Tips from the 'Changing Face of Radio' Workshop .

Learning Waves Skillnet held a very successful workshop on 19th February 2015 on 'The Changing Face of Radio'.  Speakers at the event included Greg Worthington, Director, RGSI, Australia, Alan Cox, CEO, Core Media and Lorcan Kinsella, Director, Brand Nova and Digital Marketing Strategist. 
The workshop started with a presentation from Greg Worthington who told the audience 'not to be afraid to embrace change and digital'.  He believes that we can no longer think just like radio stations, radio stations need to become brands that deliver good content across multiple platforms and to do that you have to think differently.  Firstly you must have a team focus, stop thinking in silo's, all departments within the stations must work together, there must be a business focus aimed at driving your product forward. Secondly, over communicate, stations need to be able to communicate more effectively internally and finally, listen to what other people and the marketplace are saying, in particular what young people are saying. In essence, Worthington believes that you must work together, train as a team and move forward together.  To hear more of what Greg had to say click here youtu.be/Xxbhjh8LKrE

The next speaker at our workshop was Alan Cox, CEO of Core Media who told the audience that 'radio is in a very strong position right now' but that there are challenges coming down the track,  According to Cox 'the whole mobile area is probably thee most important area for radio to focus on in its strategic thinking',  Radio also needs to be very visual in its thinking and not just see itself as an aural medium, according to Cox radio has a lot to offer across all its platforms'.  Measurement is also a key area for radio going forward and perhaps a joint venture with TAM Ireland would be worth exploring.

The final speaker was Lorcan Kinsella, Founder Brand Nova and Digital Marketing Strategist who urged all stations to reclaim their 'digital marketing real estate', in essence 'traffic and conversion'.  In essence this comes back to our websites and Kinsella urged all members to look at 'content, content and content' in relation to their websites.  Kinsella also reiterateed what the previous speakers said, 'mobile is on the increase' and he concluded by saying that 'if you don't have a mobile marketing strategy - get one!'.  Full presentations from all speakers can be seen on www.learningwaves.ie/presentations.