What do we need to think about? Communication skills; running a small practice and innovative project funding; self-generated projects; future trends and heritage consultation – we look ahead to the issues driving future projects and practices:
do we win 1 How hearts and minds? should the 2 What next generation be aware of? will the 3 Where money come from? ow can projects 4 H be grown from bottom to top? ow can we reap 5 H the rewards of thinking smaller? ow can we support 6 H volunteers to learn heritage skills?
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BRIEFING By Jane Bevan
Jane Bevan was head of PR at the Natural History Museum before setting up Firebird PR.
1 How do we win hearts and minds? Winning over clients, communities and developers is integral to the profession’s ability to grow, influence and thrive. How do we best bring ideas to life from the page and the drawing? What nuances do we need to evolve to speak the language of the developer and how do we communicate clearly, concisely and creatively? Communications expert Jane Bevan gives some pointers ...
W
hatever size of landscape project you are delivering, be it a high-profile complex commission, or one in a smaller, domestic setting, it is very easy to focus exclusively on the delivery of the job in hand. And just as easy to ignore the potential to tell the wider story of what it takes to make a project happen; the wider benefits the project delivers to the community, as well as the environment. The ability to communicate ideas and win hearts and minds is integral to the profession’s ability to grow, influence and thrive. Having worked in communications for over 30 years, experience tells me that – like many
other organisations – the landscape profession is not alone in underplaying its manifest achievements. Yet the same cannot be said about your more high-profile sibling – architecture in the built environment. There is work to be done. A good starting point for communicating what you do is to look at your business as whole, before zeroing in on specific audiences you want to address. How do you position what you do to the outside world? Who are your key audiences – your current clients, potential new clients, the media, or the local communities you are working in? No matter what the size of your company, it is important to think about a mission and
Until we all make the case for the benefits of the landscape profession to developers – as well as to wider audiences – it is easier to disregard your contribution, when costcutting calls.
