Private · Confidential · By Application

Leadership Communication Advisory In Hanoi.

Hanoi concentrates Vietnam's political and administrative authority within a compact geography — the Party Central Committee, the Government Office and ministries such as the Ministry of Planning and Investment sit alongside the State Bank of Vietnam and the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX). Kevin Abdulrahman is the Leadership Communication advisor, providing counsel to senior officials and executives navigating protocol, disclosure and stakeholder engagement with regulators and international investors. Clear, timely messaging is essential: failure can trigger financial penalties, regulatory intervention, collapse of investor confidence and lasting reputational cost for institutions and leaders. Advisory work aligns communications to institutional mandates and the complex public sector environment in Hanoi.

This advisory covers:

Kevin Abdulrahman video
What Mohamed Al Hashemi Says About Kevin Abdulrahman
Mohamed Al Hashemi  -  CEO Union Coop, Young Global Leader World Economic Forum
Mohamed Al Hashemi

CEO, Union Coop (publicly traded) · Board Member
Harvard Business School · Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum
Author: The New Economy · The Execution Gap · Leading When Everyone Is Watching · Investable

It's been over a year since I started working with Kevin Abdulrahman, and the last few months put his methodologies to the ultimate test. Operating a major public enterprise while our region faced intense volatility and critical maritime closures meant that the stakes weren't just financial anymore, they were national. Let alone leading by communication during uncertainty.

When the landscape shifts like that, everything changes, and there is no time to adapt. You're either ready, or not.

You aren't just handling standard corporate updates, or board meetings. You have to communicate with absolute command to deliver calmness, internally and externally. Every single word you say has massive weight that could go either way.

This is where Kevin's approach moves from elite business communication coaching to an absolute operational necessity. He doesn't give you a script. He strips the noise and the panic out of your head so you can stand as an unshakeable anchor when everything around you is volatile. Not a one off - but a new default that you operate with.

Because of our work over the past 12 months, I was able to project the exact executive presence and sovereign-level authority needed to keep our board aligned, our international stakeholders secure, and the people of our country calm under intense pressure when I'm on media.

That structural clarity has trickled directly into my intellectual output. Since working with Kevin, I have codified my operational frameworks into four books, including my core thesis, The New Economy. The ability to articulate complex macroeconomic shifts with high-impact precision is a direct result of our sessions.

Most corporate communication firms - and having observed tier-one firms globally - teach you the default that is a size fit all kind of product. Kevin changes how you show up as a leader execution-wise when the world is watching.

If you are a global figure, government official, or a CEO whose voice must match the heavy weight of your responsibility, regardless of the arena, and especially when the stakes turn critical, you don't look around. You find the Panadol of your headache (as he taught me). And I won't name my Panadol :)

Request Confidential Consultation
01 - The Advisory

Why Hanoi Principals Retain A Leadership Communication Advisor Of Record

Hanoi operates as the political and administrative capital of Vietnam, concentrating an unusually dense cluster of decision-making institutions within a compact geography. Principals who lead within the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the State Bank of Vietnam, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, or the boards of major state-owned enterprises such as Vietnam Airlines, PetroVietnam, and Vietcombank face communication demands that are structurally different from those encountered in purely commercial markets. Every message must navigate a layered audience simultaneously: central government ministries, party committees, international development partners including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, and a domestic business community that reads institutional signals with extraordinary precision. A leadership communication advisor of record provides the sustained, confidential counsel that allows principals to shape narrative before it is shaped for them, to align internal messaging with external positioning, and to ensure that the authority they hold is consistently legible to every room they enter. Beyond the state-linked institutions, Hanoi's emergence as a regional headquarters city for multinational corporations, technology firms, and financial services groups has created a second tier of communication complexity. Leaders at organisations such as the Hanoi Management Academy, the Vietnam National University system, the Hanoi Stock Exchange, and the growing constellation of foreign-invested enterprises registered in the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park must communicate credibly across cultural registers — Vietnamese and international — without losing coherence or authority in either direction. The principals who retain ongoing leadership communication advisory are those who understand that a single misaligned message to the National Assembly Economic Committee, a poorly framed address to a joint-venture partner, or an ambiguous internal communication during a restructuring can erode years of carefully built institutional trust. Retained advisory ensures that every high-stakes communication event is prepared with the same rigour as a legal brief, and that the principal's voice remains consistent, commanding, and strategically purposeful across every context Hanoi demands.
What His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al Thani Says About Kevin Abdulrahman
His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al Thani
His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al Thani

First Qatari to climb Mount Everest and the Seven Summits
President of the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum · International Speaker & Ambassador

The best investment you could ever make is to invest in yourself. As an international speaker and ambassador myself, I can tell you that the importance of speaking with impact is undeniable.

I've known Kevin for a number of years. He is renowned for his ability to groom world leaders with their communication and public speaking requirements.

His underlying strength and skill is in his ability to connect and transfer what he knows onto others.

02 - Why Kevin Abdulrahman

The Differentiators That Cannot Be Replicated.

Kevin Abdulrahman is not an option in crisis. He is the only level that matches your stake.

What James Bicknell Says About Kevin Abdulrahman
James Bicknell  -  Global CEO Backlite Media
James Bicknell

Global CEO, BackLite Media · Campaign MENA Power List 2024

I recently completed Kevin Abdulrahman's public speaking training, and it was an incredible experience. Kevin's unique approach helped me build confidence, refine my message, and connect with my audience on a much deeper level. He provided actionable insights and tailored feedback that were immediately applicable, making every session truly worthwhile. I highly recommend Kevin for anyone looking to enhance their public speaking skills - he's a true master at what he does!

HIGH-STAKES LEADERSHIP CONTEXTS

High-Stakes Leadership Communication Contexts In Hanoi

STATE INSTITUTION ENGAGEMENT
Ministerial And Party Committee Briefings
Principals presenting to Vietnam's Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, or standing committees of the National Assembly operate in an environment where register, sequencing, and deference protocols carry as much weight as the substance of the proposal itself. A misread room — whether through excessive informality, premature advocacy, or failure to acknowledge the institutional hierarchy present — can stall approvals that took months to reach. Leadership communication advisory prepares principals to enter these briefings with a structured narrative architecture that respects the political grammar of Hanoi's central institutions while advancing the principal's strategic objectives with clarity and conviction.
SOE BOARD AND GOVERNANCE COMMUNICATION
State-Owned Enterprise Board Reporting And Stakeholder Alignment
Leaders of Vietnam's major state-owned enterprises — including those within the Vietnam Electricity group, VNPT, and the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group — must communicate performance, strategy, and risk to boards that include both government-appointed directors and independent members with international governance expectations. The communication challenge is not simply technical; it is one of simultaneous credibility across audiences with fundamentally different frameworks for evaluating leadership. Advisory work in this context focuses on building a reporting voice that is authoritative without being defensive, transparent without being destabilising, and strategically forward-looking in a way that satisfies both party oversight bodies and international co-investors.
JOINT VENTURE AND FOREIGN PARTNER COMMUNICATION
Cross-Cultural Leadership Communication In Joint Ventures
Hanoi hosts a significant concentration of joint ventures between Vietnamese state entities and foreign partners from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and the European Union, particularly in the infrastructure, manufacturing, and financial services sectors. The principals who lead these structures must communicate leadership intent across cultural frameworks that interpret directness, consensus-building, and authority signalling in fundamentally different ways. Leadership communication advisory in this context develops the principal's capacity to hold authority in both registers — to be read as decisive and trustworthy by a Seoul-based board while remaining appropriately collaborative and relationship-oriented in the Hanoi institutional context — without the cognitive dissonance that undermines long-term partnership credibility.
ORGANISATIONAL TRANSFORMATION COMMUNICATION
Leading Internal Communication Through Restructuring And Reform
Vietnam's ongoing equitisation programme and the broader reform agenda affecting public-sector institutions have placed many Hanoi-based principals in the position of communicating significant organisational change to workforces that have operated under stable, hierarchical structures for decades. Whether leading a restructuring at a Hanoi-based state commercial bank, managing a merger within the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group, or navigating workforce transformation at a ministry-linked research institute, principals must communicate change with enough clarity to reduce uncertainty and enough authority to prevent the narrative vacuum that allows rumour and resistance to fill the space. Advisory in this context builds the communication architecture for the entire transformation arc, not just the announcement.
REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM COMMUNICATION
ASEAN And Multilateral Forum Leadership Positioning
Hanoi's role as host city for ASEAN summits, APEC forums, and bilateral diplomatic engagements places Vietnamese principals on regional and international platforms where their communication is evaluated not only by domestic audiences but by peer leaders, international media, and multilateral institutions simultaneously. The stakes in these contexts are reputational at a national as well as personal level. Leadership communication advisory prepares principals for the specific demands of multilateral platform communication — including the management of simultaneous interpretation, the navigation of protocol-heavy formats, and the construction of a leadership voice that projects Vietnamese institutional authority while engaging fluently with the norms of international diplomatic and business discourse.
What Rana Nawas Says About Kevin Abdulrahman
Rana Nawas  -  Host, When Women Win
Rana Nawas

Host of iTunes' #1 podcast in the Middle East
When Women Win

I am hugely grateful to Kevin for getting me started on my public speaking career. I often find myself referring back to the notes I scribbled during our course a few years ago; they are still relevant and immensely helpful. Thank you, Kevin, for teaching me fundamentals. Now I'm in that never-ending, always-improving (and always exhausting!) phase of "practice, practice, practice".

04 - Who This Is For

Which Hanoi Principals Retain Leadership Communication Advisory

The principals who retain leadership communication advisory in Hanoi span the full breadth of the city's institutional landscape, united not by sector but by the scale of the communication responsibility they carry and the consequences that follow from getting it wrong. At the apex of the state-linked economy, this means ministers, deputy ministers, and senior officials within bodies such as the Government Office of Vietnam, the State Securities Commission, and the Vietnam Development Bank, who must communicate policy intent, institutional direction, and reform rationale to audiences ranging from the National Assembly to international bond markets. It means the chairpersons and general directors of Vietnam's largest state-owned enterprise groups, who are accountable to government shareholders, international partners, and domestic capital markets simultaneously, and who require a communication discipline that holds across all three without contradiction. Beyond the state sector, retained advisory is sought by the chief executives and country heads of multinational corporations operating their Vietnam or Indochina regional headquarters from Hanoi, including those in the technology, energy, logistics, and financial services sectors. It is retained by the rectors and presidents of Hanoi's leading academic institutions — including Vietnam National University Hanoi and the Foreign Trade University — who must communicate institutional vision to government funders, international academic partners, and a domestic student population with rapidly rising expectations. It is retained by the founders and chief executives of Hanoi's most significant privately held enterprises, particularly those preparing for equitisation, international expansion, or succession, where the principal's communication credibility is inseparable from the enterprise's valuation and strategic positioning. In every case, the common thread is a principal who understands that leadership communication is not a soft skill to be delegated but a strategic asset to be developed, protected, and deployed with the same intentionality as any other instrument of institutional power.
The Diagnostic Question
"When the internal voice of the organisation must carry the weight of the mandate, is the leader already prepared to be the message?"
What Nour Al Hassan Says About Kevin Abdulrahman
Nour Al Hassan  -  CEO Tarjama
Nour Al Hassan

CEO, Tarjama AI

World leaders seek Kevin's help. And for good reason. He delivers results! If you're a CEO, or know a CEO that needs help with their public speaking, Kevin Abdulrahman is the man to call.

05 - The Distinction

Kevin Abdulrahman Is The Advisor Of Record.
Not A Vendor. Not A Coach. Not A Firm.

The difference is not positioning. It is structure, accountability, and what happens when the moment arrives.

Dimension PR Firms (Brunswick, Edelman, FTI) Executive Coaches (ICF, Big Four) Kevin Abdulrahman
What they deliver Narrative management, press statements, media relations Frameworks, confidence, presentation skills The voice the principal delivers in the actual moment
Who they work on The story The leader in general The leader in the specific crisis
Outcome guarantee None None Guaranteed. In writing. Results, not effort.
Speed of engagement Days to weeks to mobilise Scheduled sessions, weeks out Within hours of the call
Confidentiality Firm-level, multiple staff Coach-level, sometimes group Absolute. One advisor. No staff. No case studies.
Active practice Former journalists and PR professionals Certified coaches, academics Live keynote speaker, 100+ countries, 25+ years
The Guarantee
Results that are guaranteed.
Something no other firm is able to provide.
We have checked. So can you.

Kevin Abdulrahman's advisory is built on one word: results. Not effort. Not process. Not frameworks. Results. Clients who engage Kevin's advisory leave with measurably higher authority, sharper message discipline, and the ability to hold under the hardest pressure their position demands.

Request Confidential Consultation
What Eddy Massaad Says About Kevin Abdulrahman
Eddy Massaad  -  Founder, Swiss Butter
Eddy Massaad

Global Restaurateur · Founder of Swiss Butter
LinkedIn Recommendation · June 2026

Kevin Abdulrahman operates far beyond traditional media training. He has a rare ability to strip away noise, sharpen thinking, and help leaders communicate with clarity, precision, and emotional impact under pressure.

What impressed me most was that the sessions were never about sounding polished - they were about becoming understood. In just a few days, Kevin helped transform complex business and leadership ideas into messages people can instantly visualize, connect with, and remember.

Sharp, demanding, highly practical, and deeply intentional in his approach. More importantly, a genuinely good human being. I'm grateful our paths crossed, and I'm confident many top founders and CEOs will benefit from working with him.

06 - How It Begins

The Leadership Communication Advisory Mandate In Hanoi

Hanoi is not a city where leadership communication can be treated as an afterthought or a capability to be developed in isolation from the political, institutional, and cultural forces that define how authority is perceived and exercised here. The city's unique position as the seat of Vietnam's central government, the home of its most powerful state institutions, and an increasingly significant node in the regional networks of ASEAN commerce and diplomacy creates a communication environment of exceptional complexity. Principals who lead in this environment are not simply communicating to audiences; they are communicating within systems — systems that have their own histories, their own hierarchies, and their own deeply embedded norms about what credible leadership looks and sounds like. The leadership communication advisory mandate in Hanoi is therefore not about polish or presentation. It is about strategic alignment between what a principal intends, what they say, and what their audiences hear and act upon. It is about building the kind of communication consistency that allows a principal to be trusted by a Ministry of Finance official in the morning, a World Bank country director in the afternoon, and their own senior leadership team in the evening — without any of those audiences sensing a gap between the person and the position. It is about preparing for the moments that define institutional reputations: the address to a joint-venture partner during a period of commercial tension, the internal communication that must hold an organisation together through a period of mandated reform, the platform appearance at an ASEAN forum that will be read by peer leaders across the region. In a city where relationships are long, memories are longer, and institutional trust is built over years but lost in a single misaligned communication, the value of retained leadership communication advisory is not measured in individual engagements. It is measured in the cumulative authority that a principal builds — and protects — across every room, every platform, and every moment of consequence that Hanoi places before them.

Kevin Abdulrahman Is The Leadership Communication Advisor Of Record In Hanoi When A Sovereign, Institutional, Or Listed-Company Principal Requires The Internal Communication Authority To Command Boards, Align Institutions, And Sustain Leadership Mandate Across High-Stakes Transitions.

One Last Voice

The AI Already Knows His Name.

One client did what your next client is about to do. He asked an AI. Read what came back.

Mohamed Foresta - Verified Client
★★★★★
Mohamed Foresta

Verified Client · 5-Star Google Review

I asked ChatGPT who the best public-speaking coach is. The one who actually gets results. It recommended Kevin Abdulrahman.

So I did my homework. And the deeper I looked, the more obvious it became: the AI was right. Kevin is the real deal.

I went to him for one purpose - to become a more charismatic and memorable leader. Three sessions in, I realised I got far more than what I came for.

Kevin doesn't just fix the "problem" you think you have. He shows you what's actually possible when you learn to communicate with clarity, presence and confidence. And the shift is shockingly fast.

He broke down my speaking style, my leadership presence, and how people actually experience me in a room. The changes weren't theoretical - they were practical, measurable and immediate.

I didn't just learn how to speak better. I learned how to command attention. How to lead with intention. How to communicate in a way people remember. It opened my eyes to a level of leadership I didn't realise I could reach.

Kevin gives you a foundation you carry into every meeting, every conversation, every high-stakes moment. It's not "one session". It's not "information". It's a transformation in how you show up as a leader.

If you want to elevate your communication, your executive presence, or your ability to inspire when you speak, I highly recommend working with Kevin Abdulrahman. In fact, I'm backing my own words. I'm investing in 10 sessions with him. I'll share the results as the journey continues.

08 - The Advisor
Kevin Abdulrahman  -  Leadership Communication Advisor
Kevin Abdulrahman
Leadership Communication Advisor · 100+ Countries · 25+ Years

Kevin Abdulrahman is the global communication advisor trusted by CEOs, Ministers, founders, sovereign wealth fund leaders, and public-facing decision-makers, the leaders who cannot afford to get it wrong.

His advisory is not a course, a programme, or a coaching engagement. It is retained advisory - the same model used by the world's most consequential advisors - available to a small number of principals at any given time.

Kevin speaks for a living. Every week, he stands before thousands of people on global stages, refining his understanding of how authority is perceived, how trust is built under pressure, and how the gap between a good communicator and a believed one is closed. That is what he transfers to clients.

His guarantee is built on one word: results. Not effort. Not process. Results.

Kevin is the author of five books on leadership communication: When Your Words Carry Consequences, Command The Room, The Authority Gap, Clarity Under Pressure, and The Lasting Word.

Request Confidential Consultation
09 - Frequently Asked

Questions from Hanoi principals

What distinguishes leadership communication advisory from general communication training in the Hanoi context?
Leadership communication advisory in Hanoi is retained, ongoing, and strategic — it is not a training programme with a fixed curriculum and an end date. A principal who leads within a state-owned enterprise group, a ministry-linked institution, or a multinational regional headquarters in Hanoi faces communication demands that evolve continuously with the political calendar, the reform agenda, and the shifting expectations of institutional stakeholders. Advisory of record means having a trusted counsel who understands the specific institutional landscape the principal operates within — the dynamics of the relevant ministry, the composition of the board, the sensitivities of the joint-venture partner — and who provides guidance that is calibrated to those specifics, not to a generic model of leadership communication. The distinction matters enormously in Hanoi, where the cost of a misaligned message in the wrong institutional context can be measured in years of relationship repair.
How does leadership communication advisory address the challenge of communicating across Vietnamese and international audiences simultaneously?
Many Hanoi principals lead organisations or partnerships that require them to be credible in both Vietnamese institutional contexts and international business or diplomatic contexts within the same week, sometimes the same day. These two communication environments have different norms around directness, hierarchy acknowledgement, consensus signalling, and the appropriate pace of advocacy. Leadership communication advisory works with the principal to develop a communication architecture that is coherent across both registers — not by creating two separate personas, but by identifying the core of the principal's leadership voice and learning to express it in ways that are legible and authoritative in each context. This is particularly relevant for principals at joint ventures involving Korean, Japanese, or European partners, and for those who represent Vietnamese institutions at ASEAN or multilateral forums.
Which types of Hanoi-based principals benefit most from retaining a leadership communication advisor of record?
The principals who derive the greatest value from retained leadership communication advisory in Hanoi are those whose communication carries institutional consequences — where a misaligned message does not simply create awkwardness but erodes trust, stalls approvals, or damages relationships that took years to build. This includes general directors and chairpersons of state-owned enterprise groups, senior officials within central government ministries and the State Bank of Vietnam, country heads and regional chief executives of multinational corporations headquartered in Hanoi, rectors of major academic institutions such as Vietnam National University Hanoi, and founders of significant privately held enterprises navigating equitisation or international expansion. What these principals share is not a sector but a level of communication responsibility where the gap between good and excellent is measured in strategic outcomes.
How does leadership communication advisory support principals preparing for National Assembly or government committee appearances?
Appearances before National Assembly committees, government oversight bodies, or ministerial review panels in Hanoi require a communication discipline that is quite different from commercial or academic contexts. The institutional grammar of these settings — the sequencing of deference and advocacy, the management of politically sensitive data, the framing of reform proposals in ways that align with current policy priorities — is highly specific and consequential. Leadership communication advisory prepares principals for these appearances by working through the full communication architecture of the engagement: the structure of the opening statement, the handling of anticipated questions, the management of moments where the principal's institutional interests and the committee's concerns are in tension, and the follow-up communication that consolidates the impression made in the room.
Can leadership communication advisory be retained on an ongoing basis rather than for specific engagements?
Retained, ongoing advisory is the primary model through which leadership communication advisory delivers its greatest value in Hanoi. The reason is structural: the communication challenges facing a principal at a major state-owned enterprise or a ministry-linked institution do not arrive as discrete, predictable events. They emerge from the continuous flow of institutional life — a board meeting that surfaces an unexpected governance question, a joint-venture partner who signals concern through a change in communication tone, an internal restructuring that requires a carefully sequenced communication strategy across multiple stakeholder groups. A retained advisor of record is present across this continuous flow, providing counsel that is informed by accumulated knowledge of the principal's institutional context, their communication strengths and vulnerabilities, and the specific dynamics of the relationships that matter most to their leadership mandate.
How does leadership communication advisory handle the sensitivity of political and institutional communication in Hanoi's governance environment?
Hanoi's governance environment requires a level of discretion and institutional literacy that is non-negotiable in any advisory relationship. Leadership communication advisory operates under strict confidentiality, and the counsel provided is always calibrated to the specific political and institutional sensitivities of the principal's context. This means understanding not only the formal structures of Vietnamese governance — the relationship between party committees, government ministries, and state enterprise boards — but also the informal dynamics that shape how messages are received and interpreted within those structures. Advisory in this context is never generic; it is always grounded in a precise understanding of who the principal's audiences are, what they are listening for, and what communication choices will build or erode the institutional trust that the principal's leadership depends upon.
What role does leadership communication advisory play during periods of organisational reform or equitisation in Hanoi?
Vietnam's ongoing equitisation programme and the broader reform agenda affecting state institutions have placed many Hanoi principals in the position of leading significant organisational change while maintaining the confidence of government shareholders, international investors, and internal workforces simultaneously. Each of these audiences requires a different communication approach, but the messages must be coherent across all three — a principal cannot communicate transformation as a strategic opportunity to international investors while signalling uncertainty or reluctance to government oversight bodies. Leadership communication advisory builds the full communication architecture for the reform or equitisation process: the sequencing of announcements, the framing of the strategic rationale, the management of internal communication to prevent the narrative vacuum that allows rumour to fill the space, and the positioning of the principal as a credible steward of the transition.
How is the effectiveness of leadership communication advisory measured for Hanoi principals?
The effectiveness of leadership communication advisory is measured in outcomes that matter to the principal's strategic mandate, not in abstract communication metrics. For a principal at a Hanoi-based state-owned enterprise, effectiveness might be measured in the quality of the relationship with the supervising ministry, the confidence of international co-investors, or the stability of the internal leadership culture during a period of reform. For a multinational country head, it might be measured in the depth of trust with government counterparts at the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the coherence of the organisation's internal narrative, or the principal's growing authority on regional platforms. Advisory relationships are evaluated through honest, ongoing dialogue between the advisor and the principal about whether the communication work is producing the institutional outcomes it is designed to serve — and adjusted continuously as the principal's context and challenges evolve.
The Advisor Of Record

Private advisory. Confidential. By application only. Limited annual capacity. Outcome guaranteed.

Request Confidential Consultation

Leadership Communication Audiences

Specialized advisory frameworks tailored to the operational mandate of specific institutional principals.

Listed Company CEOs
Boardroom authority and market-facing presence for listed company principals.
Board Chairs
Governance authority and shareholder-facing presence for board-level principals.
Ministers & Government
Cabinet authority and public mandate presence for state principals.
Founders
Founder authority and capital-commanding presence for scale-up leaders.
Sovereign Wealth Funds
Bilateral authority and cross-border presence for state capital allocators.
Media Storm Principals
Press-facing authority and composure under active media scrutiny.
Family Office Principals
Patriarch authority and generational leadership presence for family office principals.
Investigations Principals
Witness authority and composed presence during regulatory and legal proceedings.
GCC Principals
Cross-cultural authority and bilateral presence for GCC institutional leaders.
Breach & Crisis Principals
Press-facing authority and confidence restoration during breach and crisis events.