#FIREPRO19 – gone but not forgotten!

November seems like an age away, now, but hopefully the learning from last year’s FirePRO Conference is still being put into action by fire service communicators across the country!

We had over 50 attendees packed into Birmingham’s Impact Hub to learn from each other – as well as learn from the great set of speakers we had lined up.

The agenda was bigger than ever and included case studies and guest speakers from inside and outside the fire sector – covering everything from internal comms to pet-themed campaigns.

Planning has already begun for the 2020 event. Feedback from previous years, and our sector-wide survey, will be at the heart of it. See you all there!

But first, here’s 7 things we learned:

1. Large-scale incidents can run on for weeks and you should consider that, and your team’s welfare, as soon as something kicks off - or people could start fainting
2. The government’s OASIS model is the driving force behind some of the country’s most successful campaigns – and it can be applied to projects of all shapes and sizes
   
   
3. Finding time to properly evaluate your work, and reporting back, is one of the best ways to reduce those pesky, time-draining low priority requests
   
   
4. A lot of journalists still don’t get that we say firefighter, not fireman, and that we have done for years – there’s more work to do for us all  
   
   
5. Around 80 percent of human thinking is instinctive rather than conscious – something to consider when trying to change behaviour and get people to take action
   
   
6. Hearing what somebody says is different to really listening, and understanding, what they say – one for the internal communicators amongst us
   
   
7. And finally - next time you go to a conference or event, where there’s a wellbeing walk on the agenda, take an umbrella!