Communications: What Works? Summit

Communications Update for Summit Steering Committee Call - October 19th, 2017

Hi - a quick update on the communications process for the Summit Steering Committee call on Thursday October 19, 2017. Plus a question for everyone at the end.
 

At this time the main focus of the work is (a) get the decision-making foundations in place with the formation and facilitation of the Communications working group and (b) ensure that relevant people know about the Summit and are encouraged to both submit an abstract and register.

Communications sub-group: This now includes Communication for Development network (C4D Net); Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD); International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE); International Social Marketing Association (ISMA); Population Services International (PSI); a representative from Indonesia as well as Johns Hopkins University (JHUCCP) and The Communication Initiative (The CI). Between them they cover the various strands of this field of work and engage a large number of relevant people and organizations).

Strategy: A short-term strategy has been developed. It is included below for your review and comment.

Resources package: JHU has led on putting together a communications package - logos, draft text, etc. This can be accessed here when you have the drop box permissions. Please let us know if you would like access. 

Network notes: As the core element of this strategy each of the networks and membership groups in the CommS group have communicated with their networks. For example C4D network and GFMD have just sent notes to their membership, PSI has communicated to its network, IUHPE and ISMA will send notes very soon, and JHU and The CI have sent a variety of notes to their networks.

Interest and engagement: As you will see in the strategy below a plan is being developed to collect data from across all of the communications participants. We hope to report on that at the next Steering Group meeting. For now as just one slice of this pie in order to provide some insight, from the CI activities only there have been 28,000 email opens from the 4 The CI notes sent to date (one to global, two to Africa network and one to Latin America network) with 2,500 page views just on the basic Summit info and links page on The CI site. With abstracts and registrations open we will begin monitoring trends and gaps in order to refine the approach.

Your engagement?: We would very much welcome you communicating news and updates on the Summit to your networks encouraging them to submit abstracts and register. If interested please let us know and either Marla at JHU or myself can provide support.

Thanks - the initial strategy follows FYI - all comments most welcome.

Warren

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Appendix: Summit: CommunicationS strategy (initial)

GOALS

There are 3 overall goals for this sub-Group

1. Ensure both the social and behaviour change community and others in the Development sector are fully aware of this conference and can easily register, pay and attend

2. Organise knowledge submitted to be shared (abstracts) at the conference; the assessment and selection of that knowledge; create and facilitate the pre-, during- and post knowledge sharing and virtual engagement with the conference

3. Support communications activities with the press and relevant external groups before and after the Summit

KEY INITIAL MILESTONES

At this stage our focus is on the first of these goals. There are two major milestones:

a. November 27, 2017 - deadline for submission of abstracts - Abstracts are open now

b. March 1, 2018 - deadline for registrations - Registration process will be open very soon

TARGETS

As part of the overall process of organizing this Summit related to participation and “content” we have two targets that guide us all.

a. Between 1,000 and 1,200 people register and attend
b. Between 600 and 800 abstracts submissions are received.

Those targets are our communications focus for October to December 2017. If we do not have people attending and content to present then there is of course no Summit!. We will begin to address our other roles later in 2017.

ACTIVITIES

During October and November 2017 we are encouraging everyone to please do the following related to their membership and networks and through their communication processes - newsletters, network or membership notes, web sites, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, etc:
 

1. Provide an introduction to the Summit
2. Encourage people to register to attend
3. Encourage people to submit abstracts for consideration
4. Consistently use the hashtag that we agree

PROGRESS and METRICS

It would be very helpful if we could communicate amongst ourselves, with overview reports to the Steering Committee:

a. Progress with these tasks - for example newsletters sent highlighting the Summit
b. Some metrics that indicate interest - for example page views, email opens, views on Linkedin etc

We will of course test all of this against Abstract submissions and Registrations.

We will put together an excel or google sheet that can be easily updated by everyone.

RESOURCES and GUIDANCE

There is a dropbox with the materials in support of the networking and information processes being undertaken - logos, announcement drafts, images, etc are here

JUST THE BEGINNING

This is just the beginning. As highlighted the above relates to the present imperative - people attend and the Summit has content!

To: Steering Committee - What Works? Summit, 2018

Hi folks - further to this previous note encouraging you to if at all possible highlight the What Works? Summit through your organisation's communication processes and platforms, can I please ask you if at all possible to provide to the Communications sub-committee (a) an update on any communications "published" and (b) any data re those communications that you can provide - numbers of people in the networks to which communications are being sent, email open data for emails, Facebook post reach, LinkedIn views, etc. We are seeking to compile the communications data for the Secretariat and Steering Committee.

Just as an example insight from one organisation, because I have the data to hand, the recent email note to The Drum Beat network (48,000 on October 24th) has been opened 8,624 times by people in the network, one post on Facebook had a reach of 2,222 people to date, and the pages on The CI site related to the Summit have so far had 14,984 page views from 185 countries (includes all use on the organising groups of course).

But more important will be the combined data from all involved in the Comms group and others such as your organisation. Hence the Qs above.Most happy to answer any questions.

Thanks - much appreciated - Warren

To: Summit Steering Committee

For: Summit Steering Committee meeting March 29, 2018

Synthesis of Summit Communications Strategy

Hi folks - look forward to connecting in the morning. Below is a synthesis of the Summit communications strategy for your information and input. It draws together and highlights the key elements of the strategy that has been developed over the past few months. My thanks to everyone engaged in the Communications sub-committee.  

Communications Strategy - Synthesis Overview and Update for Steering Committee

 
Hi - for this meeting of the Steering Committee I wanted to draw together the core elements of the What Works? Summit communication strategy. The work-to-date and next steps outlined below are the collective work of the C4D network, PSI, JHUCCP, ISMA, GFMD and Rita Widiadanda (in Indonesia).

1. Attendees and Abstracts

The initial laser-like focus of the Communications sub-committee was to work through their own networks and membership, and to encourage and support others to engage their networks and members, to attract as many relevant people as possible to the Summit and a healthy pipe-line of abstract submissions for review, consideration and selection as the content for the Summit. As I write we are very close to the 1,200 maximum for Summit attendees. There were 1,262 abstract submissions received from which 300 approx were selected by the Programme Committee.

2. Communications as a central part of the Summit.

The communications strategy is to act as a central component of the knowledge sharing, conversation and distillation of the Summit itself by engaging both people attending and those who can not attend but are very interested, through the actions that follow. We have specifically tried to focus on a very few strategic actions that have both maximum “spread” potential and will get at the essence of the Summit from the perspective and with the voice of the people participating. Guarantees have been provided that there is excellent wifi in the Summit venue. There is a working assumption that a high percentage of the people attending will have mobile phones with web access and photo functionality. There is an awareness that this could bias the process towards those from economically wealthier organisations and contexts. We will encourage phone sharing.

The core principle behind this strategy is that we do not want to create a separate communications process just for the Summit. The Summit provides an opportunity to integrate the work of the Summit into existing platforms and therefore to help strengthen and build those ongoing platforms. We wish to engage as many people as possible who for one reason or another are very interested in the Summit but can not be in Nusa Dua. The communications process should not be just for people in Nusa Dua.

For these reasons it is vitally important, in relation to discussion groups, video interviews and other aspects of the strategy below that we do not have a communications option that is exclusivly focused on and derived from the Summit itself.     
  

a. Existing platforms and networks:

There will be no central communications platform specific to the Summit. Instead we are seeking to engage and support the present range of platforms that exist - for example the C4D network, GFMD membership, social marketing association membership, the ICA and IAMCR research memberships and, most importantly, the social media accounts of the people attending and their organizations.

On the latter if there are 1,200 people in attendance and they all have 500  contacts on average across their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc accounts then that is an initial reach of 600,000, though of course there could be some overlap. If there is an average of 1,000 then that is an initial reach of 1.2 million.

Perhaps more important than those numbers is that this strategy ensures that the major communications by Summit participants tweeting and posting about their Summit experiences will by design be resonant with their issues and goals.

Prior to, during and post the Summit there will be regular prompts reminding people to send social media posts. Through the network of registered and interested people for the Summit we will suggest  themes and pose some questions in an attempt to maintain energy and help to provide some shape. 
  

b. Connective tissue

So, how is this all joined together? The “connective tissue” will be the hashtag #SBCCSummit. In all communications with Summit participants and those interested we are encouraging/imploring everyone to both include the #SBCCSummit in all of their communications and to place on their websites blocks or boxes that stream the flow of conversation that is tagged with #SBCCSummit.

This will also provide the Summit organizers with the capacity to check in on the Summit engagement as it happens - to take the temperature. Of course given the nature of this social media this will also enable people to connect. And we are doing so with the platforms they would normally use. We are not asking them to adopt something new.
  

c. In-depth dialogue:

By their very nature social media conversations and posts tend to be short and snappy. But there is also a need for more in-depth and substantive dialogue and debate. A number of the partners in the Summit Communications committee have network platforms. In keeping with the principle outlined above these partners will create relevant groups for more in-depth dialogue and debate. For example The Communication Initiative with its network of 90,000 people in this field will create threads around each day of the Summit and the themes of those days. Using this process also extends reach to people who for one reason or another can not attend in person in Nusa Dua. It provides opportunities for them to engage substantively in the conversation through virtual means. Others will do likewise on their platforms.

d. Phone video interviews:

As part of the communications strategy we want to ensure that there is a process for the participants in Nusa Dua to both give voice to their analysis, perspectives, ideas and to gather relevant insights from their colleagues. We wish to do this in a way that links to and enhances the strategies outlined above.

Therefore we are asking everyone at the Summit to conduct a minimum of 5 video interviews on their phone or on q phone that they can borrow. The Summit participants will be asked to identify people who in their assessment - maybe based on a poster they see or a presentation they attend or a question someone asks - can potentially add value to their work. The people they approach and the questions they will ask are of course entirely up to them. But we will provide some starter questions and ideas should they be helpful. Of course we will encourage participants to upload these videos to their social media accounts - youtube, Facebook etc for further distribution and comment. As with all communications we will stress the importance of using the #SBCCSummit.

This approach is also designed to mesh with one of the Summit Outputs being considered by the Outputs Committee. The phone video interviews will provide raw footage that will be helpful in creating their short, compiled video vignettes that outline this field of work and make a case for What Works? If we can get even 500 people to do the 5 phone video interviews then there will be lots of material.

    
e. In person meetings post-Summit:

One of the communication challenges for a Summit such as this is how to keep the connection and dialogue going. All of the above is designed for that purpose. But it is all social media and online engagement. There is nothing that relates to face-to-face in person connections.

The Communication for Development Network has an annual Network Challenge campaign where C4D network members and others come together in their cities for in-country meet-ups. The purpose is to discuss and share thinking and experiences of social change, behaviour change and other communication for development topics. They are offering this platform in support of the Summit by aligning the Network Challenge campaign this year with the key Summit questions. This will involve people who both attend and do not attend the Summit. We will all join to support and highlight attendance at these events. They will be post the Summit of course.

This also provides a connection point for people who attended the Summit.

            
3. Outputs Group connection

There is a close connection with the Summit Outputs committee. When they have finalized the set of Outputs from this Summit we will obviously provide the necessary communications to amplify those outputs.    

4. Media relations

This work is taking place now. The initial press release is being prepared. More soon

We wanted to provide you with this overview of the strategy. All questions most welcome.

Thanks - Warren on behalf of the Communications sub-committee