ACADEMY 2014

Day 1: Wednesday 11 June - Communicating locally

Time Event

0815 Registration opens

0830-0930 “Early arrivers” networking session

0930-0935 LGcomms Chair’s opening and welcome

0935-0945 Welcome to Manchester

The importance of communications to the City of Manchester

Sir Richard Leese, Leader, Manchester City Council

0945-1020 PANEL 1: The challenge

This session will debate what senior leaders want delivered through communications. It

will assess the importance of driving behaviour change and tangible financial benefits and

the relevance of reputation management and the Building Trust project.

CHAIR: Cllr Ruth Dombey, Leader, London Borough of Sutton

Cllr Sir Richard Leese, Leader, Manchester City Council

Cllr Peter Fleming, Leader, Sevenoaks District Council

Mike Rogers, Chief Executive, Birmingham City Council, President of SOLACE

Martin Reeves, Chief Executive, Coventry City Council, Past President of SOLACE

1020-1050 Questions and panel discussion

1050-1120 Refreshment Break

1120-1200 PANEL 2: Working with the media

This session will set out how the media and public sector communication teams can work

together to help support local communities especially through times of crisis.

CHAIR: Paul Horrocks, PR and Media Consultant, Essential-Comms

Mike Sergeant, Local Government Correspondent, BBC

Andrew Norfolk, The Times

Gillian Beasley, Chief Executive, Peterborough City Council

1200-1220 Questions and panel discussion

1220-1320 Lunch Break

1320-1420 WORKSHOPS

1420-1500 PANEL 3: Staff engagement

Communications has to develop and reflect staff engagement. This session looks at the

importance of engaging with staff through periods of change and driving innovation.

CHAIR: TBC

Paul Masterman, Head of Communications, Staffordshire County Council

Sian Jones Department for Work and Pensions (Winner of CIPR Best Change

Communications 2014)

1500-1515 Questions and panel discussion

1515-1545 Refreshment Break

1545-1615 PANEL 4: Public Health

This session will look at the changes that have been brought by the moving of public

health into the responsibilities of local government. It will identify the key successes of the

first year as well as the challenges for the future.

CHAIR: Andy Allsopp, Head of Communications, London Borough of Hounslow

Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing, Public Health England

1615-1630 Questions and panel discussion

1630-1715 Digital Communications

The world of digital communications moves so fast that this session looks to help

delegates learn lessons from digital best practice, understand the current digital landscape

and its challenges to communications people, how to provide digital benefits to

organisations and residents/customers and how to stay legal on digital.

CHAIR: Darren Caveney, Head of Communications and Engagement at Health Education

West Midlands.

Dan Slee, Comms2point0

Dave Worsell, Director, GovDelivery

David Banks, Media Law Consultant

Kate Reynolds, Head of Communications & Engagement, Sanctuary Group

1715-1730 Questions and panel discussion

1730-1735 Chair’s closing remarks

1900-2300 Think Tank: Be First to the Future

This session will be led by Google UK and will look at how technology is changing

consumer behaviour. In addition they will share some of the latest innovations that have

caught their attention and what they think the model for succeeding is in the digital world.

Alex Nickolay-Kell, Industry Head, Google UK

Matt Legge Industry Manager, Government & Non Profits, Google UK

Day 2: Thursday 12 June - Local and National working together

Time Event

0815 Registration opens

0830-0930 “Early arrivers” networking session

0930-0935 LGcomms Chair’s opening and welcome

0935-1015

The Context: Alex Aiken, Executive Director of Government Communication will be joined

by speakers from government, public service and private sector to look at the challenges

ahead for government communicators and the new Government Communication Service.

1015-1115

Behaviour change lies at the heart of most government communications local and central

at this session hear the latest thinking from the Behavioural Insights Team, case studies

from across government and Keep Britain Tidy.

1115-1145 Break

1145-1300

Campaigns that make a difference: What makes an effective campaign? Has digital

changed the campaign as we know it?

1300–1400 Lunch

1400-1445

Evaluation: Mandatory evaluation of communication activity is a key plank of Government

Communication Service reforms, at this session speakers will address GCS progress,

latest thinking on PR evaluation and social media analytics.

1445-1515

Business and the economy from the big budget GREAT campaign to local business

support; speakers from Number 10, BIS and public service address the campaigns that

are supporting UK business growth.

1515–1545 Refreshment break

1545-1630 Internal Communications: in January 2014 GCS launched IC Space a new resource for

Internal Communications professionals in government and beyond. At this session hear

the latest thinking on this and internal communications reform across government and the

wider sector.

1630-1715 The role of communication professionals as leaders – Keynote speaker to be

confirmed

1715-1720 LGcomms Chair’s closing remarks

1900-2330 The “Communications Awards”

Day 3: Friday 13 June Communications to support your organisation

Time Event

0900 Registration opens

0915-0945 “Early arrivers” networking session

0945-0950 LGcomms Chair’s opening and welcome

0950-1045 Panel 1: Driving Public Service Reform

This session will look at how public service reform can be supported through

communications activity. What are the challenges for 2014 and beyond and how can we

prove the impact of communications.

Mike Burton, Editorial Director, MJ

Andrew Christie, Triborough Executive Director of Children’s Services

Liz Bruce, Tri Borough Executive Director of Adult Social Care

Dominic Campbell, Founder, FutureGov

Including Q&A

1045-1100 Session to be confirmed

1100-1130 Refreshment break

1130-1230 Unconference workshop sessions

1230-1330 Lunch

1330-1420 Panel 2: Running Communications as a Business

This session will look at the way in which communication teams can prove their worth by

bringing in extra revenue to their organisation.

CHAIR: Julia Corkey, Director of Strategy and Communications, Westminster City

Council and Director of Westco

Simon Jones, Head of Communications, Hammersmith and Fulham

1420-1430 Questions and panel discussion

1430-1435 Chair’s closing remarks

1435-1700 Tour of BBC @ Media City UK

The BBC has been operational at MediaCityUK since 2011, producing thousands of

hours of content for television, radio and online. Around 2,700 staff work in twenty-six

departments including BBC Children's, BBC Learning, BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Sport,

BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Breakfast as well as Religion & Ethics, the BBC

Philharmonic and parts of Research & Development, Drama and Comedy.