The prevailing mood in public sector communications might be a bit grey but a day of collaboration with your local public sector peers can add much-needed colour.
by John-Paul Danon
Have you ever had your personality type tested on the colour wheel?
I am a yellow person (when I’m not hungry). Many communicators I meet seem to be a mix of yellow and green. They often work with blue and red people. This can be draining, especially when your skills and expertise are consistently misunderstood and undervalued.
Mix this with an ever-darkening macro environment and it can be hard to stay positive.
On a chilly Friday in early January, communicators from a range of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire organisations came together to look forward. District, county and city councils, colleges and universities, care partnerships, tourism, fire, police, and the NHS all took part.
Ruby Bhattal brought everyone together to work on how public sector communications could support improved outcomes for young people across the region.
Youth movement
We handpicked an array of experts to deliver training on the day:
comms2point0’s Darren Caveney set the context for collaboration and shared excellent examples of youth engagement from other regions.
Antonia Dixey and young consultant Andrew Duffin from Participation People helped the group understand how to involve and co-create campaigns with young people.
Alex Waddington gave the group practical tips on how to use data including where to start, what is out there, and what to watch out for. As well as emerging uses of AI for comms professionals.
The afternoon was designed to create multiple opportunities for collaboration and cross-pollination between teams and organisations.
True colours
This regional collaboration and training event was a first for CAN. The feedback from the room suggested the day had given participants:
A sense of empowerment, renewed positivity and new connections.
A range of new collaboration-based ideas to save time and to do more with less.
A much-needed morale boost.
Your turn?
If you could get together with your colleagues and local peers in other organisations, which issues would you choose to focus on? The local economy? Services for vulnerable adults? For children? Which groups would be involved? What training, learning and development would help you all work better together?
If you’re a communications leader and think this sort of event would be a boost to local comms teams, CAN will provide support to make it happen.
Who knows, maybe next year’s winner of “Best Collaboration” at the UnAwards will start from one of these days?
John-Paul Danon is a director of CAN Digital. If you want to discuss holding a similar event where you are,pick a time that suits you for a chat with him.
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