What gave us hope (and challenge) in 2024
C is for climate comms
2024 was another tough year for anyone paying attention to the planet. But there’s plenty of hope to be drawn. For me, it was in seeing more and more talented people deciding to pivot their careers towards tackling the climate and nature crises.
Brilliant initiatives like Climate Outreach are training people in how to win hearts and minds in climate communications. The newly launched Open Planet platform offers open source footage to illustrate climate story-telling. And charismatic campaigners like Oli Frost (creator of Ogilvyland) are focusing both their spotlight and scorn on the companies which profit from greenwashing.
U is for university researchers
Working with researchers has remained a highlight, and I am currently working with London Met University to help them raise the profile of their research.
Dan and I had a ball delivering workshops to researchers and staffers at the University of Exeter in September. While I focused on how researchers can use their social media platforms to heighten their research impact, Dan led workshops on presentation coaching to help them explain their work pithily and powerfully.
Setting up for the social media workshops at the University of Exeter
R is for rewilding
As the year drew to a close, I began a dream contract: leading the comms for Knepp Wilding. Knepp has been a source of inspiration for me since I first read Wilding four or five years ago.
What the team is achieving is phenomenal. You can read about Knepp’s year in numbers here. Whether it’s the 48 recorded nightingale territories, the six white storks which migrated to Morocco this winter, or the data showing that rewilded landscapes rival newly planted woodlands for carbon sequestration, Knepp’s numbers paint a picture of hope.
If you’re in the area, book into their top-star restaurant, the Knepp Wilding Kitchen, which puts nature first as it draws its produce from the fruit of the Knepp Wildland.
I is for indigenous
If there was one moment that will stick with me from this year, I suspect it will be listening to Noelle A. Young at a Greenpeace UK parliamentary event on the eve of COP29.
Noelle was about to attend the Baku conference to represent Bermuda. In a buzzy panel-lined room of politicians, advisors, journalists and canapes, Noelle’s personal and moving words stopped everyone in their tracks. It’s one thing to read policy papers and scientific articles – it’s quite another to hear a mother describing the island’s rising tides through the eyes of her children.
O is for ocean
After campaigning in 2023 for the ocean to comprise a greater part of COP28’s negotiations and agreements, the Great Big Blue continued to be an important part of my 2024.
Leading a global audit of media coverage about ocean protection for the Nature Conservancy, via Greenhouse, was fascinating and enlightening. And it set me up well for a fantastic new client in Pen Hadow’s 90 North Foundation. Partnering with the incredible Becky Shay of Indie Comms, we called for the creation of a North Pole Marine Reserve to protect the Arctic Ocean. Our coverage included with BBC Radio 4, New Scientist, Press Association, the Independent, Oceanographic, The Herald and the Yorkshire Post.
S is for social
For many, 2024 was the year in which being active on X became wholly untenable. Previously, many had argued that retaining a voice on X was more effective than vacating the space entirely. But Musk’s murky role in Trump’s return ended the argument for many of us.
And so, we witnessed the Xodus and the rise of Bluesky. Will Bluesky remain as Twitter’s heir, or will Threads unseat it? Will LinkedIn retain its brief moment in the sun? The battle is feeling a little Shakespearean…
And yet, while Bluesky is increasingly popular with journalists, wonks and boffs, X has attracted new followers from the right.
So perhaps what we’re witnessing is the silo-ification of social media – where different platforms incubate their own tribes and echo chambers drift further apart.
But for me, this was also the year I took the reins of Knepp’s social accounts. And Knepp’s posts about ancient trees, booming butterflies and beaver kits are the ultimate palate-cleanser.
I is for intuition
If there is one lesson I have learned again and again, it is to trust my intuition. It’s arguably more important than ever as a self-employed person. And yet, still, I continued to learn this lesson in 2024…
T is for teams
(No, not the awful Microsoft ones. Please can we all just use Google Meet instead?!)
I thought when I began working for myself in 2023 that I would miss being part of a team. But one of the loveliest aspects of having a range of clients is working with lots of smart people across various teams. And it has also been a lot of fun to create informal teams of independent consultants for sharing news, tips and dirty oat chai lattes.
Y is for yuletide media opportunities
For many journalists, things work a bit differently in December. Audiences have a different sort of appetite for news, and journalists want to file stories for ‘betwixtmas’ which fit the festive mood. I was chuffed to successfully use this chance to place four such stories for my clients this year.
Two different stories achieved widespread coverage for the 90 North Foundation, and called for the creation of a North Pole Marine Reserve.
Another, placed with Press Association and picked up by the Standard, covered a study by a London Met researcher which upends previous thinking about the best way to train for a marathon.
And that might be timely for anyone with ambitious new year’s resolutions…