Join us on this page at 1700 UTC, Thursday 7 August - for our next Climate Tracker Skill-up.

One of the biggest challenges for any business, government, writer or activist in the modern world is strategic communications. We hear about it all the time, but do we really know what it means and how we might use it?

Aligning your writing along a clearly structured communications strategy can transform your impact, outreach, and the way in which your audience comes to understand your messages.

If you can join us, AaN Project Director, Joshua Wiese, will share the approach he takes in helping Fellows develop their communications strategy for climate negotiations. We’ll dig into how to develop a long term vision for your writing, what it means to apply it in your daily blogs or articles, and how powerful a strategic communications message can be. We’ll also hear from veteran trackers about how they’ve applied both inside and outside of the climate talks.

  • David Saddington

    Hi everyone, who is online for this Climate Tracker skill-up?

  • http://www.joshuawiese.com Joshua Wiese

    Welcome everyone! If you have questions or comments, please feel free to put them in the comments section below. Or you can tweet us with the hashtag #climatetracker

  • Alicia Pawluk

    Hello everyone! Excited to join you all from Canada!

  • http://www.joshuawiese.com Joshua Wiese

    We’ll be kicking off in just a minute.

  • David Saddington

    Are there any unconventional platforms out there which have proven useful for strategic communications as the standard ones (FB/Twitter) seem to be getting congested with messages about social change so it is a bit harder to stand out.

  • David Saddington

    OR what do you think are the best ways of standing out from the crowd and engaging an audience on the mainstream social media?

  • SalomeSoto

    Hi! Tuned and ready from Bogotá Colombia!!!

  • faith

    Hello. Faith from Zimbabwe but currently in South Africa. Glad to join in the discussion

  • Diego Arguedas

    Hello there, tuned in from Costa Rica

  • faith

    I cannot connect to the audio though…

  • Ariel D

    Hi everybody, Tuned and ready from Benin! Ariel

  • Seni

    Looking forward to yet another great session! :) Senashia from Sri Lanka

  • Rianna Gonzales

    Hello everyone from Trinidad and Tobago!

  • SalomeSoto

    Sorry is it only me having problems with the connexion? I am not following quite well the conversations.

  • Marco Lara

    Hi everybody! This is Marco from Chiapas, Mexico

  • faith

    No volume from my side please check you connected to speaker. Thanks

  • Rachel

    Hi everyone! Rachel, from Burlington, Vermont USA

  • Dizzanne

    Dizzanne Billy here from Trinidad and Tobago. I am so glad that I could make it to this meeting. I’m really looking forward to learning from the professionals.

  • Denver Thomas Cayetano

    Greetings from Belmopan City, Belize C.A……

  • Rashaun Williams

    Good Day world! This is Rashaun “DJ Reezey” Williams from Philadelphia, PA USA

  • Christopher Norris

    Hey, Chris Norris from Philadelphia, PA, USA tuning in

  • faith

    Please speak into the mic…hardly audible from my side

  • Mrinalini Shinde

    Hey, guys! This is Mrinalini from India. My question is, how does one identify and follow industry players who by their scale and scope, influence delegations’ policies, as far as decision making is concerned.

  • Diego Arguedas

    Hey Josh, as a journalist, one of my biggest “concerns” when advocating for climate change initiatives is bypassing the Church and State division. I don’t believe anymore in the 20th century’s concept of objectivity, but there’s still a division even in alternative journalism. I know past trackers have both worked publishing in media and pushing their own objectives and agenda. My question is, how do you balance being both media and a participant?

  • Dizzanne Billy

    Indeed, the narrative coming from the developing country context if often not understood (for lack of a better word) by the policy makers coming from developed countries. Furthermore, mobilising policy makers in the developing countries can be quite difficult because climate change is not seen as a priority in many developing countries. Economic and industrial development issues carry more influence in some developing countries. My question is, how can we really communicate climate change to people at higher levels when the environment is only considered as a check-box rather than a legitimate cause for concern?

  • Ariel D

    I address the same question as Dizzanne. Thank You

  • Weronika

    Greeting from Warsaw, Poland! Thanks a lot for this informative session.

  • Seni

    Loved this! :) Thanks guys.

  • Ariel D

    Many thanks all for this skill up ! See you next time

  • http://dianataremwakarakire.blogspot.com/ Diana Karakire Taremwa

    Informative session it was,many thanks to the team.

  • Velma

    Reliable and informative though joined in a day too late

  • Melhem Mansour

    I liked this session! very informative.

  • http://bit.ly/alex-lenferna Alex Lenferna

    Hi Diego, To follow up on your interesting question, and to go on a bit of a tangent, one of the struggles I have had as a journalist/activist is that the idea of balance is difficult to define. For a lot of people balance seems to involve using (consciously and subconsciously) the status quo as the middle ground and balancing their opinions around that. As Paulo Friere points out though, there is not such thing as neutrality, only support of the status quo. Furthermore, in the case of climate change, the status quo/business as usual is fast leading us down a disastrous path. Thus in my activism and my journalistic writing I try to construct balance that isn’t centered around the status quo, but rather critically questions the status quo and also incorporates different voices to provide balance. If we construct the balance around what is needed to tackle this issue, rather than around the status quo, then we can hopefully start shifting the discourse towards meaningful action.