Commscamp: 29 things from me and a thank you

A couple of days after a good event is often the time to reflect and make sense of things. So with a cup of coffee that’s what I’m doing.

Commscamp was that good event and one that drew 154 comms, PR and digital people from across the public sector in the UK.

As an unconference, the day has no agenda, with the sessions getting decided on the day by people who came along. There were NHS, local government, Welsh Government, UK government and one or two third sector.

Was it a good event? It seems slightly self-regarding to call something you helped organise ‘good.’ But I’m sure my fellow co-organisers Emma Rodgers and Darren Caveney would agree that it really, really is the attendees who make it. We just provide the space.

Here are 20 things that struck me.

1. I love the look in the eyes of some people who came for the first time who revelled in the permission to talk, think and do with freedom. It’s important that everyone is on the same level. Organisers included. I’m quite nostalgic for that.
2. A pre-event curry and drinks are a good thing.
3. Cake really does bring people together and Kate Bentham is brilliant at building that spirit. So is Andy Mabbett.
4. Music playlists also bring people together. Big up Sarah Lay and everyone who contributed.
5. The spirit of the event can be summed up by a first time attendee called Chloe ending up helping out on the check-in desk minutes after she arrived.
6. Twitter running commentaries by John Fox are a good thing.
7. There is a need for people who are trying out new things in their organisation to come together face-to-face to remind themselves that it is not ‘you’ but ‘them’ who are the problem.
8. Birmingham in the sunshine looks great.
9. Next year we are hiring a canal barge and running a session in it.
10. David Banks is on the money with media law in a changing landscape. You really should make friends with him. Or sign-up for his regular emails.
11. It would be great to get a handful of private sector people along who came in the spiurit of sharing not selling.
12. It would be great to get some third sector and not for profit people along. Catching-up with Laila Takeh at the post-event pint made me even more convinced of that.
13. A junior media officer can have better ideas than a self-appointed thought leader or head of a big department. No-one has the monopoly.
14. Media teams should stop doing things that aren’t their job at all. First, do so by being polite. Then by banging the table a bit. This doesn’t happen in planning or legal. Stop under valuing your job.
15. Sitting round for a good whinge is quite theraputic.
16. Sitting round to be deliberately optimistic is also theraputic.
17. Bad intranets are a symptom of an organisation that doesn’t care about or trust staff.
18. There’s no point replacing the intranet and building something better until you tackle the culture. Sorry.
19. Musterpoint is a hootsuite for the public sector built by someone from the public sector.
20. There are still some people who think that giving staff social media should be controlled and treated as an extension of core trad comms. I fundamentally disagree.
21. Maybe we don’t need intranets.
22. No matter how many unconferences you go to you end up wanting to be in two places at once.
23. A first ticket release that went in less than three minutes is quite something.
24. Nigel Bishop takes good video and pictures.
25. Big up Sasha Taylor, Sian Fording, Rob McCleary, Nicky Speed, Kelly Quigley-Hicks and Amanda Nash and James Cattell for their volunteering.
26. I’d like to be part of the team of volunteers who does another one of these next year. It was good to see old faces and new. I hope co-founder Ann Kempster can come next year.
27. There’s still so much to do.
28. Having good sponsors helps. Thank you Christine at MusterPoint, David and Paul at Govdelivery, Liz and Jason at Knowledge Hub, Kirstie and Scott at Touch Design, Steph at Helpful Technology, Pete at IEWM, Nick at PSCSF and supporters Alex and David at GCS, Hannah at LGA, Rachel at All Things IC and Phil at the NUJ.
29. Thank you if you came because you helped make it a success.