This was to be my third FutureNet event and having already peeked at the agenda for the evening I was both intrigued and enthusiastic about what was to come. Plus, the presenters had never failed to amaze and inspire me at the past FutureNet evenings, so the bar had already been set!
As I set foot into the outstandingly beautiful London venue I was greeted by the many familiar and friendly faces of the FutureNet committee. While at the same time, out of the corner of my eye I spotted a nice cool bottle of Bud making its way across the room in my direction, which was a very welcome surprise after my long walk from the tube station. As more and more woolly hat and scarf adorned people began to arrive I spotted a few faces that I recognised from previous events. And I must say, this is one of the things I enjoy most about attending these evenings – I love meeting both old and new like-minded Internal Comms specialists and chatting about the varied areas of our work. It feels so good to talk to people who understand your working world, and as you often find, are facing many of the same challenges as yourself.
So, after doing a bit of networking and as the conversations slowly died down, we were all ready to take our seats for the main presentation.
Introduced by Jennifer Sproul, Chief Executive at the IoIC, Jacqueline Ryan, Internal Communications & Employee Engagement Advisor at Kerry Foods took to the spotlight. From the focused look on our faces it was clear to see that we were all eager to hear about Jacqueline's triple award-winning Kerry Foods engagement campaign – 'Trailblazers'.
Straight from the go I was hooked, and it didn't take long for me to see why Jacqueline's campaign had been such a big hit. The idea of driving up engagement to the level that Jacqueline had done with 'Trailblazers' is something that most of us in this profession only dream of.
Jacqueline's campaign set out to inspire and unite an increasingly dated and siloed company by challenging every single member of their workforce to come up with new and modern business ideas. All submitted ideas were welcomed and reviewed, and were then whittled down, culminating in a Dragons Den style event that captured the entire company's attention.
As the stats, figures and positive results of the campaign were presented to us, we could do nothing else but look on in awe - obviously whilst also scribbling down vast amounts of ideas to take away with us. From the planning stages, right through to campaign execution, Jacqueline had broken everything down for us into inspiring and explanatory bite sized chunks. So much so that by the end of her presentation I certainly felt like I'd been on a little bit of that 'Trailblazers' journey with her.
As I left late that evening and headed out back towards my tube station, I thought about the work that had gone into putting that campaign together, and if, as an Internal Comms specialist, I can someday engage and unite my colleagues to the level that Jacqueline had at Kerry Foods, I'll be a happy man.
Well done Jacqueline, thanks for an inspiring evening.
