Strategic Communication Webinar Series

The world runs on words. Learn how to get the most out of yours.
From tailored messaging to powerful stories, your words can change minds, touch hearts and make the case for a more fair and equitable food system.
In fact, your stories can help your community understand the food system and your efforts to improve it.
You're Invited
WHEN:
May 11, May 25, & June 8
WHO SHOULD JOIN:
Representatives from food councils and partner organizations
Each webinar will build on the previous session and will be followed by a coaching session to work on your lessons learned and put them into practice.
This strategic communication series will provide a foundation of communication tools, training and coaching to help your food council develop and deliver a consistent, concise and compelling elevator speech.
We’ll help you create powerful, tailored messaging to engage your priority audiences and collect and share illustrative stories of your work.
Community Food Strategies is partnering with Spitfire Strategies for this three part Strategic Communication Webinar Series.
- What is your Spiel? How to talk about your Food Council,
- Tailored Messages for Priority Audiences
- Ethical Storytelling and Catching
Participation requirements:
- Participate in teams of two or more people from your food council or partner organization. Ideally, the attendees will be a director or organizational leader and the person responsible for communications.
We highly recommend that you:
- Attend all three sessions. Each webinar will build on the previous and attending all three will help you build a more complete communications strategy.
- Join the follow-up coaching session to practice and get feedback on what you learned.
- Commit to showing up, as participation will be limited to approximately 30 attendees.
3-part Webinar Series
Session 1
What’s your Spiel?
May 11, 11:00 – 12:30
It’s important to have a consistent message about who you are and what you do. Learn how to craft a compelling 90-second (or less) elevator speech to describe your organization’s work and its significance.
Session 2
Priority Audiences
May 25 2:00 – 3:30
Knowing who you want to reach is the first step in getting your message out there. Discover how to focus on your organization’s specific audiences, understand their values and craft messages that will resonate with their interests.
Session 3
Ethical Storytelling
June 8 11:00 – 12:30
Stories matter, but how do you tell and develop them ethically? Gain a better understanding of how to align your storytelling practices and collection processes with your organizational values.
Come Find Your Voice
What is your Spiel? How to talk about your Food Council
Wednesday, May 11, 11:00-12:30
Elevator speeches or organizational spiels are more than your messaging. They provide an introduction for your Food Council and its members by providing context, mission with a unique hook. Each person involved with your food council should be able to share a standard spiel with specific personal details that demonstrate their role in your organization’s mission.
In this session, Spitfire’s Mark Dessauer will show you how to craft a compelling 90-second (or less) elevator speech to describe your organization’s work and its importance. You’ll then get a chance to test your elevator speech with the cohort and receive feedback on how to improve it.
You’ll learn:
- Why you need an elevator speech to be shared across the organization.
- Ways to utilize the four components of an elevator speech.
- How to test out their draft elevator speech among their peers and training staff.
At the end of the session, you’ll be able to develop and deliver a consistent, concise and compelling elevator speech that provides information about yourself or your organization in a very short amount of time and in an authentic and memorable way.
Please register here.
Follow Up & Coaching – Session 1
May 18 11:00-12:00
We will use this coaching session to review your spiel, test it out and provide feedback for each participant. Please come to this session with your spiel (elevator pitch) ready to test. Registration link will be shared with Session 1 participants.
CONTINUE TO DEVELOP YOUR COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
Coming Up in Fall 2022!
Later this year, in partnership with Spitfire Strategies and NCLFC, we’ll be offering a Campaign Development Strategy training and coaching to provide step-by-step instructions and support for developing an effective campaign strategy. Participating in this initial 3-part series will create an excellent foundation for developing a clear campaign strategy.