September 6, 2018
Are you angry with Council? Do you want to stop a coal mine? Maybe you want to agitate FOR a coal mine … or maybe you just belong to a not-for-profit group planning an event, or a service club holding a fundraiser?
If any of the above apply, you should seriously consider booking a spot at a communications workshop which is being held in Kingaroy next week.
Former ABC journalist Pete Lewis is being brought to the South Burnett by the Red Earth Community Foundation to share tips and tricks about how to get a message across to a wider audience (without spending a load of money).
There’s no doubt Pete knows his way around the media.
He’s spent about 30 years at the ABC, filing for TV shows such as the 7:30 Report as well as national radio programs including AM, PM and The World Today.
He’s worked in the ABC Bureau at Parliament House, as a foreign correspondent and was part of the foundation team at Australian Story.
But he’s also spent time in newspapers and with commercial TV in Adelaide.
Pete’s probably best known to country audiences as a national rural reporter and was executive producer of ABC-TV’s Landline program for five years.
In 2014, Pete took a voluntary redundancy during a round of ABC cutbacks and launched his own business, “Way With Words”.
This business is all about “getting people to tell their stories”.
He’s worked with organisations ranging from AgForce to the University of Queensland, offering media training and sharing information about the most appropriate ways to tell a story and engage an audience.
Pete is a big fan of social media so this is one workshop where participants will NOT be asked to turn off their mobile phones.
He’s encouraging people to bring along their smart phones – and their stories.
“I will get them to think about what is their story and where they think that story may best be presented or published,” Pete told southburnett.com.au.
“Then I’ll share some simple ways to do it.
“It will be as hands-on as we can make it.”
There will also be examples of very successful, and not-so-successful, social media campaigns.
Technology such as iPhones and GoPro cameras has put publishing and broadcasting – “storytelling with a purpose” – into the hands of everyone.
“As the mainstream media becomes more challenged to cover stories with fewer people, there is an opportunity for other people to provide content,” Pete said.
“It has been opened up to a lot more people because there is no expense involved, if you do it properly.
“Words are great, photos are better and short videos are even better.”
Pete said he would be sharing some of the lessons he had learned over the past 40 years to get stories to stand out in a very crowded field as well as how to be effective across platforms.
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The Communication Workshop will be held on Wednesday, September 12, at the Kingaroy TAFE campus from 8:30am (for a 9:00am start) to 4:30pm.
Cost for the workshop is $110 which includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.
Workshop participants will also be invited to stay back for dinner at no extra cost where Pete will recap the day’s presentation.
Dinner is scheduled at 5:30pm for a 6:00pm start. The evening will close at 8:30pm.
People who cannot make the day event, but would like to attend the dinner and hear Pete speak can do so for $53.50.
(Some sponsorships will also be available for the dinner + talk. Email for more information.)
For more information and to book, click here
Bookings close this Friday (September 7).
