Russell Grossman wears many hats; he was, and still is the Director of Communications at the Office of Rail and Road, an Executive Committee member and adviser to the Board In this episode from the archives, Russell Grossman and David Pembroke discuss the best practices in government communication, and the establishment of the Government Communications Services (GCS) in the UK. We hear about Russell’s experience as Director of Group Communications at the UK Department for Business, Innovation...

This week on Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit our podcast with the Founder & Managing Director of Propel, Roger Christie. This podcast in particular investigates the role of social media and how government communicators can use social media effectively. Founder and CEO of contentgroup, David Pembroke, asks Roger tips to start conversations in organisations that are notoriously risk-averse when providing responses quickly to events online. Roger then stresses the importance of not...

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit our conversation with Ian Cleary, Founder of the acclaimed social media training business and blog, RazorSocial. He joins host David Pembroke remotely from Dublin, Ireland. With over 15 years in the software industry, Ian shares his technical expertise in utilising various applications to boost your content marketing efforts. Ian's RazorSocial, a global leader in providing expert advice on social media tools, has been a game-changer in...

As communicators, we should all know by now that internal communication is the beating heart of any healthy organisation. Because without it, everything falls apart. And though that may sound scary there are plenty of tools available to introduce smooth internal communication to your department or agency. In this week's Govcomms 'From the Vault', we look back at our 2018 conversation with Rita Zonius, a communication strategist and consultant based in Australia, where we discussed the...

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit our insightful conversation with Howard Parry-Husbands, CEO and Founder of Pollinate, one of Australia’s consulting and market research leaders in the world of branding, innovation and communications. The conversation explores how systems thinking can be used to solve complex problems. Howard emphasises that everything is interconnected, suggesting that solving one problem might unintentionally cause another. Using the Murray Darling...

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit a conversation between our host David Pembroke and Russell Sparkman, who is one of the pioneers of global content marketing and a believer in its inevitability. As the Co-founder of FusionSpark Media, Inc., Russell brings more than two decades of expertise to the table, specifically focusing on how content marketing can solve complex challenges in government and non-profit sectors. The conversation explored the multifaceted benefits of...

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit our insightful conversation with Claire Madden, author of ‘Hello Gen Z: Engaging the Generation of Post-Millennials’ and social researcher on generational engagement. Along with David Pembroke, Claire explores the technological cultural shift and what communicators can learn from these leaders of tomorrow though still young today. By 2030, it's projected that Gen Z will make up one-third of the Australian workforce, setting the stage...

On this episode of Govcomms, contentgroup CEO David Pembroke is joined once again by the Founding Director of Social Marketing @ Griffith, Professor Sharyn Rundle-Thiele. Joining us from Queensland, Sharyn is an expert in all things social marketing. Drawing from her background in commercial marketing, her current research focuses on applying marketing to benefit both people and the planet. She has worked on numerous social marketing projects that help tackle issues such as marine pollution...

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit a conversation between our host David Pembroke and Amanda Dennett, a former Head of Digital Experience at the Australian War Memorial, who is now the Senior Manager at creativeXpeople, Synergy Group. Amanda is an experienced communication professional, specialising in digital communication strategy, crisis communication, and media issues management. The Australian Government is increasingly harnessing digital platforms to create...

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit our insightful conversation with Shannah Hayley, which took place at the Content Marketing World 2016 conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Shannah is the Director of Communications and Community Outreach for the city of Plano, Texas, with responsibilities in strategic planning for all aspects of the city’s communications, marketing and community outreach. Along with David Pembroke, she discusses how local governments can capitalise on...

In this episode of Govcomms ‘From the Vault’, we revisit our insightful conversation with Nicole Thomson-Pride. Nicole is a professional speechwriter and communication coach with experience working across the Australian government, private sector and not-for-profit organisations. Her previous workplaces include the New South Wales Government, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Department of Defence. Nicole's passion for communication emerged at a young age, when she had a work...

In this episode of the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose podcast series, we are in conversation once again with the University of Adelaide’s Dr. Taylor Willmott and Professor Jodie Conduit for the sixth and final instalment of the series.   Jodie is the lead investigator on the Australian Research Council (ARC) funded ‘Collective Engagement Towards Social Purpose’ project, and has been working closely with Taylor on the analysis of qualitative data from interviews with community...

In this episode of GovComms' 'From the Vault,' we revisit our insightful conversation with Ian Andersen, who dedicated 35 years to improving communication for Europeans at the European Commission. As a passionate Participatory Innovation Adviser, Ian strived to foster genuine engagement and co-creation with stakeholders, even in the midst of the challenges posed by online discussions during the COVID-19 pandemic.   During the interview, we delve into Ian's remarkable journey as an...

This week on GovComms ‘From the Vault’, we dip into the archives to a conversation between contentgroup CEO David Pembroke, and Head of ‘City Communications’ for the City of Vienna’s Press and Information Services, Martin Schipany. They reflect upon how the City of Vienna has developed their communications approach across Martin’s career. The city is now working across multiple media projects and using content communications to create a strong relationship with their citizens. "We created...

Welcome to the first episode of a new season of the Govcomms podcast, "From the Vault." In these episodes, we travel back in time to the best conversations we had on the podcast with leaders, experts, and innovators in communications from around the world. This time, we will be revisiting our conversation from 2015 with Alex Aiken, the Executive Director of Communications for the United Kingdom (UK) Government. In this interview, Alex explains to host David Pembroke his approach to...

In this episode of the Collective for Social Purpose podcast series, we chat with Prof Ingo Karpen who is a Professor of Business and Design at the University of Adelaide and Karlstad University in Sweden. Ingo is also a Chief Investigator on the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose project, with a strong interest in improving lives and systems, and a desire to work with researchers and entrepreneurs to effect positive social change in various contexts. In conversation with our host David...

In this episode of Govcomms, we are joined by the Deputy Secretary of Revenue NSW, Scott Johnston. Scott is an internationally recognised statistician specialising in economic analysis, with a history of working as a senior leader across the Australian and United Kingdom public sectors. With our host David Pembroke, Scott discusses why Revenue NSW started to focus on a more customer-centred approach. “The tension of an organization that's primary purpose through history has been about...

"This story of Orange Sky really started a few years, before Orange Sky got kicked off in high school, my best mate, Nic and I went to school together and our school actually ran a food service for people doing it tough. So we had this opportunity when we were 15, to head out, cook breakfast for people, a kilometre from where we went to school who were sleeping in the park or sleeping, crisis accommodation centres around that centre." - Lucas Patchett  In the latest episode of the Collective...

In this latest episode of GovComms we revisit a conversation from the 2022 Digital Government Festival hosted by the University of Melbourne.  Robert Christie, Founder and Managing Director of Propel, Stephanie Speck, Chief Communications Officer at the Victoria Department of Education and Training, and David Pembroke, CEO of contentgroup, discuss the potentiality of active participation within the digital landscape for the public sector.  "If you're not active in managing what you look like,...

"Arm yourself with the evidence you need to make a case... We shouldn't sit there in our own little bubbles and focus on our communication skills only... At the end of the day, we are business people just like everybody else, and we need to act like business people." - Sia Papageorgiou. Host David Pembroke engages in a discussion with multi-award-winning strategic communications leader and Managing Partner at the Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence, Sia Papageorgiou. "Our job is to...

"Doing that allows us to be more personalised with our communications. And that's definitely the future for us in government communications, you know? Making it more personalised. To be honest, the less we communicate the better. Because people are so busy these days, they don't want to hear from you with emails every day, or how many emails do you get every day in your inbox? It's so frustrating and we understand that. We get that feedback from customers.." - Angela Kamper A new GovComms...

In this episode, we give you a 2022 reality mega mix. We revisit some of the key conversations from 2022 with the likes of Melinda Maddock, Richard Morecroft, Tim Price, Evan Ekin-Smyth, Melanie Gibbons, Deborah Rice and Stephanie Speck. Join in one the conversation as we talk all about the fundamentals of communications. "I think we need to move away from BAU plus COVID. BAU is COVID now. There is no going back to normal. We are in the next normal and systemic complex risk that we have to...

In this episode, we take to the air and view the state of government communication from 30,000 feet. With a little help from some of the guests we interviewed in 2022, we embark on a nostalgic trip down memory lane.  As part of our best bits episode, we bring back some of our key conversations with guests Carlotta Alfonsi, Sanjay Pradhan, Karine Badr, Jodie Conduit, Patrick Kidd and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele. "Citizens actually look at the government as unitary. They don't understand or...

Wanting to look at the crystal ball of communications? In this special episode we dive into the future of communications. David Pembroke, CEO and Founder of contentgroup, who hosts the podcast regularly, sits down with long-time friend Andrew Bell. As they fast forward to 2023, they discuss what may be next for government communications. "The ambition for communication inside government and the public sector should be to better explain and better listened to people such that there is a...

As we come up to the end of the year, host of the GovComms podcast, David Pembroke, reflects on the year that was. Taking the guest chair for a change, David chats with old time friend Andrew Bell about all things 2022. With the help of some of the key interviews from the GovComms podcast, the pair discuss the highs and lows that the communications space has experienced this year. "I think with the benefit of hindsight, we are going to look back on this last 12-month period as a bit of a...