From the very beginning of the workshop, it became clear that EU macro-regional strategies play a very important role in the current development of Europe. At the moment, around 20% of EU population know these strategies and the number is growing! To make more people aware, communication is often the key.
Agnès Monfret, Head of Communication unit at DG REGIO, suggested three points to effective communication:
- Simplify
- Repeat
- Connect
And the less acronyms we have the better! This is definitely a welcomed trend for all of us working with complex words and abbreviations. In addition, the importance of internal communication was emphasized throughout the workshop. "If the inside doesn’t know, why the outside would care?", Ms Monfret asked.
“Money and communication are tools – often communication is more effective”
A session by Frank Schneider, Head of Communication and Public Policy at Interreg Central Europe, addressed the question of effective communications. The session explained the communication as an action to change how people
- are aware,
- understand,
- respond,
- act.
Action is the ultimate goal we would like to achieve but also the hardest. For this reason, it is important to understand who you communicate with and to know your audience. A useful tip for all struggling to define their audience is to create personas: give your target audience a face, background story and try to identify the media and people this target person is in touch with.
When writing, try to think like a chess player
In the age of social media we sometimes forget reaching out to traditional media. Information flood makes it even more difficult to stand out and make it to news. In a session “Pitching your story” John Holland from Clear Europe provided useful insight into the minds of journalists and newsrooms. It usually comes down to storytelling: we want to read interesting and touching stories of people. So, next time you write something, try to think like a chess player, always some steps ahead, to make connections how your story affects people in the sphere of the topic. See the attachement for more tips for working with journalists!
The workshop took place in Izola, Slovenia on Septemebr 19 2019, and was organised by Interact. It continued discussion between communication managers kicked off in 2018 during the meeting “Message in a Bottle: Communication across MRS”. The aim of this meeting was to focus on peer-to-peer learning across MRS.