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.

Tailored Messages for Priority Audiences

Wednesday, May 25 2:00-3:30

Now that you have worked to develop your spiel, we’ll build upon this with a session focusing on Priority Audiences and Messaging.

This session complements and expands upon your spiel and gives participants a more in-depth look at the audience segmenting and messaging process. We’ll use the research and recommendations from Community Food Strategies and Food Policy Networks to craft specific messages for the audiences each food council will need to connect with for their initiatives.

Spitfire will guide participants to use our Message Box  to focus on specific audiences, understand their values and craft messages that will resonate with their interests. Participants get a chance to put their new messaging skills to work and get feedback from the trainer.

You’ll learn:

• How to select a very narrow, priority audience – one that reflects the goal they are trying to achieve and will be most likely to respond to their call to action.
• How to take into account the values and core concerns of your priority audience and why they move that audience to act.
• About the four messaging mistakes that weaken a message and make it harder to persuade an audience to act.

At the end of this session, you’ll be able to create concise, compelling messages based on specific values and concerns, that will resonate with your priority audience.

Please register here.

Follow Up & Coaching – Session 2

June 1 11:00-12:00

We’ll use this coaching session to review your message box and plan to engage a specific audience. We’ll test out the messaging and get feedback from Spitfire and your peers. Please come to this session with your message box for a priority audience ready to test. Registration link will be shared with Session 2 participants.

Ethical Storytelling and Catching

Wednesday, June 8 11:00-12:30

We all know that stories are powerful as they help us make sense of the world, understand different perspectives and highlight the intersectional work food councils are doing. In Spitfire’s ethical storytelling workshop, participants will learn how to tell powerful stories about their work in responsible ways that consider who benefits, who is harmed and who is part of the story collection, writing and sharing process. Participants will explore the key elements of stories, different types of stories and will be given time to develop ones they’ve been considering.

You will walk away with a deeper understanding of how to align your storytelling practices with your organizational values, questions to ask when you are developing a story, and new ideas for stories your organization can tell to move audiences to action.

You’ll learn:

• About the value and power of using stories to engage their audiences in a strategic manner.
• How to identify six different types of stories to use when engaging audiences.
• Ways to employ techniques of creating a powerful story – these will include both the process of telling stories and the content.

At the end of the session, you’ll be able to ensure your stories are collected and shared in an ethical and responsible manner, so you can educate and activate priority audiences on issues relevant in your community and share these stories with Community Food Strategies to help lift up diverse work across the state.

Please register here.

Follow Up & Coaching – Session 3

June 15 11:00-12:00

We’ll use this coaching session to review your stories and story ideas. We can workshop ideas for stories and discuss ways to catch stories in the coming year. You will have a chance to share your story and get feedback from Spitfire and your peers. Please come to this session with your story (or story ideas) for a priority audience ready to test. Registration link will be shared with Session 3 participants.