CATEGORY: Public SectorNews

Back from the future of local government communications

Pictured from left to right: Andy Allsopp from Essex County Council, Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Danni Clayton from Leeds City Council and Alix MacFarlane from Slough Borough Council.  

Wonderful Wigan

Wigan provided a wonderful welcome for LGcomms Academy 2024 as over 200 local government communications professionals gathered at The Edge in Wigan to enjoy two days of thought-provoking presentations, debate issues in unconference sessions and learn about our fantastic host borough of Wigan. 

The e-shot team brought along a little surprise for delegates to reflect the conference’s “Back to the Future” theme; a DeLorean! After all, if you’re going to sponsor an event, why not do it with some style? 

Pictured: Michael J. Fox Stringer from Surrey County Council

To answer the questions, we got asked repeatedly during the event:  

1. No, it wasn’t the original from the movie, but…  

2. It is an accurate replica built by Universal Studios  

3. It did appear in the film Ready Player One  

4. It was also used to model the cars in the West End musical  

5. It is a working DeLorean and capable of 88mph!  

As utterly fabulous as the DeLorean was, the overwhelming sense of community and collaborative spirit stole the show. The commonality of challenges that face the sector and the thought-provoking stories from frontrunners served as inspiration to the packed auditorium. The prominent themes of decreasing budgets, pressed resources and conflicting priorities continue – but the resourcefulness and creativity of the sector to combat these potential impediments shone through.  

The “Back to the future” theme resonated throughout the two days, whether it was going back to basics to optimise for the future or taking a fresh look at traditional channels to see how they could work in a new way. 

Alex Waddington shared his insights on the opportunities that generative ai present and how it can, in a measured way, save time and energy for pressed teams whether used to create synopsis or summaries of large swathes of data or text, pull out insights or serve as inspiration. The example of Signapse.ai for providing sign language interpretation was a highlight from the array of innovations in the rapidly evolving A.I space. 

Another highlight was a demonstration of seizing the opportunity to share key messages with the backdrop of a Taylor Swift concert, shared by Michael Pinkerton from City of Edinburgh Council as he shared how the reach and amplification of comms was achieved while providing a positive experience for residents and visiting Swifties alike. 

With everyone feeling budget pressures, it was also interesting to hear how some councils are thinking more commercially about their communications channels. On Friday we heard from Marcus Chrysostomou of Havering Council, Louisa Dean from Reading Borough Council and Michael Stringer from Surrey County Council about their journeys to cost neutralisation. By re-negotiating poor deals with outdoor media operators and adding advertising to digital channels, councils are starting to realise the true value in their media estates with the help of LGcomms and e-shot partner,CAN Digital. 

More about the LGcomms £1.5million challenge

Another highlight, new to Academy for 2024 was the “unconference sessions” where the audience were in the driving seat of what they want to talk about, which was a welcome addition to the day’s agenda. The internal communications unconference session proved so popular that many of those in attendance reconvened over lunch to continue the debate - we will summarise the insights from this session in another post, but one point of consensus was the need for senior leadership to support internal communications teams to ensure staff engage fully.

Academy gives the comms community, not only the chance to hear from inspirational speakers but to come together to exchange experiences, challenges, ideas and successes. We were delighted that Surrey County Council were able to share their story of working with us. 

For those that missed the session you can see Surrey’s story here.

It was also fantastic to see a healthy mix of leaders and practitioners being given the opportunity to learn from their industry peers. The Wigan team also represented their borough brilliantly with lunchtime learning sessions before the aftershow party had everyone on their feet to sample Northern Soul dancing. Perhaps we have finally got past the post-pandemic preference to online events? There is so much more to learn at these events in person.

Pictured: Emma from St Helens Borough Council perfectly accessorising with the hoverboard.

Andy Allsopp, Chair of LGcomms, commented: “Back to the Future was an Academy of firsts – the first in Wigan, the first to sell out, the first to be visited by a serving Secretary of State.

“I think we succeeded in creating an agenda and an experience which was relevant, met member expectations, and was forward looking and thinking alongside the opportunity to reflect on where we are as a profession.

“Wigan provided an amazing venue and a cultural experience – pies, northern soul, Uncle Joes Mint Balls and and all – which hope will live in the memory for a while to come.”

Indeed, the highlights of the two days are too numerous to mention, but we will absolutely be reminiscing with the play list of songs that heralded the entrance of each of the speakers: Open Spotify

The presentations from all of the various sessions are now available to LGcomms members:

Download presentations