Avoiding jargon, harnessing the power of storytelling, understanding audiences: in these confusing times creating powerful messaging has been a key priority for Agenda of late. Here’s some of what we’ve been up to alongside our civil society partners:
“Changing hearts and minds” event
In light of changes to civil society and aid budgets in the UK, Europe and the US, you may be thinking about how to make a stronger case for your work. If so, our event on Wednesday 4 June could be just what you need. Tickets for ‘Changing hearts and minds: Countering harmful narratives’ are now on sale and going quick so snap yours up while there's still time.
Writing workshop
Do you put the needs of audiences first when writing copy? No? Want to know how? Becky has been putting the finishing touches to her writing skills workshop, taking place on Wednesday 19 March. If you'd like to know how to write for your audiences and make every word count, plus easy ways to capture attention, book your spot now - just eight spaces available.
International non-profit World Habitat participated in a three-part online workshop to enhance their storytelling skills. Led by Becky, the sessions covered how to use stories to demonstrate impact, persuasive storytelling for policymakers and journalists, and how to give data a compelling narrative.
Projects
Who doesn’t love a Post-it note and massive whiteboard to run a workshop? This month Vic and Matt have been helping ASLEF, prioritise the union’s comms work to create a ‘One ASLEF’ approach to member engagement.
We’re helping BALPA across several projects from CRM implementation and website support to a comms review and PR campaigns. We’re proudly boosting the union’s capacity and profile.
How to frame communications to best engage decision-makers; why Labour is wrong to parrot Reform on immigration; how jargon can prevent people from participating in society. Becky has been taking a Comms Lab approach to some knotty issues. Check out her LinkedIn for insights, or see here for more on Agenda's evidence-based approaches to strategy and narrative.
From Trump's strategy of flooding the zone to selling a positive vision of Europe to countering far-right narratives, Becky, Mark Watts from LP Brussels and Stephanie Quintao of Democrats Abroad covered a lot of ground in their discussion to mark one month since Trump's inauguration.
Some additional fun
And finally... Vic, Becky and Bec took some time out from helping others with their strategies to work on Agenda’s. We had an excellent two days of celebrating progress, identifying future goals and plotting our route there – finished off with an evening in the pub with ace associate Naomi where we came a respectable fourth place in the quiz. All that strategising had clearly worked wonders on our general knowledge.
