Trish Johnston is the Assistant Secretary, Communications Branch at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C).  For over two decades Trish Johnston worked on some of the government's most complex policy and communication issues including domestic violence, cyber security, indigenous affairs, climate change, resources and energy and preventative health. Her experience spans developing large scale advertising campaigns, managing complex media and stakeholder issues and supporting communications in remote indigenous communities.  She is currently leading PM&C's digital communications transformation. In this episode, you'll learn about 3 case studies which received ~450 news articles in press or trended #1 on Twitter.

Kim Ulrick is the Assistant Secretary of Digital Communications for the Department of Communications and the Arts. She has extensive experience in the public sector. Kim Ulrick was the Assistant Secretary of Border and Counter Terrorism Policy at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, National Manager of Strategy Policy and Stakeholder Engagement at the Australian Crime Commission, Assistant Secretary of Marketing and Communication for the Department of Human Services and many other roles. Kim uses content marketing techniques in her communication strategies.

Catherine Staite is Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies (INLOGOV) at the University of Birmingham in England. Catherine leads her university department to bridge the gap between local government research and practice. Prior to INLOGOV, Catherine was the Director of Organisational Development and Policy for OPM, an independent research and consultancy institute for the public sector leaders, policymakers and regulators. Catherine has had other previous roles including Non-Executive Director of a high security British hospital, Vice-Chair of a healthcare trust and a member of the Board of Visitors for a local prison. In 2015, Catherine Staite was ranked in the top 100 most influential people in local government in the UK by the Local Government Chronicle. In this episode, you'll learn the paradox of less money and stronger communities, why local government reluctant to start a two-way conversation with residents, and the dichotomy between the political and the managerial.

Dave Polglase is the Head of Consulting at contentgroup. Dave Polglase recently celebrated his 10 year anniversary with us. Dave has worked with over a hundred clients over the years, including Federal, State, and Local Government. His projects have included strategic communications, public relations, and content marketing. Dave helped develop contentgroup's content marketing methodology. He has worked as part of the Australian media team for the past three Olympic Games. In this episode, you'll learn why content marketing is a hack against the time pressures of government and how contentgroup's content marketing methodology is applied to government.

Bob Pearson is the President of the W2O Group, a group of 3 marketing and communications companies. Prior to working at the W2O Group, Bob Pearson was the Vice President of Communities and Conversation for Dell, where he developed their first global social media efforts. Bob also worked as Head of Global Corporate Communications for Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Bob recently wrote Storytizing: What's Next After Advertising?, where he explores how messages proliferate through society. Bob is also a frequent speaker on digital marketing at the Syracuse Center for Social Commerce and the U.S. State Department’s Marketing College. In this episode, you'll learn how to find the people who drive the majority of conversation, easy quick wins for government and public sector communicators, which no one can object to, and why 43 people drive the majority of shared conversation for Harry Potter.

Jon Cohen is the Vice President of Survey Research at SurveyMonkey. Jon Cohen has a long history of experience in surveys and research. Jon was the Associate Survey Director of the Public Policy Institute of California, Assistant Director of Polling Unit for the American Broadcasting Corporation News, Director of Polling for The Washington Post, the list goes on. Before he started at Survey Monkey, Jon was the Vice President of Research at the Pew Research Center, an independent research organisation. Jon’s experience in survey design is extensive. In this episode, you'll learn why you should think of research as a strategic investment, how do you get people to understand the value of research, why research is part of the process of effective content marketing, and how you should invest in research.

Kristen Kavalier is the Senior Director of Research and Analytics at Sprinklr, a social media software company valued at over US$1 billion. Kristen Kavalier has worked on technology projects for government, non-for-profits and the private sector as a Consultant, Manager, and Product Manager for Acumen Solutions. Previously, Kristen was the Vice President of Customer Relations for NewBrand, a social media intelligence company. NewBrand went on to be acquired by Sprinklr last year. Kristen’s expertise is in listening and understanding customers and citizens to help organisations make better decisions. This interview explores how the District of Columbia pioneered a transparent government by publishing the good, the bad, and the ugly feedback of local government agencies.

David interviews two people who are doing amazing work at the London Borough of Bexley. Anne-Louise Clark is the Head of Organisational Development and Internal Communication for the London Borough of Bexley and Ellen Care is the Internal Communications Officer. Anne-Louise and Ellen discuss how design thinking has changed the way their local government operates.

In this episode, you'll learn:
2:20 What is the Bexley Innovation Lab? (And how it is different from anything they have done before)
3:51 Why is design thinking different to government's business-as-usual? And what are the steps in design thinking?
6:35 How was design thinking received by the London Borough of Bexley?
9:25 A problem design thinking solved which traditional processes could not (and saved the Borough of Bexley money)
11:56 How to increase the use of government services
14:41 What is User Research? (And why it can be better than surveys and focus groups)
18:32 How do you know if you're solving the right problem?
22:20 How does design thinking change the way internal communications is run?
26:58 The struggles of getting government to adopt design thinking (and how you can overcome these challenges)
29:23 How User Research overcomes survey fatigue

Scott Alexander is the Digital and Content Marketing Lead at the City of Boroondara in Melbourne, Australia, a local government with a population of over 170,000 residents. Scott Alexander manages a team of 9 content creators for both internal and external communications. Prior to working for local government, he worked in content creation and social media management in the production industry for companies such as Madman Entertainment and Media World Pictures. Scott has written and produced multiple award-winning short firms. In this episode, you learn: the marketing funnel of local government, how to target content to the right part of the funnel, and the types of content and channels which are getting the City of Boroondara the best results.

David Fricker is the Director-General of the National Archives of Australia (NAA). David Fricker began his career at the Australian Customs Service before moving to the private sector. David worked on major Federal and ACT Government projects in defence, science, immigration, finance and health on information systems, strategic planning and project management. David joined the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 2002 as Chief Information Officer and later as Deputy Director-General. In 2012, David Fricker became the Director-General of the Archives to lead the digital archiving transformation. In 2014, David became the first Australian to be elected the President of the International Council on Archives.

This conversation explores the importance of archiving and how it relates to public sector communicators. With the Archives possessing an information asset of over AU$1.46 billion, David Fricker understands the value of information.