Fringe Findings
With climate and nature rising the political agenda, it wasn’t surprising that this year’s Labour Party Conference agenda was filled with events discussing the key challenges and opportunities for the environment and energy transition. However, competition for political speakers was fierce with attendees having to choose between 3-4 clashing events spread across the Conference map.
Once, the main purpose of Conference for NGOs and businesses was to try and network with Ministers and MPs as much as possible to understand policy plans and communicate the positive impact and potential of ideas and campaigns from industry and the third sector. But this year, except for confirmation of landlord requirements to increase efficiency of rental properties as part of the Warm Homes Plan, the new Labour Government remained tight on its messaging and revealed little new policy in the climate and nature space.
This gave added importance to the quality of industry and campaign discussion. To genuinely give audience members a sense that the events progressed issues, campaigners and organisations needed to use panel events to discuss thorny issues and galvanise audience members around key issues facing the net zero agenda. Seahorse has been reflecting on how to make the most from the expanded nature of the fringe to innovate and adapt events so that they stand out, taking important learnings from our own programme of events this year.
Know who’s in the room
With the record-breaking number attendees at Conference spanning right across the public, private, and third sector, it’s hard to know in advance who’s going to be listening to you. Knowing who is in the room helps tailor the session, and particularly helps any political speaker know the groups they’re reaching. There’s little point focusing the discussion on how NGOs should engage with the Government if the room is full of businesses with different approaches. You can understand your audience from the beginning with a simple show of hands.
Keep the audience present
Keeping an audience present is challenging when they’re on their 5th panel event of the day after a late night at receptions. Interacting with the audience throughout an event grounds them in the room and ensures they take what they want from the discussion. Knowing who your audience is from the beginning makes this more effective. Barry Gardiner MP proved how beneficial this is during an event with the OVO Foundation on climate education, taking his first moments to ask how many young people were in the room, and how they wanted climate education to support their dream job. This instantly brought all those in the room in a conversation that felt relevant to audience members and naturally flowed throughout the rest of the event.
Content brings a discussion to life
Talking about nature and the environment from a busy room in an urban setting can make it difficult for attendees to relate to the discussion. Video content and imagery allow the audience to emotionally connect with the issue and helps inspire discussion. For example, Oceana UK played an incredibly emotive video from campaigning organisation Sussex Underwater showing the impact of destructive bottom trawling, and a vision for hope, alongside an exclusive insight to its new film ‘Sea Slick’ highlighting the impact oil pollution on our UK seas and their wildlife. Eyes were hooked on the screen. When paired with interactive engagement to understand how the content has resonated with the audience, this is an incredibly effective tool to ensuring your panel is one they will remember.