3 things I learned this week – volume 29
A snap round-up of a week in the wonderful world of comms.
by Darren Caveney
Rekindling that creative sparkle
So, this week saw me on the road again to run supercharged social media training for two comms teams. One of the biggest issues I have been hearing from teams over the past few months is the frustration of the lack of time to work with colleagues on co-creating campaigns and generating ideas in person.
I’ve always believed the best work come from crowd-sourcing in small groups. One daft idea can spark a genius idea. One insight can throw up a gem of an idea to develop. And so on and so on.
Back in the old days – pre-Covid – I always got teams into smaller groups to work through developing a new campaign. Some brilliant work emerged from these sessions.
So this week we took the opportunity to get back to this collaborative approach. It was lovely to see.
My learning
It’s amazing how much work and ideas a small group can create in just an hour. Seriously – more than a week of juggling Teams calls, never-ending work demands and those pesky emails will ever throw up.
I look forward to seeing four new campaigns emerge from that session.
A mention for members
Yesterday I had the chance to run an evening training workshop for a group of elected members.
I think some elected members get a real bad press. Yet many, from all persuasions, are delivering important work within and for the communities which elected them.
It’s always fun to work with them and to hear their insights and experiences from the front line of our communities. But, some have experienced some pretty poor behaviours both online and in person. They join a sadly long UK list in that respect.
My learning
According to research by the Local Government Association, 72% of respondents singled out local councillors, as opposed to members of parliament at 11% and government minsters at 8%, as the individuals they most trust to make decisions about how services are provided.
So whilst it might not feel like it if you’re an elected member, many of us trust you to do the right thing. And in a world of fairly brittle trust that’s pretty impressive.
The Christmas Social has dropped
The comms2point0 Christmas Social has been announced.
It’s just been too long since we got together in person hasn’t it.
So here’s the chance to put that right.
Birmingham’s finest, the Indian Streatery, will play host to a gathering I’m really looking forward to.
The good people at CAN Digital are kindly sponsoring some of your festive tipples too.
My learning
The appetite to get together IRL has been brilliant to see.
And if you’ve not been to the Streatery before you’re going to love the sensational house standout dish, a smoked aubergine curry.
It will be a lot of fun but tickets are in short supply – if you want to be there take a look here now.
Stay safe, all x
Darren Caveney is creator and owner of comms2point0 and creative communicators ltd
*Sign up for the comms2point0 eMag*
The comms2point0 eMag features exclusive new content, free give-aways, special offers, first dibs on new events and much, much more.
Sound good? Join over 3k other comms people who have subscribed. You can sign up to it right here.
Image via Tullio Saba
