Unconference success
Top tips for campaigns, sharing advice on how to make sure comms is in the right place and ideas for dealing with internal communications challenges all formed part of the first FirePRO northern unconference.
The development day was held in September and saw fire and rescue communications professionals from around the country meet at South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service headquarters in Sheffield to take part in activities.
More than 20 delegates attended and included a fantastic mix of colleagues who are relatively new in the role through to more senior colleagues from various services and meant the workshops included tactical advice and examples as well as some strategic insights and sessions.
Organiser and FirePRO committee member Michelle Atkinson, who is Communications Manager at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, said: “The response to the unconference was amazing and really surprised me – especially as I’ve not actually been involved in one before. It was a really enjoyable and useful day.
“There was a great mix of people there with different backgrounds, some new to the FRS and some who have been in for a while. But the great thing was everyone just rolled their sleeves up to make it a really worthwhile day.
“One practical outcome was one of the attendees agreeing to circulate quizzes on the portal we could all use on social media, linked to the forthcoming EastEnders arson plot.
“It also gave the impetus for one of the FirePRO conference items – to examine the range of campaigns now taking place. As always it was great for networking and comforting to know that many of us were experiencing the same issues and we really got some benefit out of the day.”
An unconference is a development event where the agenda is decided on the day by the participants to ensure the themes and workshops are current and relevant to people’s work and colleagues can suggest any area of work to run a workshop on.
The rules of the FirePRO unconference were that, after discussing the problem or brainstorming an area of communications together, the groups had to focus on sharing ideas and examples of best practice to help each other move projects on and find solutions.
Areas covered at the unconference included: road safety campaigns and making sure packages work, making communications strategic, internal communications, communications after the strike, improving campaigns, creating a new Service communications strategy and how fire comms can work with popular media to make the most of opportunities like the EastEnders arson plot.
A southern FirePRO event is yet to be rearranged as their development day was cancelled due to industrial action and the national conference is due to take place on 26 and 27 November. More information can be found via the details on the portal.
