Generating Content Round The Table

Which is great, of course, but sometimes when it comes to generating a useful debate nothing beats getting a group of like-minded people in the same place at the same time.

While we’re quick to embrace the possibilities of the digital era, here at CIB we still very much see the value in some good old fashioned, face-to-face contact – which is why we suggested organising a roundtable discussion for our client Carillion.

Our recommendation was that this event would then form the content lynch pin for a ‘hot topic’ focus on social value, hosted on the company’s STN website. Taking a bigger-picture approach to stakeholder communications, STN is a fundamental component of Carillion’s award winning sustainability marketing strategy. We’ve written about STN in detail before, but briefly the site looks to involve rather than target Carillion’s key stakeholders by contributing to content on leading sustainability topics.

So to that aim, we brought together participants from Barnardo’s, CRASH, Business in the Community and Waitrose, for a lively discussion about employee volunteering and the impact it has on businesses, charities and the communities they operate in. Chaired by Carillion’s chief sustainability officer, David Picton, the roundtable provided a useful forum for generating ideas, sharing best practice and overcoming challenges. It was a genuinely captivating day and all of the participants reported feeling revitalised and ready to put the ideas discussed into practice afterwards.

David commented: “The event drew together a great mix of participants, which set up a positive, open and modern spirit to the session – all of which was key to capturing some great ideas on the day. Turning these into a smooth, insightful flow of blogs afterwards then helped to shape some powerful collateral which also moved an important topic forwards and got people talking even more.”

From a content marketing perspective, the day was absolutely invaluable as it generated a host of varied and engaging material, including video interviews, written reports and social media content. The enthusiasm from all of the participants was palpable, with the far-ranging discussion throwing up a number of interesting topics and angles for future development.

Interestingly, while the purpose of the roundtable was to generate content for the ‘virtual’ space, its most appealing aspect, was the fact that it brought people together – in real time and in the real world. Proving, perhaps, that in spite of all this technology, human contact is still king.