“I work with clients on a content strategy that can push through barriers and solve problems their audiences care about. To me, effective communication helps people understand things quickly so they can be well informed and get on with their day.”
While working as a writer and communicator in the 90s, I designed a night school course using textbook basics and my own recent work experiences. This became a popular course because it was relevant to what people needed at the time. On a personal level, that teaching experience rewired my practice and redefined my understanding of what drives excellence in content: proven facts validated by relevant, firsthand stories.
Now, after 20+ years of serving business and government while teaching and tutoring on the side, I’ve learned how a solid content strategy and clear writing in plain language can change opinions and open minds. Here are some examples where communication problems were sorted out by talented teams willing to learn from one another, try new things and validate client stories with research and relevance.
MINI CASE STUDIES
ITFO Communications – 2022
1: When key findings from that extensive research were overwhelming.
The client had an impressive bank of research yet the unit’s team struggled to articulate their key messaging. This is not an uncommon problem. They had numerous findings that supported their plan to introduce AI to financial investment advisers, one of several digital transformation projects underway on a global scale. Team members had different opinions on what worked best. I was hired to comb through their content and write a suite of materials for their review. I matched selected findings with test studies on what mattered most to financial advisers, the key players. This helped the reader better understand the research and how it enabled financial advisors to offer their clients an unequaled level of service. Photo: Accenture.
University of Victoria – 2020
2: When the pandemic lockdown pushed that national nursing conference online.
I took this photo as we started livestreaming the 2020 UVic School of Nursing annual conference with more than 150 registrants signed in from across the country. Held on the 100th birthday of Florence Nightingale, a social reformer who founded modern nursing, UVic Nursing led their first-ever digital conference after a flurry of lockdown orders almost cancelled the event. The pandemic prioritized web-based skills for us all and, as this example shows, we followed our audiences in a heartbeat. Credit: Video and streaming services by One Island Media. Photo: Kate Hildebrandt.
Government of BC – 2016
3: When that royal announcement needed a new website asap.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came to Bella Bella, B.C., as guests of the Heiltsuk Nation to announce an agreement protecting the Great Bear Rainforest under the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy. This event unfolded shortly after our team completed the website profiling this historic tribe, their place and this global conservation plan. As a content writer retained by the Ministry of Forests and the B.C. Government, my teammates and I worked intensely while sworn to secrecy. This was a fast-track project and the Royal Visit had yet to be announced. Here is the site, now with a refreshed design – Great Bear Rainforest -and here is the companion piece, produced after the fact by another team, offering a range of learning resources – Great Bear Rainforest educational site. Photo: WPA Pool/Getty Images North America.
