On International Women’s Day, two members of the Sorted team – director Ali and marketing & comms assistant Laura – joined a team of volunteers at Media Trust’s annual ‘Women’s Voices’ conference.
The event matches comms and creative professionals with charities whose communications strategies could use a little help.
Media Trust is a charity which collaborates with the media and creative industries to give a stronger voice to marginalised groups. Their ‘Women’s Voices’ collaboration takes place on every International Women’s Day (8th March), and is now in its sixth year. The event supports 30 chosen charities across the country who particularly advocate for women and girls in their work.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day was #BreakTheBias, focusing on dismantling gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping:
“Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.”
– from the IWD website
This year, Ali and Laura joined five other volunteer comms professionals in support of UK Cervical Cancer. UK Cervical Cancer’s mission is to protect the health of women and those with a cervix by eliminating cervical cancer completely, through education and raising awareness.
“I was really pleased to get involved,” said Ali. “It was great to be able to offer my advice and experience to a charity which does such important work.”
During the session, the team got a sense of who the charity was particularly trying to target. Fundamentally, successful communications is all about getting the right message to the right people in the right way at the right time. A challenge can often be that the target audience is thought to be simply ‘everyone’.
Once the target audience for the day’s focus had been honed down to people who could support the charity – whether by funding or by volunteering – the team workshopped ideas for how to get the charity’s message out there. They then used their combined experience to work together and create a communications plan for the charity to take forward.
“It was a really interesting session to attend,” said Laura. “I’m still relatively new to the world of communications, so it was eye-opening to hear from people who’ve been doing it for years.”
As well as the charity challenge, the event included speeches on how to #BreakTheBias from Zara Mohammed, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, Joeli Brearley, Founder and CEO of Pregnant Then Screwed, and Sarah Norcross, Director of Progress Educational Trust. It was a motivating and inspiring day all round.
You can find out more about UK Cervical Cancer and Media Trust by visiting their websites at ukcervicalcancer.org.uk and mediatrust.org.