We packed a lot into September – working at conferences, running events, helping clients with day-to-day comms, PR and long-term digital projects.
Conference season kicked off with the TUC and Vic went down to Brighton to catch up with clients, colleagues and comrades including ASLEF, Nautilus, NASUWT, AEP, SoR and BALPA.
Our next stop was Liverpool for the Labour Party conference where Becky and Vic chaired 16 panels, roundtables and receptions for New Statesman on everything from cyber security to financial inclusion and end-of-life care to photonics.
We went to a few fringes ourselves to gather insight on national and world events so we can advise our clients – including Becky's in Europe and the Middle East – on influencing and reputation management. Matt toured health panels with the Society of Radiographers while Becky watched Andy Burnham “start a debate” at a Labour4PR event on proportional representation.
A significant part of conference is networking. We enjoyed speeches at the New Statesman reception; conversations with our education comms colleagues Mission 44, Now Teach and EPI; MPs on the decks, live music and a karaoke sing-along; and a few glasses of fizz with the top brass from NASUWT, NAHT and NEU.
We’re helping BALPA’s new comms team settle into their roles. Matt is supporting the union as it gears up for its big event of the year, Annual Delegates Conference. Naomi continues to work on PR and campaigns; Duncan on CRM and digital; and Rebecca and others in the team on member comms.
We started a scoping exercise with Nautilus International back in March, to help them transform their online presence, then helped them carry out the tender for a new website partner, so it’s great to finally kick off the build with 89up, and Duncan is now project managing to relieve some of the workload pressure.
PR guru Catherine Cooper secured widespread coverage for Tree of Hope’s fundraising support, the latest stories involving parents pushing themselves beyond personal limits for their children with complex health conditions.
At Agenda, we’re not just about ‘doing’ comms work. We support people’s careers via our coaching offer and have started working with a new person looking to grow as a comms professional. We also share expertise and ideas, and Becky ran two sessions in September – one on crisis comms and the other with our friend, Alan Clayton, on what we can learn from his book on Great Fundraising Organisations. Keep an eye out for more events – including how unions can use AI to better understand their members and to catch Becky speak at the International Fundraising Conference in the Netherlands.
