Effective communication is central to being a successful think tank or advocacy group. It is a critical part of shaping policy and practice. It ensures that research is relevant and helps evidence get to decision-makers when they need it, and how they need it.
Many organisations have stepped up their communications activities over the last decade. They have experimented with new channels and strategic approaches. Others have failed to keep up. And yet effective communications is more critical than ever before in a world where ‘fake news’ is a reality. Where information overload is a growing issue. If researchers and analysts want to be heard, they’ll need to get better at speaking and become more attuned to how people listen. With this in mind, building the communication skills of staff is one of the soundest investments think tanks and research organisations can make.
This long course covers everything from audience mapping to podcasting; from design to social media. It will provide practical examples of how to plan and execute communications strategies, and what effective communication teams and processes look like. It will teach you what digital longform is, and why you should be thinking about it. It will show you how to take your events to the next level.
Six highly experienced trainers will guide you through eight units, exposing you to cutting-edge knowledge and helping you to apply it. Participants will walk away with a comprehensive set of resources to help them put their learning into practice. For those who would like to pick and choose only a handful of modules, that option is available too.
The aim of this course is to strengthen the communication teams, skills and activities of think tanks, research institutes and advocacy organisations. By completing this course, participants will:
This course is for communication professionals or teams based in think tanks and other research-led organisations. The overall course will tackle some communication fundamentals, and could therefore be considered an introductory-level course. However, given the breadth of the course, it is also appropriate for intermediate-level communication practitioners looking to round out their experience. It may also be interesting for researchers or think tanks managers looking to improve their communication skills.
While participating in the entire course will provide a more strategic and comprehensive overview of the communications landscape, we recognise that an individual may prefer to focus in on just one or two specific areas. With this in mind, we are offering participation in either the full course or in individual units. In total, the course comprises of eight units.
Each unit consists of one two-hour long webinar, a forum discussion and a takeaway resource (such as key points or key tools). Most units also have the option of submitting an exercise for personal feedback.
With the forum discussion, the webinar and the time to submit the exercise, each unit lasts about two weeks (see key dates below).
Those who decide to complete the full course will also get a background note providing an overview of the concepts of the course and access to a special forum for discussion with the trainers.
The main instructors for the course are Carolina Kern and Jeff Knezovich. However, different units will have guest lecturers who are experts in their respective fields.
Certificates will be provided to participants of the entire course and each unit.
This unit will:
Trainers: Carolina Kern, Jeff Knezovich and Annapoorna Ravichander
Exercise: Included in this unit, focusing on audience mapping.
This unit will:
Trainers: Richard Darlington with Carolina Kern
Exercise: Please note, there is no exercise for this unit.
This unit will:
Trainers: Jeff Knezovich and Annapoorna Ravichander
Exercise: Please note, there is no exercise for this unit.
This part of the course will:
Trainers: Jeff Knezovich and Carolina Kern
Exercise: Included in this unit, focusing on creating a social media asset.
This part of the course will:
Trainer: Carolina Kern
Exercise: Included in this unit, focusing on synthesising and writing recommendations.
This part of the course will:
Trainers: Connie St Louis with Carolina Kern
Exercise: Included in this unit, focusing on storyboarding.
This unit will:
Trainers: Jeff Knezovich and Carolina Kern
Exercise: Please note, there is no exercise for this unit.
This unit will:
Trainers: Jeff Knezovich and Carolina Kern with Annapoorna Ravichander
Exercise: Included in this unit, focusing on developing a communications action plan.
Webinar Unit 1: September 5
Webinar Unit 2: September 19
Webinar Unit 3: October 3
Webinar Unit 4: October 17
Webinar Unit 5: October 31
Webinar Unit 6: November 14
Webinar Unit 7: November 28
Webinar Unit 8: December 12
The time of each webinar is 2 PM GMT. Each webinar will last 2 hours.
All webinars will be recorded and shared afterwards with participants.
Carolina Kern: Carolina has 10 years of experience working for development and humanitarian organisations, helping them to design, manage, coordinate and raise the profile of projects and programmes. She has excellent skills in programme management, monitoring, research and communications, and has worked for bilateral donors, the UN and think tanks across health, governance, humanitarian and food security portfolios. She is now based in Kenya after working for UNDP/Office of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General in South Sudan as a Communications Specialist and Senior Programme Manager for AusAID in Kenya, Sudan, and South Sudan.
Jeff Knezovich: Jeff is a digital communication specialist who works to synthesise complex information into rich data visualisations and targeted briefings. Most recently, he managed the digital communication activities of the Nuffield Trust, a British think tank focusing on health. He led or contributed to the communications activities of several large projects, including the Future Health Systems RPC, the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and Comercio y Pobreza en Latino América (COPLA).
Richard Darlington: Richard is Head of Strategic Communications at Well Made Strategy, part of the Well Told Story group. He is a think tank communications specialist and former ministerial level Special Adviser for DFID. He has more than a decade of experience working in three UK government departments and two UK think tanks. He has also worked on three UK General Election campaigns. Over the last two years he has worked on communications strategy development, training, mentoring and coaching in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Connie St Louis: Connie began her journalism career in 1990 when she was recruited onto a two year BBC Network Radio Trainee Reporter Scheme. Soon she was promoted to senior producer within the BBC Science Unit producing a wide range of programming including weekly magazine programmes such as ‘Science Now’ and ‘Medicine Now’. In 1996 she moved to the radio documentary features department to make documentaries and also to create and develop and edit Radio 4’s first black and Asian magazine programme ‘In Living Colour”. From 2003 to 2016 Connie lectured in the department of Journalism at City, University of London. Her main teaching expertise was in Radio and Podcast production and science and health journalism. She now works on as a freelance trainer and journalist.
Annapoorna Ravichander: Annapoorna is an independent consultant who joined the On Think Tanks team in late 2016. She holds a PhD in History and has over 25 years of experience in the areas of training, writing and communication. Annapoorna has published articles in journals, newspapers and newsletters and has worked as an associate editor and coordinator in book publishing. Her core skills include editing, communication and training. Until 2016 she was the Head of the Communication and Policy Engagement Team (CPE) at the Center for Study, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) in India. Annapoorna has been a recipient of the Rotary Award for Exemplary Services in 1999, Vadodara, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal from 1985-86 and UGC Fellowship from 1984-1988. She currently lives in India.
The entire course costs GBP 800.00.
Each unit costs GBP 120.00.
Early bird registration fee for the entire course is GBP 720.00 (only for first five registrations).
Registrations close August 28. Please sign-up early and let us know if you have any queries.
To deliver the course, we will have to wait for a minimum number of 10 participants to sign-up. Therefore, when signing up to the course, please select the “invoice as payment’ option (do not pay via PayPal). We will invoice you as soon as a minimum number of participants have registered.
Join the entire course or the units by registering below through Eventbrite. Please be sure to pick the right ticket for the whole course, or the unit you are interested in.
If organisations want to participate in the entire long course, they can select different staff members to participate and register for each unit.
Before signing-up, review our Terms and Conditions.
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