2022 offerINGS
How To Craft A Pitch That Sticks
Lead: Agatha Juma
Do you have an innovation, idea or program that you’re in the process of pitching? In this session, you’ll learn how to restructure your brand’s narrative into a compelling story that remains memorable in a world where your audience has limited attention spans and resources.
Simple, Immediately Useful Techniques to Communicate Across Cultures
Lead: Wangari Kamau
In this session, leaders will learn immediately relevant tools to communicate across cultures. We’ll work together through a series of replicable exercises to understand how to promote behavior that builds community where diverse people feel welcome, included and heard in our interconnected world.
Learn the Easy Collaboration Tool that Top Innovators Use to Generate More Creative Solutions
Lead: Alexandra Suarez
Some of the most successful companies in business today tackle complex challenges through human-centered design.. Learn the simple conversational tool these top innovators use to discover more creative solutions and collaboration across every kind of work.
How to Build a Digital Storyworld for Trust and Social Change
Lead: Johnny Fraser
Social media channels build a greater understanding of an organization’s mission, its leaders and service populations. In this session, participants will become familiar with the idea of a storyworld surrounding their mission and learn how to build and manage communications across a range of media channels in ways that produce greater impacts.
Learn 4 (free) science-backed ways to game the algorithms and grow your online audience
Lead: Victoria Fine
In the never-ending marketing fight of humans vs algorithms, there are four time and scientifically tested, super reliable ways to increase the number of people who see and interact with your brand. Bonus: they’re free! In this interactive session, spend an hour and a half learning the science and psychology behind digital algorithms and leave with a clear plan of action for your organization.
Build An Intuitive Social Media Strategy to Turn Your Followers into Fans Who Support Your Mission
Lead: Kim Hohman
Not sure what you should be posting on social media or how to get your followers to care? Learn how to build a simple and intuitive social media strategy that takes advantage of the best practices of social media’s most natural users—real people. We’ll discuss how to find your organization's most authentic voice, create and curate your most compelling content using an experimental approach, and build relationships with your followers that allow you to rally them to action that supports your mission.
Storytelling From Afar
Lead: Babita Patel /Charlie Grosso
We all live in a different world from 3 years ago. How have we built up our ground game when we aren’t on the ground? How do we get our local staff to tell better stories when we’re not there to do it ourselves? How has the past 3 years changed who gets to tell what stories, how these stories get told & how to make them resonate in a world full of competing attention-seekers? Come join a conversation on how we all tell global stories from a distance.
2019 offerings
How To Be Memorable
Lead: Carol Schadelbauer
In a world with so much communication, is anyone hearing your message - about who you are, what you do and why it matters? How can you keep you and your organization top of mind and inspire change long after you leave the room? In this session, you’ll draft a core set of memorable messages that best represent the central theme of your organization.
Maximising Your Moment
Lead: Mwihaki Muraguri
Making the most of an opportunity to share your work,your mission through public speaking. This session will share key primers and nuances that are important for people looking to share their work and invite others into opportunity points.
Build Trust & Inspire Action: A 3-part Method for Motivating Others
Lead: Thaler Pekar
Our world is overflowing with data, information, and media outlets. How can your voice be heard? By building trust, quickly and respectfully. Join us for this lunch session to explore and practice being inviting, setting intention, establishing credibility, and sharing content to move people to adopt and share your solutions. Learn the Heart, Head, & Hand® approach to engage and motivate others to join you in your mission.
Design Your Highly Effective Digital Strategy: A Step-By-Step Guide to Getting the People You Want to Do What You Want
Lead: Victoria Fine
Have you struggled with building an online audience who is passionate about what you do or who fervently supports your organization?Join us as we use leading industry knowledge, algorithmic hacks and research to refine three basic skills of successful digital marketing: defining your perfect audience, finding exactly where they “live” online and converting them from passive observers to strong supporters.
How to get a lot of Press for Little or No Money
Lead: Jeanne Pinder
This session is designed for organizations that don’t have a full-time communications professional. You will learn to strategize and effectively plan how to get your message out there. You don’t always need a big-budget public relations agency to get the world’s attention-- with careful planning, you can get the press to come to you!
TV Secrets to Sell, Share, and Lead
Lead: Alicia Stewart
Broadcast pros know that concise, complete stories are key to connect and compel audiences. Fortunately, the same elements that create compelling stories on-air can be used offline to tell powerful stories that authentically connect with your staff, audience and partners. In this session, you will learn television tips on how to excavate your heartfelt reasons for doing what you do and how your visibility and vulnerability can be a tool for better leadership.
Build A Social Media Strategy that is Actually Worth Your Time And Money
Lead: Katie Myrick
Social media is constantly changing, but one thing stays the same: its ability to reach your intended audience on a personal level. This session will give you clear and actionable advice on how to build an engaged social media following — regardless of budget or staff capacity. After attending this session, you will have the tools to increase your audience across platforms with a specific goal in mind.
Reputation Crisis! Effective Communications Strategies When You Need Them Most
Lead: Jonathan Tusubira
No matter how well you run your organization, facing a communications crisis is not an if, it's a when. From a string of bad reviews to a serious executive scandal, every thriving, growing organization will face a moment of public reckoning. Are you prepared to handle yours? Learn how to authentically reconcile your future crisis.
Build Meaningful Relationships & Valuable Partnerships Online
Lead Karla Ruiz Cofiño
It’s time to rethink your online presence, how much time you invest in it, and what it says about you. Join us to evaluate your online presence and learn how to use social media to build social capital to advance sustainable solutions to the most challenging world problems.
Hire Smarter: A Simple Process to Find the Right People Faster
Lead: Victoria Fine
You don't need a recruiter to make hiring a delightful experience. But you do need to throw out the old cover-letter-and-resume model of applicant review. We'll lead you through a simple method to identify exactly the person you need and make sure that you only spend your valuable time with ideal applicants. While we’ll be focusing on creative, communications and marketing hires, the process is applicable to any new position you’re looking to fill.
2018 offerings
Tell Your Story in More Ways than One: Develop Your Organization’s Core Messages to Stand Out in the World
Lead: Ellen Wilson
In a world of 24/7 communication, is anyone hearing your message about who you are, what you do and why it matters? How can you stand out compared to the thousands of messages flying around? How will your work – your stories and messages – move others to action? There is a method to the madness when it comes to effective storytelling and it begins with creating a set of memorable core messages. Like most everything in communications, understanding your audience is key. In this session, you will walk away with the beginning set of core memorable messages to tell the stories that best represent your organization or issue.
Learn the 3 Essential Elements of a Highly Effective Digital Strategy
Lead: Victoria Fine
Have you struggled with building an online audience who is passionate about what you do or who fervently supports your organization?Join us as we use leading industry knowledge, algorithmic hacks and research to refine three basic skills of successful digital marketing: defining your perfect audience, finding exactly where they “live” online and converting them from passive observers to strong supporters.
Developing a Social Media Plan of Action: Engagement, Content Creation, Analytics and More
Lead: Erin Niimi Longhurst
This session will help organisations harness the power of social media as a tool to drive impact and meet your goals. In this session, you will learn how to get your stories in front of the right people at the right time. We will outline the ways in which you can take your supporters - both new and existing - on meaningful and outcomes-oriented journeys with you. You will leave the session with best practice tips around engaging your audience, how to establish effective content creation processes, and how to measure the success of the content you share online. Featuring case studies from the nonprofit sector, participants will develop a social media strategy framework that they will develop in groups. This workshop is ideal for those managing, or thinking of growing, social media teams but all are welcome and will benefit.
Crafting Your Story: Insights to Building Meaningful Relationships with Funders
Lead: Mwihaki Muraguri
Too often, the seemingly perfect funder isn’t getting back to you, and you can’t find a way to connect. You meet all their criteria, you think their strategy and interests are aligned to yours so what gives? This session is designed to help practitioners think creatively across multiple stakeholder perspectives about how to craft the story of their work when engaging with funders. We will also explore stumbling blocks in your story that serve as a point of disconnection between you and potential partners. You will leave the session knowing how to build a sharp story that lays the groundwork for a great funder relationship.
No one tells the whole story: Learn how to hold the media accountable and better represent yourself and your organization
Lead: Jonathan Tusubira
Our society and culture – even our perception of reality – is shaped by the information and images we receive via the media and yet many hope the media will be an accurate reflection of what is happening in our society. Some of us want our messages, or that of our organization’s, to be better represented. Others feel generally underrepresented and bombarded by fake news or other messages that require a trained eye. This session sets out some key principles and insights into Media (De)construction for individuals, organizations and parents to better be able to not only to critically consume but also create our messages that we want to be represented in the media. By understanding the ecosystem of the media, you will begin to deconstruct the media, learn to advocate for your ideas and communicate ethically and effectively across stakeholders. The following are guiding questions for the session:
* What ideas are you/your organization promoting?
* What part of your (organization’s) story is not being told?
* How can you Deconstruct the media or read between the lines?"
* How are you constructing your own stories?
Photography 101: Learn how to tell the bigger picture
Lead: Babita Patel
Photos can be a powerful visual representation of your organization’s vision & impact. Have you wondered how to photograph your work in unique & interesting ways? Whether you’re the one clicking the button, want to guide the one who does or are about to launch your first photo campaign, this session will give you hands on tips to take your photo skills to the next level so you can tell a more meaningful story with powerful visuals. Come learn how to frame a portrait, discover where to find a better story & how to photograph someone showing their dignity. And maybe even make your social media pages look better!
Plan Your Media Strategy: Determine the Most Critical OC Media Sessions for You
Lead: James Duft
Having clear goals doesn’t come easy, especially working within ecosystems of change and complex social issues that involve a variety of stakeholders, beneficiaries, target audiences etc. What far too many organizations skip is the process of aligning their goals to a communications plan that allows them to use the media as a tool to increase their impact. When you know how to design a plan to support your ultimate goals, you won’t get overwhelmed with information. In this Salon we’ll talk about your goals and how to align them to a communications plan so that you have up to date techniques to bring your goals to life. We’ll also talk about which skills and content you fundamentally need to move forward with your goals by identifying which OC media sessions are most relevant to you. Make the most of your time at OC!
Social Media for Social Impact: How to get the most out of your online efforts
Lead: Victoria Fine & Erin Niimi Longhurst
Social media is a powerful tool: It can connect you to your most passionate supporters and collaborators, further your cause financially and build awareness about your brand and mission. Bring your challenges and questions to an expert-led social media salon, where we’ll steer you toward social success with the latest best practices, help you overcome struggles and introduce you to new ways to leverage social platforms to reach your organizational/company goals.