Workshop 4: Develop your partnership! - … 4: Develop your partnership! How to enable your project partners to contribute to mainstreaming results Christiane Brandes-Visbeck and Roman

Part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument

Workshop 4: Develop your partnership! How to enable your project partners to contribute to mainstreaming results

Christiane Brandes-Visbeck and Roman Mölling Akademie für Publizistik in Hamburg, Germany Communication Seminar 12-13 September 2012 Maribor, Slovenia

Agenda

Why strategic communication?

This is how we do it!

Develop your partnership!

Get ready for lobbying!

Build your own community of supporters, friends and followers

Pass it on! Explain your partners how to communicate with authorities and government officials

Tutorial

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+ make people understand

+ change opinion & behaviour

__________________________

= project results

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Agenda





Build your community of supporters, friends and followers!

Pass it on! Explain your partners how to communicate with authorities and officials

Tutorial

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Working with four strategic questions

ü Why? Goals your communication aims ü Who? Audiences your key stakeholder ü What? Messages your mission statement (Project Aim) rephrased as messages for our key stakeholder

ü How? Tactics! your communication strategy

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Image: www.johnsonstrategic.com/Images/

Strategic%20diagram.jpg

What does strategic communication mean? Wikipedia knows: •  Communicating a concept, a process, or data •  that satisfies a (more or less) long term strategic goal •  of an organization •  by allowing facilitation of advanced planning, or communicating

over long(er) distances •  usually using international telecommunications or dedicated

global network assets •  to coordinate actions and activities of operationally significant

commercial, non-commercial and military business or combat and logistic subunits.

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This means in plain English: It’s all about tactics! •  Define your goal (= communication aims)

•  Plan your communication activities strategically

–  Which are the objectives?

–  Which are your key stakeholder groups to reach your goal? Who can harm, who needs to be convinced?

–  Which mission statements suit each key stakeholder group best?

–  How do you translate stakeholder messages into content?

–  Think about tools: Who should approach your key stakeholder groups best? Which are the best channels to use?

•  Consider, how to best work in a transnational context

•  Think about your personnel. Where are your key performers within the project? 7

Strategic communication needs lots of people – and they need to communicate in sync!

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Agenda







Tutorial

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As a communication manager you are in charge of the communication within the project

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Project Leader

Project Partner

Project Partner

Project Partner

Project Partner

Project Partner

Project Partner

Project Partner

Communication Manager

Building up your partnership!

•  Keep internal communication alive

•  Network with those partners who are interested in and potentially capable of strategic communication

•  Set up communication trainings for project members

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Agenda







Tutorial

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Part of strategic communication is lobbying

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Image: lerex.de/lobbying/

So, what is lobbying?

•  Activities of social or economical or cultural groups, associations or companies or a representative of either one in the forefront of political decision making

•  It’s all about “who gets what, when and how!”, says Harold Dwight Lasswell (1902-1978), an US-American political scientist and communication expert, who believed that politics in democracies need “propaganda” to make sure that men decide and vote in their best interest

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Two main fields of lobbying

•  Government Relations (GR) describes that part of lobbying that takes direct influence in law making procedures in direct dialog with the legislatures.

=> (lead) project partners

•  Public Affairs (PA) is a professional service that consults organizations in how to organize their relationship towards the political field. PA means representing an interest in a political context. To become more influential it uses classical methods of public relations as well as specific instruments i.e. communicating with and consulting of relevant decision makers. The latest trend in PA is Multi-Voice-Lobbying.

=> communication manager plus communication supporters within the project

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Relevant stakeholder groups

•  politicians

•  governmental official

•  environmental activist and other consumer groups

•  opinion leading groups

•  people affected by the cause

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Tactics

•  bottom up

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politicians

governmental officials

environmental activists and other consumer groups

opinion leading groups

people affected by the cause

Time to spread your point-of-view!

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Agenda Why strategic communication?





Pass it on! Explain your partners how to communicate with authorities and government officials!

Tutorial

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Find your supporters online to reach an impact

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Social media provide audiences and supporters

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Your strategic messages will…

•  influence public opinion by mass activities such as mailings, websites and blogs

•  Feature (scientific) evidence such as studies and quotes from (professional) associations

•  be geared towards members of parliament, political authorities and government officials

•  reach activists and affected people to support your cause.

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Tools for building your community

•  Project website –  core information of your project

•  Specific newsletters –  additional and current newsworthy information of your project

•  Social media

–  additional and current newsworthy information of your project with feedback channel

–  a forum to discuss the issues –  feedback and input of your supporter can better your cause

•  Grassroots campaign –  movement driven by the politics of your project –  usually on a local level

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Agenda







Tutorial

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Instruments for government relations

•  Using human ‘weaknesses’, vanities and wishes of people, i.e. -  invitations as key note speakers -  referring them as experts to mass media -  giving them VIP treatment as guests of your conferences

•  Using one’s own expertise and consultancy i.e. - creating drafts for new laws and regulations - being an expert of a board or commission => A lobbyist needs a field of expertise and a powerful

network behind him

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Find out what makes the person in question tic

•  Your project’s lobbyist should meet decision makers and find out, what makes the person tic!

- Does (s)he like to appear in public? Then listen to his/her next speech in town, and meet him/her afterwards!

- Does (s)he like to show on trade conferences? Be there, too! Become important and be a vivid speaker! - Does (s)he like to deal with company heads? Find some VIP in a company, invite him/her with your decision maker to your next seminar as speakers - Does (s)he like to experiment with new media? Give him/her a stage!

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Your goal: Enable your project partners to contribute to

27 Image: townsquare5k.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/impressive_results-12.png/

Agenda







Tutorial

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Tutorial with an invented dummy case: Houseboating and Rafting on the Danube (HAROD)

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Communication Seminar 12-13 September 2012, Maribor (Slovenia) Dummy Case: A Danube Tourism Project

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Project title House boating and Rafting on the Danube

Project acronym HAROD

Area of support Danube riparian countries: Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany Other Danube regions: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Switzerland, Slovenia, Czech Republic

Summarized description of the project (max. 700 characters)

The project’s aim is to enhance Danube tourism by making house boating and rafting on the Danube River possible for every adult without special licenses. A marketing campaign will position house boating and rafting on the Danube River as a new, safe and fun holiday activity in southeastern Europe. Particular objectives are:

- Strengthening local and regional economy along the Danube River by setting up new sources of income by infrastructure, logistics and house boating equipment.

- Providing funds for further research on environmentally safe water travelling. Our working thesis is that rafting and house boating are more sustainable and environmentally safe that riding with motor speed boats or cruise ships.

- Governmental officials in charge of transportation politics should be motivated to deregulate the licensing issue in regards to steering a houseboat. Presently regulations differ in various countries. Just to mention a few: In Germany drivers need a license by 11 kw and up, in Austria by 4,4 kw, in Hungary by 4 kw. These differing regulations keep tourists from travelling with a houseboat beyond certain state boarders.

- Setting up brochures and a website with tour information about daily rides (already existing for drafting), on tours for more than one day (non existent) and in more than one country along the Danube River.

Project duration 12 September 2012 – 11 September 2015, 36 months

Number of partners 19 countries

Lead partner Working Community of the Danube Regions (ARGE Donauländer), A-St. Pölten

!

Tutorial 1st task:

•  Develop a strategic communication concept with the goal “change of licensing regulations”

–  Develop a communication strategy to change the minds of your stakeholder “government officials and law makers in charge of regulations for transportation”

–  Which messages, content and tools would you use in that strategy?

–  How would you build up a community to support this cause?

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Results of the 1st tutorial

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Tutorial 2nd task:

•  Setting up a communication workshop on developing your partnership

–  What is the aim of this workshop?

–  Who would be invited?

–  What does your agenda look like?

–  Who are your speakers?

–  What output would you like to get?

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Results of the 2nd tutorial

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Part-financed by the European Union European Regional Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument

Thank you!

Christiane Brandes-Visbeck email: [email protected] website: www.ahoi-consulting.de

Roman Mölling

email: [email protected]

www.akademie-fuer-publizistik.de

Documents

Workshop 4: Develop your partnership! - … 4: Develop your partnership! How to enable your project partners to contribute to mainstreaming results Christiane Brandes-Visbeck and Roman