Stay ConnectedThrough conversation with industry greats, experts and innovators from around the world, GovComms delivers the latest insights and best practice in government communication. We provide the resources to help you, the government and public sector, communicate policies, services and regulations with impact.
A podcast by contentgroup, leaders in government communication.
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After recently celebrating Open Gov Week 2018 we thought we’d revisit this episode with Helen Owen, the then Principle Advisor on Public Data Policy at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Helen shares with David the importance of Australia joining the Open Government Partnership and what it means for citizens. Aiming to connect governments with their citizens, it’s a tool necessary to increase transparency, fight corruption and harness new technologies to increase efficiency.
Discussed in this episode:
In the world of communication, there’s one rivalry bigger than them all: internal vs external communication.
The common belief is that external is superior simply because it’s what you use to communicate with your audience. But something we often forget is the crucial role internal plays. It may not be pleasing your audience, and instead gratifying your staff.
This week we talk with Kate Powl, Communications Manager at Data61. As a young agency attached to the CSIRO, Kate’s role has been to build a strong team internally to ensure a strong external presence. When your team is organised on the inside, the external output improves.
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Public participation (P2) is a core principle of contemporary politics and policy and is used to involve people and communities in problem-solving and decision-making discussions.
In order to understand the importance of P2, we talk with Kylie Cochrane this week on the role it plays in infrastructure projects, the future of P2 in the digital age and ways governments can do public participation effectively.
Both an International Board Member for the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) and the Global Lead for Communication and Stakeholder Engagement at Aurecon, Kylie is a bit of a rock star in the world of public participation.
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Originally nicknamed the ‘Hay Capital of the World’, the City of Gilbert is now a leading example of what it means for a government to go digital. Wanting to engage their residents, they struck gold finding one crucial aspect of their demographic – the average age of Gilbert is 32. Why is that important? Well, because they’re young and digitally aware.
Dana Berchman, Chief Digital Officer for the City of Gilbert, attributes this one factor to the success of Gilbert’s digital transition. Understanding where her audience was lead to using resources in a more efficient, measurable way and increased government transparency.
The City of Gilbert now boasts over 25 channels across all major platforms and over the last five years has even reached viral success. By giving her residents the ability to directly contact their government for news and updates has been a major success and an example of effective government communications.
Listen to David and Dana go into great detail of how the City of Gilbert turned into a digital hub known throughout North America.
Discussed in this podcast:
Read Case Study: The City of Gilbert.
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Rachael Sweeney is the Director of Collective Position, a boutique communications agency that specialises in stakeholder engagement. Collective Position pride themselves on bringing clients closer together.
With her extensive experience in the field, hear Rachael and David discuss the importance of stakeholder engagement and how you can build your own skills today.
Collective Position has worked with local governments across Australia as well as Wine Victoria. Rachael studied public relations with a politics major at Deakin University before starting a career in government and stakeholder relations, working on two major rail infrastructure projects in Victoria.
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This episode was originally aired November, 2016
Lisa Ronson is the Chief Marketing Officer at Tourism Australia. With extensive history in marketing, Lisa brought a unique approach to her position after working alongside national and international brands. This includes Carlton & United Breweries, Visa, David Jones and Westpac.
At the start of the year, Tourism Australia disguised a movie trailer for a Crocodile Dundee reboot as the launch for the next tourism campaign. Aiming to target high-end consumers in the USA, Lisa takes us behind the scenes of getting the $36m project off the ground and what the future holds for Brian Dundee.
Discussed in this episode:
Watch the trailer here. And watch the ad here.
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Martyn Wallace is the Chief Digital Officer for the Scottish Local Government Digital Office, aiming to assist local Scottish Governments in their digital transformation. Similar to what the DTA is doing nationally in Australia, SLGDO seeks to do the same but for regional and rural Scottish councils and citizens.
In this episode of InTransition, Martyn speaks with David about the challenges of coordinating change across multiple local government bodies and the importance of continuing to move forward digitally to engage and inform citizens.
Noting the negatives we have seen when private companies have not embraced the digital transition (Woolworths UK, Blockbuster etc.), Martyn discusses the role digital media plays in connecting citizens with their government, especially those outside major cities.
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This episode originally aired April 2017.
Amelia Loye is the Founder and Managing Director of engage2, an organisation aiming to "help governments understand and engage with people and organisations in their community." At times, it’s hard to trust all the information we’re fed which is where Amelia's role of building trust between governments and communities comes in.
Hear Amelia discuss with David how open data and “data from [the] community” are important ways to help shape and design government services and policies. At the heart of her work is building trust and reliability among all stakeholders.
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This week we bring you a special episode of InTransition, a one-on-one discussion with Genevieve Bell, cultural anthropologist and leading expert in artificial intelligence.
Following her PhD in anthropology from Stanford University in 1998, Genevieve was offered a job at Intel through a chance meeting with a man in a bar at Palo Alto in 1998. This man in question had contacts at Intel who were busy setting up a social science research lab at the time and Genevieve was introduced to the world of anthropology in the high-tech industry. While Genevieve initially turned down this offer, as she was on track for tenure at Stanford, she later accepted.
With a career spanning 20 years, Genevieve is now back in Canberra as a professor at the Australian National University. She has founded the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Institute (3Ai), seeking to advance Australia’s knowledge of artificial intelligence and its role in the future.
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What do you do when a reality TV show takes the name of your town and uses it in a not-so savoury comment? Steer into the mess and use it as free publicity (and make the most of a Taylor Swift.gif).
Shannah Hayley, Director of Marketing and Community Engagement for the city of Plano, TX, found this tactic useful in 2016 when a cast member of the Real Housewives of Dallas compared the city to an uncomfortable conversation. Knowing all eyes were on her, she used the opportunity to raise awareness for Plano, turning "it's a little Plano in here" into part of a clever marketing campaign.
Hear David and Shannah discuss how local governments can benefit from such events and how content marketing can be used to increase social awareness for government.
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