CCPR CEOs' Convention 2009, Grantham

Policy Director Chris Robison and the CEO of Scottish Hockey, Brent Deans attended the annual UK CEO's Sports Convention last week.

The focus this year was on effective communication for leaders and it was an excellent two days with high class speakers.

The highlight was a fascinating insight into the world of political communications at a strategic level given by Alastair Campbell.  He is best known as Tony Blair's spokesman and director of communications,  He offered a check list of 10 key points for leaders that included such comments as be bold, be adaptable, stay calm in a crisis, learn to listen but then make a decision and move on.

After dinner speaker and Common Purpose founder Julia Middleton was excellent in providing delegates with a wry and incisive views on leadership and communication.

Tory shadow sports and Olympics spokesman Hugh Robertson MP was clear that sport needs to speak with one voice and our key challenge is convincing those will influence and power that are not sports minded.  Reaching out beyond sport with a unified voice will be essential in the future to ensure sport maintains its fair share of resources.

As communications advisor to the successful 2012 and 2016 Olympic and Paralympic bids Mike Lee OBE, the chief executive of Vero Campaigning backed up his presentation with some stunning media clips and video that was used to great success by the Rio de Janeiro bid team.

In addition to the presentations was a series of excellent interactive workshops.  Two of these provided a practical guide to impactful speaking and presenting and a very helpful master-class in tactics of how to get onto the news pages and deal with the media in a crisis,

The attendance at the convention was made possible with the helpful support of sportscotland.

Chris Robison will produce a full debrief and learning notes for all member sports and partner organisations and these will be placed on the SSA website in early December.