Stakeholder communications can be fun and engaging (here’s how)

I thought the media launch for the new LiveLighter TVCs would be the most interesting event I’d attend as part of my internship, but I had no idea how great the stakeholder launch would be!

The purpose of the stakeholder launch was to introduce LiveLighter’s stakeholders to the new TVCs, as well as the new resources (cookbooks, leaflets, online resources, merchandise). The stakeholders were mostly from other health promotion agencies that use LiveLighter’s messages and resources in their work, and governing bodies like Healthway and PHAIWA (Public Health Advocacy Institute of WA).

Before the actual stakeholder launch, I got to sit in on another interview for the H+M (Health + Medicine) liftout in the West Australian. This time the interview was with the two experts who we had as spokespeople for the new campaign – nutrition expert Professor Amanda Lee and gastroenterologist Associate Professor Leon Adams. Because the interviews were for H+M, the interviewees could go more in-depth with medical and nutrition science terminology and explanations than they could with their interviews at the media launch. This seemed to make both interviewees a lot more at ease, as they didn’t have to worry about dumbing-down the science (which is much harder to do than you’d think).

My job for the stakeholder launch was to live tweet the event. It was the first time I’d done a live-tweet and it was quite exhilarating (in a PR dork kind of way). We’d stuck posters all around the lecture theatre with LiveLighter’s twitter handle and the hashtag for the launch (#junkfree), and encouraged any Twitter users present to live tweet the event as well. We had a number of the attendees participating in the live tweet, including guest speaker Amanda Lee. I had to think on my toes and let go of my perfectionist tendencies when doing the live tweet. My engaged twitter audience was seeing things at the same time as me, so I had to make sure I tweeted things in real time.

After my experience, my advice for anyone doing a professional live tweet for the first time is:

-        -   Try and memorise exactly what the speaker is saying as they say it – verbatim quotes are perfect for live tweeting

-        -   If possible, ask the speakers for a copy of their PowerPoint before the presentation – it looks much better to tweet a screenshot of a slide than a photo of it being projected on a screen

-       - Ask key players (eg. Campaign director, guest speakers) to get involved on their personal accounts – some audiences members may be more comfortable to tweet their questions rather than ask them in front of a room full of people

I have to share a photo of the creative healthy catering for the event – fruit pizzas in pizza boxes, veggies sticks and dip in chip buckets and mushroom “cheeseburgers.” The catering at a health promotion event is always under a lot of scrutiny and LiveLighter cleverly tied it into their junk food theme.

I think one of the main reasons of I enjoyed the stakeholder launch so much was the sense of being a part of a committed team. The whole LiveLighter team (not just the Comms staff) pitched in to help with the event and it ran like clockwork because there were so many hands on deck.

On a slight tangent, I’ve noticed that because Communications (and health promotion as well) are female dominated industries, a large percentage of the staff are part-time. This had presented me with some challenges regarding whether it’s crossing professional boundaries to text/email co-workers with a work-related question if it’s their day off, and has made me appreciate how difficult it is to schedule a team meeting when everyone works different days.

What do you think about the work-force having greater part-time flexibility? Is it better for families/post-graduate study opportunities, or impacting workplace productivity?

Until next time,

Bec