Skip to main content
Commsy creative stuff straight to your inbox

Blog

The united state of communication – why PRSA blew my mind! 

< Blog home

The united state of communication – why PRSA blew my mind! 

I was blown away to be asked to run a workshop on creativity at #PRSAconnect in Phoenix, USA.

When I got ‘the call’ earlier in the year, I felt like Scott Lang (AKA Ant Man) being asked to team up with Captain America* and other comms Avengers. (And anyone who was at my presentation will now know about my love of all things Marvel!)

It was an experience I will never forget, and I echo fellow speaker Rachel Miller’s feeling that it’s been a career highlight.

The 3-day conference saw comms pros from across the world, coming together and sharing conversations, stories, experiences and ideas. New friendships were started, and existing relationships strengthened, and the whole experience was unlike anything I’ve ever attended before.

There were loads of sessions going on, but the beauty of #PRSAconnect was that the conversations in the corridors were as rich as the presentations and workshops themselves.

All the attendees spent a lot of time together over breakfast, lunch and dinner too, which I’ve never really experienced before – except at commsunplugged where you commit to being away for a few days.

It’s something I’ll think about when I’m heading to my next conference, as previously I’ve tended to shy away from those types of moments. But in the case of PRSA, it was just another part of the rich experience that overall contributed to a great time away.

With so many interesting workshops, presentations and discussions going on across the 3-days, it would be impossible for me to cover them all off here, but I thought I’d do a quick snapshot of some of the top issues that really got me thinking.

My top takeaways from #PRSAconnect

Growing as a communications professional will support the progression of the profession.

There was a strong theme running throughout the conference – within presentations by Rachel Miller, Priya BatesChuck GoseKristin Hancock and Angee Linsey, among others – that personal development is essential to the progression of the profession as a whole.

In essence, for the profession to grow in credibility and influence, we as individuals need to lead the way by connecting comms to organisational strategy and talking the language of the business. Ultimately, it’s about supporting the business and where its heading.

For me, there’s an interesting dynamic between the desire to be strategic and the tactical demands placed upon comms professionals. There could and should be room for both, but a big challenge can often be the size of teams and capacity.

I had a brief but incredibly insightful chat with a comms manager who had developed and implemented a strategy and was now facing this particular challenge herself.

Following a significant reshaping of the comms setup, including the implementation of new channels, what followed was a need for tactical support to keep these channels vibrant and active. This was taking up a vast amount of time and was having an impact on the capacity to work strategically. The challenge remained how best to resource the tactical work, so that the strategic support to the business could continue.

Wherever you go in the world, people love to talk about seats and tables (but mostly tables) 

Ironically, there were plenty of both these things at the conference, but they were all taken.

I hear a lot about ‘seats at tables’ when I have chats with people about comms. And we could spend a great deal of time being distracted by the things we haven’t got, rather than focusing on making a difference with what we have.

If we build our network and connections with senior people, then seats at tables may not matter so much. Eyes, ears and brains at the table with communication in mind could be more important.

We know that communication is everyone’s responsibility, so if we’ve built the right connections and have influenced the right people (and they ‘get it’) then communication will be important to the board and senior leaders – regardless of who is sat around that illusive table.

Senior people make decisions all the time, so having them on board with communication in a broader sense is potentially more important and could have just as much impact.

In a conversation on this topic, someone said that they simply won’t take a job at an organisation where comms isn’t important. I didn’t get the feeling that this person was overly concerned about a seat at the table because they were working in a culture and environment that is ripe for communication to thrive.

Those that dare to be brave often win

Kyla Turner from Loves Travel Stops shared how her organisation had shied away from introducing any policies around an enterprise social app. The thinking being that they wanted to drive a positive experience for remote and disconnected employees, with nothing potentially getting in the way.

The big message here was about trusting employees to do the right thing and to avoid making people feel overwhelmed (or putting them off from participating) with endless rules.

So, what happened?

True engagement.

The result has been a mass of beautiful shots of shiny trucks and even shinier toilets and many more shiny trucks. Real people from the frontline showing how proud they are of their work.

When something was shown that wasn’t quite right – such as a safety issue for example – it wasn’t an issue, but an opportunity to get feedback from peers, or to receive some appropriate training.

Truckers and retail staff are now connected to each other and spreading the Love.

The stage was set for greatness…. and it was delivered

Everyone that took to the stage for keynotes absolutely smashed it and I attended some great breakout sessions too. Added to this were the conversations, passion and insights of all the attendees, which made for an outstanding event and continue to make the comms community a special thing to be a part of.

One final thought

If you’re like me, when you attend something like #PRSAconnect you leave buzzing with ideas and determined to make things happen. On your return, you check your emails, you have project updates and quickly find you’re uncertain how you’re going to find the time to put all that incredible insight and shared knowledge into action!
Here’s a little inspiration on how to manage your time…

Google for Work // Managers to Makers from David Stanfield on Vimeo.

(*So, who is Captain America in this story?)

“I feel like they own and care for the project as much as we do! I would not use anyone else for my creative work and think Alive is ahead of the game.”

Jo Hobbs — Communications Manager

“Thanks for all your help. We are delighted with the campaign, both in terms of the creativity and messaging but also the thought taken over the rollout of the materials. All looks absolutely fabulous!”

Sarah Crowdy — Campaign and Media Officer Communications, South East Water

“We went to ‘Alive’ for ideas on how to run a specific employee program in Europe. Alan and his team were brilliant in coming up with fresh, creative and practical approaches. The team took charge and executed brilliantly. We are pleased with the progress made so far and hope to have the same level of partnership and commitment going forward.”

Sobha Varghese — Tata Consultancy Services

“Alive helped us create a video of our response to the floods of winter 2019. Our Chief Officer received messages from all round the country praising us for it and was really pleased with both the video and the response to it.”

Alexander Mills, Communications Manager — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

“We had the privilege to work with the Alive team. It was our first time to be involved in creating an animation for our patients within paediatrics. The team were approachable, friendly, creative and very accommodating. Your vision for what you want to create, is at all times acknowledged, appreciated and accommodated by the team. They worked effectively and with great passion towards our project and worked not only alongside health professionals but also our patients who really enjoyed the experience of working with the Alive team. It has given our team the confidence and inspiration to do further projects in the future. We highly recommend Alive and their exceptional team.”

DR ELENI ATHANASAKOS, Lead Paediatric Clinical Scientist — NHS Barts Health

“‘The short animation developed in co-production with clinicians and young people is outstanding! Informative, developmentally appropriate, vitally fun and engaging. We are really grateful for the expertise of the Alive with Ideas team for their innovative approach in building children’s health literacy.'”

Kath Evans — Director of Children’s Nursing at Barts Health

“Our mission was to update our brand visuals to better reflect our innovative and forward-thinking organisation. After receiving numerous pitches from different branding agencies, Alive stood out with their clear passion and understanding of our identity and goals. We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Alive Team to create an engaging new brand that we are immensely proud of.”

Lianne Springer — Communications and Engagement Lead

“Alive wowed us during the pitch process and they didn’t stop wowing us throughout the whole project. Every person we worked with at Alive were so friendly, knowledgeable and clearly passionate about what they do. They have worked with us to really understand what we do and have created a new brand and website that really stands out from our competitors. Thank you!”

Louise Burnard, Head of Marketing and Communications UK — Be | Shaping the Future

“I think the team have done such a brilliant job, particularly with responding to our requests. It's one of the best mental health videos I've ever seen. Very proud to be associated with your exemplary work. Thank you so much.”

Dr Anna Batho — Clinical Psychologist – Critical Care, UCLH

“We have worked with Alan, Caroline and the wider Alive With Ideas team for many years. In that time, they have provided a dedicated service that is second to none. We appreciate their attention to detail and creative approach to bringing our brand, communications and stories to life. And would recommend them to anyone looking for creative communications support.”

Georgia Beech — Internal Communications Specialist, Ocado Group

“This is brilliant. I wanted to give my heartfelt thanks to all of the team who worked on this. You all understood exactly what we wanted to communicate and why, and then managed to do it in a way that was far better than anything I could have imagined. I’m a bit choked up to be honest!”

Sarah Wright, Head of Communications and Campaigns — NEA

“Each time I work with the team, I am always stunned at the effort and creativity that goes into each detail and am always eager for the end result. The team is extremely accommodating and always provide a fresh approach to our projects that elevates our communications materials!”

Alana Khaytin, Communications Specialist — Braskem America

“What I really appreciate about Alive is that they work with us as partners, and care as much about getting it right for our patients as we do.”

Sara Langston, Patient Engagement & Marketing Manager — italk

“Alive are unique in how much they deeply listen and invest in you and your ideas. I have not come across a company that listens as much as they do to ensure your needs are understood and met (actually - they always exceed my needs and expectations). Everyone I recommend Alive to has an equally brilliant experience. When you work with Alive, you are not only getting some genius creativity brought into your life, you are also hanging out with some of the best examples of human beings I’ve ever known.”

Steph Tranter, Hybrid Exec Coach & Psychologist — StephTranter.com

“The (Alive) team were able to creatively pull together and document (in just over 2minutes) everything our service has achieved over the last few months, from thousands of prescriptions deliveries to hundreds of phone calls made to the vulnerable. The final product was so powerful and reflective of what our service has and continues to achieve. It couldn’t have been better received within the service – thanks Alive for once again helping us to communicate our vision!’”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire & Rescue

“We worked with the team at Alive to create our staff recognition video.
At a time like this, its never been more important to share the amazing work that our staff have done and continue to do on a daily basis under very difficult circumstances. We wanted to shout about this and recognise that when the time came, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue stepped up to the plate. We didn’t want an ordinary thank you post on social media or a basic email sent out internally, we wanted something special. Enter Alive. ”

Emma Wright — South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

“Our company is fun, we have great brands, but most importantly we’re all about our people – and I wanted an agency who would understand that and help us bring it to life through our website and other comms. Straight away I felt that Alive ‘got’ us and provided the creative inspiration exactly where we needed it, as well as the technical expertise to deliver a well-functioning website.”

Keren McCarron, Head of Corporate Affairs & Communications — KP Snacks

“Boom!
Thank you so much. Incredible work done at incredible speed by incredible people.
Outstanding work as ever and what a turnaround. As for the concepts – wow. These are that good it would be an insult to describe them as just good. It’s a joke, quite frankly. This is exactly the Alive effect I was after. Right now I feel like I am living in an Alive With Ideas wonderland. Thank you!”

Jack Grasby, Campaigns Manager — SYFR

“If you are looking to improve creativity and build teamwork, I highly recommend a session like this for your team. No matter where you are in your creativity journey, a workshop like this can give your team a boost of energy and ideas to invigorate their creative thinking.”

Amy Lilja, IC Manager — Hennepin Healthcare

“Alive were there to help when we were working every hour to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. They gave us the creativity, ideas and support we needed to deliver campaigns which empowered our residents in the most difficult time most of us have ever seen, personally and professionally. The team understood what we needed, worked closely with us and delivered fast without any compromise on quality. Working with Alive has been a joy in the darkest of times and I have no doubt will have helped to save lives. Thanks team x”

Julie Odams, Assistant Director of Communications & Customers — Derbyshire County Council

“We got 'Alive' involved to help us shift mindsets across our organisation and they delivered! Using simple, clear and creative ideas the team have delivered us a campaign which has seen a dramatic increase in idea sharing and development. They’ve also played a significant role in creating a culture of shared success. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with again, in fact, we already are!”

Gavin Buckle — B&Q
Alive logo