrokeshire (Wales, UK). At our very first festival in 2016, she was an outstanding interviewer on stage with writer and academic Anne Lauppe-Dunbar for her book on the GDR régime’s doping of swimmers, ‘Dark Mermaids’, peeling off the layers of intrigue with the delicate skill of a jovial master surgeon.
The Llangwm Literary Festival was delighted to welcome Ms Blackburn to run a Biomimicry game at the 2019 festival. The event sold out within days. Phoebe is a perfect combination of the friendly animatrice with a deep understanding of the important issues that underpin the concept. Fabulous!” (September 2019, Wales, UK).
“Phoebe helped us on several levels: she translated the tools we’ve created, like the Circulab boardgame on the circular economy, the Partner Map and Biomimicards game, and also coached us to speak in public in English for corporate clients such as l’Oréal and for a TED talk. Further, Phoebe is an excellent facilitator, full of energy and enthusiasm, we work with her often on that front. We also recommend her for her interest and experiences in the corporate sector and in the field of CSR/Sustainability. Her creativity, her experience and adaptability have enabled us to tackle some of our difficulties and progress.” (November 2015, Paris).
Editorial, Storytelling & Translation
“Phoebe did the proofreading for our publication ‘Blockchain: a World without Middlemen‘ published April, 2019. She has been checking our text thoroughly since the first drafts and has excellently translated complex technological terms and contexts. It has been a pleasure to work with her and we would happily recommend her work for future publications.” (April 2019, Berlin).
“Phoebe worked for us for a year as an in-house financial translator in Paris, producing research note documents (convertible bond market) and our morning ‘Creditorial’ with our full-time translator, sent to over 500 institutional investors across Europe every morning. Her excellent French and business experience, alongside her enthusiasm and ability to get on with the teams at Octo Finances to obtain accurate information were appreciated and we wish her well for her future projects.” (December 2015, Paris).
“Phoebe helped us on several levels: she translated the tools we’ve created, like the Circulab boardgame on the circular economy, and also coached us to speak in public in English for corporate clients such as L’Oréal and for TED talks. Further, Phoebe is an excellent facilitator, full of energy and enthusiasm, we work with her often on that front. We also recommend her for her interest and experiences in the corporate sector and in the field of CSR/Sustainability. Her creativity, her experience and adaptability have enabled us tackle some of our difficulties and progress.” (November 2015, Paris).
“Phoebe nous a fait un bilan des supports communication d’Electriciens sans frontières (Electricians Without Borders) pour cerner nos besoins et priorités de supports de communication en anglais, dans l’optique de nous rendre plus visibles et actifs à l’international. Elle a ensuite procédé à la traduction de notre site web et divers documents vers l’anglais. Nous sommes ravis de la recommander comme éditrice et traductrice, et conseillère en communication.” (June 2013)
“Phoebe has worked with the Markets Practice at WWF Germany on several key international editorial, communications and translation projects over the past two years, on Circular Economy and standards and other market-based approaches. Phoebe has for example facilitated the development of boiler plates, definitions, renaming projects and communication strategies, and helped with formulating and finetuning complex texts. Phoebe showed great flexibility at all times. We are happy to work with her and to recommend her work.” (September 2019, Berlin).
“Phoebe did a review of all our communications tools at Initiative for Change (France) with a current and desired stakeholder map to help identify our needs and define the tools to put in place in order to optimise our communication. She also helped to put in place with considerable energy our intercultural dialogue spaces in Belleville (NE Paris district), meeting local actors at the Town Hall and local associations. She showed strong interpersonal skills for this. Her enthusiasm, creativity and flexibility made her a much-appreciated team member. She herself also facilitated several intercultural dialogue sessions in Paris. We strongly recommend her as a communications advisor, partnership developer and as a facilitator.” (September 2014, Paris)
“Phoebe translated a commercial offering from French to English presenting our services to an audience of international decision-makers. She knew how to respond to our request and produce deliverables within the given timeframe in a professional manner. I recommend her without hesitation for translation services.” (December 2014).
Language Training & Public Speaking
“Phoebe has been coaching our annual batch of catalysis PhD students at TU Berlin since 2021 for a 6 week course once a week in the autumn term, helping them develop their presentation style in English. The sessions have helped the students a lot, enabling them to get to grips with presenting their research better, also in terms of confidence, fluency, and building camaraderie within the group. The sessions have also been inspiring and energising for them.” (December 2023)
“Phoebe hat uns in September/Oktober in 5 Sessions gecoacht, um unser Englisch für eine Veranstaltung der Filmindustrie zu verbessern. Der Unterricht mit ihr war großartig und hat uns sehr geholfen. Phoebe hat uns Routine und Sicherheit gegeben. Dazu hat es viel Spaß gemacht.“ (November 2022, Berlin)
“Phoebe coached us for 5 sessions in September/October for a film industry event in order to improve our English. The sessions with her were great and helped us a lot. Phoebe gave brought us routine and security. In addition, it was also a lot of fun.”
“Phoebe is a very engaged trainer, with extensive knowledge of the environment and the vocabulary connected to this field in English, which was very useful to me! She also did a lot of research before and after each session; the working sessions were of a very high standard and very pleasant on a human level.” (September 2017).
“Phoebe was a great support for the preparation of my 2017 TEDx talk. She could tell me precisely where I could still improve for my talk and gave me suitable tools as well as tips on the way. It helped me to nail my speech!” (April 2017)
“Phoebe helped me to work on my professional and general English, in particular for my trips abroad and meetings at Keolis linked to the topics of urbanisation and transportation. I am happy to recommend her as an English coach for senior managers.” (March 2015).
“Phoebe helped me to work on my German pronunciation for various pieces of opera I was preparing, by Wagner in particular, and I am happy to recommend her as a language coach for professionals and singers. Given that she does classical singing herself, including opera, and speaks fluent German, she was in a good position to understand my challenges and needs.” (May 2015)
“Phoebe m’a aidée à me réconcilier avec l’anglais, à développer mon aisance et ma confiance en anglais parlé, pour des situations courantes, à l’aide de jeux de rôle et de simulations liés à mon travail. Elle m’a également soutenue pour revoir le vocabulaire technique RH/ Handicap/ Diversité qui me sert dans mon travail, domaine où son expertise RSE était utile. Je la recommande vivement à tous ceux qui veulent progresser. Sa bonne humeur, sa créativité et sa capacité d’adaptation ont largement participé à mes progrès.” (Septembre 2014).
“Phoebe Blackburn gave a very inspiring talk at our 8th AM Forum in Berlin in March 2024, captivating the audience with her insights on merging Additive Manufacturing (AM) and Circular Economy. Her presentation not only shed light on the potential synergies between these fields but also underscored the importance of innovative thinking in today’s landscape.
It was truly a pleasure having Phoebe on stage, and we greatly appreciate the valuable outside perspective she provided to our Forum. We look forward to collaborating on future projects.” (April 2024)
“Phoebe gave public speaking & presenting coaching to around 30 of our students for two of our quarterly ‘Demo days’ at ReDI school in Berlin in 2018 and 2019. The students are from very diverse backgrounds, many of them recent refugees with little English or German. Phoebe facilitated the coaching sessions very professionally, and always in a very sensitive and thoughtful way, making sure that all participants felt comfortable.
As a result of her coaching, the participants were able to pitch their projects and ideas in English and German before an audience of 300 people, creating a huge impact, not only in their careers, but in their confidence and perception of themselves. We are very thankful!” (September 2019, Berlin)
“Working with Phoebe was for all of us a deeply valuable experience. She designed the training in a way which fully met our needs on an individual level but also related to the field we as a foundation are active in. The four of us benefitted from a thoughtful mix between theory and practice, voice training, recording, sounding and common feedbacks.
The materials she provided us with were helpful additions to what we learned and practiced during the sessions. Phoebe is not just a very experienced professional trainer; she’s also a very smart, charismatic and empowering person. I can highly recommend her as a trainer; it was a great pleasure working with her.” (May 2018, Berlin)
L-M. Schweizer, Advisor to the Board of Directors, EVZ Foundation
“Phoebe coached me for my TEDx Kreuzberg talk and helped me to become confident with the content and presentation of my talk by sharing helpful feedback and teaching me voice exercises.” (April 2017)
“Phoebe helped me to work on my technical HR English, to develop my confidence in an interview situation, and with general spoken English. I’m happy to recommend her as an Executive English coach.” (June 2015).
“Phoebe helped me develop confidence for my interviews in English, rewrite my CV and my application letters, helping me through job interviews. I am happy to recommend her as a language coach. Her CSR/sustainable development expertise was very useful.” (September 2014).
“I needed to improve my English to be more effective at work, in my field of Sustainable Development, but also for the day to day. Phoebe was able to create simulated experiences with practical and often surprising exercises, which enabled me to reactivate and develop my knowledge, with a great deal of interest, relevance and pleasure. Thanks to Phoebe for her availability and inventiveness!” (November 2014, Paris).