Another month, another WonkComms Breakfast Club. The topic this time? That most intractable of WonkComms challenges: planning. As always, there was more discussion than can be summed up in one blog. But we can sum up the key take-aways from the discussion.
The line between freedom and chaos is astonishingly thin, I’ve recently discovered. Handed the mandate to set up a communications function for The Social Innovation Partnership, I’ve occasionally struggled to stay the right side of that divide. Now a year…
This time last year Nick, Richard and I recapped over the year in wonkcomms, looking back at thirteen tools think tank communicators used to promote and publicise their work. I was struck by the sheer diversity and creativity of the…
While accustomed to the media spotlight, it is fair to say none of us at The Institution of Mechanical Engineers had experienced the the full blown media storm we caused in January 2013 with the launch of the Global Food: Waste Not, Want Not report.
The last three WonkComms events considered the ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘where’ of think tank communications. This event turned its attention to ‘who’ – the human resources think tanks can call on for their communications, what skills are needed to progress in the sector and how to develop them.
Our third WonkComms event, “Rent a quote? Think tanks, media and strategy”, took place at the Institute for Government on 5 September 2013. Speakers included John Coventry of Change.org, Beatrice Karol Burks of Citizen’s Advice, Kiran Stacey of the Financial Times, and Huw Evans of the Association of British Insurers. The event was chaired by Richard Darlington of the IPPR.
Back at the end of the last millennium my biggest preoccupation at work was how to secure more column inches for my employer…. Ten years on social media had firmly established itself as a channel through which you could tell your stories and engage key opinion formers. But this was a slow transition and an organisations’ ability to pitch stories into traditional media outlets remained of paramount importance.
Following our successful launch event last April, WonkComms are bringing you the third in a series of events on think tank communications. We are delighted to have a top line-up of speakers too!
That ‘appropriate way’ of communicating to get action and change will never be – has never been – a report alone. Though media coverage has always been central to think tank communications, changes to the way information is broadcast, found and consumed in the digital age will usher in a new understanding of what products are used in think tank communications.
Like a zombie, the ‘minute past midnight embargo’ haunts my press releases like an undead spectre. No longer fit for purpose, and yet still a ubiquitous header on the top of most attempts at proactive media relations, the phrase “Embargoed: 00:01h” is dead but not yet buried.
