Yesterday, I took time out of my hectic new business schedule (!) to attend an event that intrigued me.
CoronaCon was set up by the CIPR Greater London Group to "address the issues public relations practitioners have faced, and are continuing to deal with, during the coronavirus pandemic, and what the future holds."
Not just an impressive line-up of speakers, it was for a good cause too. Proceeds from the event went to iProvision – the benevolent fund of the CIPR for more than 50 years (as the event says, "its services are needed now more than ever") – and The Felix Project – one of London’s three biggest food redistribution charities, providing emergency response services for the capital.
Speakers and takeaways
The speaker line-up was pretty impressive (the main thing that caught my eye about the event), and below I've laid out a couple of my key takeaways per presenter:
Diane Hinds – a Greater London Group committee member, Diane also has sickle cell disease. The arts and entertainment PR explained about the added cost (financially and emotionally) that the pandemic has caused her. Thank you for sharing your story, Diane.
Jenni Field – the President of the CIPR ("El Presidenté" as Darryl says!), and founder of Redefining Comms, spoke eloquently about how our industry's reaction to coronavirus has been, and how Board leadership and mentoring opportunities are also key. She underlined the importance of having a heightened awareness of the sheer volume of information out there, and our duty to get the right information to the right people.
Alex Myers – founder and CEO of Manifest Group and PR Week's Global PR Professional of the Year 2020. From Yorkshire, no BS, bit sweary. I like. Top stats, good humour and honesty about how things will change. Key points: coining "Despairgarita", the cocktail of concerns that consumers have in a post-COVID19 world, and the evolution of brand expectation, in regards to purpose.
"As long as you're pissing the right people off", you're doing OK – don't be vanilla, middle of the road | Alex Myers
Tony Langham – co-founder and CEO of Lansons. Presentation called "It's all about reputation now". Sharing great advice and insight from his many years at the top of the game – highlighting great work from local heroes, and flagging big companies, that have done 'well' so far, need to keep it up. Businesses need to share deeds AND words on the big topics, and there is more to come:
Natalie Orringe – CMO of Access Intelligence Group presented "Insights from the Vuelio Barometer of Comms Leaders". Great stats – as you would expect – from hundreds of comms pros over a long period, looking at evolving trends since Q4 LY. She points out it is now all about recovery.
(THIS NEXT ONE WAS PRETTY INSPIRATIONAL)
Polly Cziok – speaking about her experiences as Director of Communications, Culture and Engagement at Hackney Council during the Covid Crisis, Polly was honest, direct and a superb speaker about comms in general. An awesome presentation on local government's response to the crisis on a local level, she represented #localgov comms – and the world of PR – in a superb way. Basically, #PollyforPM.
"Wherever you find trouble, you will find a local government comms team working 24/7" – Polly Cziok (via tweet from Kate Vogelsang @Kate_bob)
Check out more of the shared insight on Twitter – where else – through the hashtag #CoronaCon. And try not to respond to the people who have got the wrong end of the stick about Coronavirus itself being a con... *facepalm*
Thanks to the whole CIPR GLG group, especially Darryl Sparey for MC-ing, throwing in some hard-hitting questions and occasionally being on mute, and Nicola Brown for recommending the event and leading on the socials.
CoronaCon Part Two is on 16th June (next Tuesday) and – if yesterday's event is anything to go by – it should be one to not miss.
Also worth a read, Kate Vogelsang’s blog post on #CoronaCon – how PR has done it’s thing (Birdsong Consultancy).