Chris Warkup
Name: Chris Warkup
Job Title: Information, Communications & Marketing Officer
Organisation: Humber Sports Partnership
My role over the past 12 months has been to promote the activities of the Humber Sports Partnership. This has included the development our website, creating the fortnightly E bulletin, press coverage, two DVDs, display boards and a range of branded materials to promote the organisation.
A major task has been the development of this website. The existing website was completely redeveloped from June to Christmas and all of the articles relating to active sport replaced with information on the new style HSP. This site was in need of modernisation and technical issues brought the issue to a head. We decided that a new modern site with higher technical specification was required. Staff created a wish list of what we needed and this went out to tender. Bluestorm, from Hessle won the contract and the new website went live on May 31st.
A fortnightly E bulletin for key strategic partners was developed during the summer of 2006 and this provides updated information on the work of the HSP and our partners. A survey was conducted in January and the results showed that this was seen as a very useful source of information to our partners. The existing E bulletin template was replaced by one modelled on the new website in June.
Media coverage has been an important aspect of this role and the HSP worked with a Leeds based Press Agency till the spring and a number of articles covering our work have been published in regional newspapers and used by radio stations over the past year. The press launch of the Community Sports Coaches in July went particularly well with coverage in a wide number of newspapers and features on two radio stations.
We have been working with Connexions Humber to develop a DVD to promote the Step into Sport initiative. A ten minute film featuring students, coaches and administrators will be completed by mid -September and this will be shown at local schools during the autumn. Another DVD highlighting the success of a previous participant was also created for the Step into Sport Conference in February and shown to the students attending the event.
A range of branded items have been developed over the past year ranging from stationery to bags, pens, clipboards, lanyards, folders and post-it notes. Reece also secured a range of clothing for the core-team. As part of our branding a particular style has been created for our publications and this has been followed for a range of printed materials including the Coach Education brochures, folders, leaflet Promoting Sport toolkit and Active Humber brochure. A specific HSP brand image has been established. In addition to this range of branded materials we have three display boards to publicise the organisation.
In the coming months three major initiatives will be developed.
- The Promoting Spool Toolkit will be made available to local sports clubs. This is a resource that provides guidance on promotional activities to publicise clubs.
- We are working with the local newspapers to develop local sport content on the new web portals such as Sport Hull. We aim to develop individual sections on these sites for local sports or leagues to promote their activities.
- We are working with Sport England and local sports development teams to develop campaigns that will promote participation in sports within the four local authorities.