At the start of this year we secured a gig to conduct training for the City of Parramatta in communications basics like How to do PR well and Crisis Comms 101. Two topics that we live and breathe every day at HC with our clients.
When planning started, we were to hold the sessions at our co-working space in Parramatta but then coronavirus hit, and we all ended up working from home. That pretty much put on hold any face-to-face activities that were not deemed “essential”.
But this didn’t stop us providing training, we just had to do it a different way.
Even though Sue was really committed to learning outcomes for our program as opposed to just passive information sessions, the webinar proved to be a great solution and was still packed with all the interactivity and connection we hoped for.
Our first session was held by Sue, How to do PR well – and had a fantastic uptake from businesses of all sizes and stages. It was encouraging to see that everyone could identify strong media storytelling angles in their business and were keen to put it into practice.
The following week Kendi and Alex co-hosted, Crisis Comms 101. They took some learnings from Sue’s session in how to optimise the technology (including not shutting the laptop before the recording is finished, doh!) and mixed it up hosting some polls throughout. The audience enjoyed the questions and polling – it kept them feeling included and engaged and we had some great feedback from attendees after both webinars.
So all in all, a successful launch into the world of online training and the platform was easier than what we first thought to navigate and use. So many businesses are turning to meeting, training and daily interactions via hosting platforms like Zoom and Teams, it’s just the new norm! Thanks to the City of Parramatta for allowing us to host these sessions, and we’re looking forward to hosting many in the future!
Kendi Burness-Cowan