Northern Spire: Hard hats and sequins – the secret to successful infrastructure communications

Aerial view of traffic crossing the Northern Spire bridge

Karen and Chris are heading back to Sunderland shortly to do a joint event with Sunderland City Council’s communications team about all things Northern Spire from a PR perspective.

If you like the sound of that you can book a ticket on the CIPR North East eventbrite site and read on below to find out more.

“It’s all about hard hats, sequins and having a narrative that can really engage the community.”

Successful infrastructure projects take years to deliver – so where do you start, how do you keep people engaged and what do you need to do to get your regional project in front of 11 million people on Strictly on a Saturday night?

Hear from the award-winning communications team behind the success of Northern Spire – Sunderland’s new bridge.

Karen Westcott from DTW will be joined by Paula James from Sunderland City Council to give a behind the scenes look at all things ‘Northern Spire’ and outline how the project team has engaged the local community, stakeholders and the media over the past three-and-a-half years.

Get the inside story on hosting William and Kate on a secret Royal visit to a live construction site, running a school site visit programme for 2,300 children, persuading construction teams to create 10-metre high media viewing platforms at a day’s notice, dealing with the Strictly team, and achieving 99% positive/neutral media coverage and all the other things you need to do to put communications at the heart of a major engineering and infrastructure project like Northern Spire.

DTW Managing Director Chris Taylor will also share his insight on devising and delivering long-term campaigns for major projects tackling difficult topics, looking at issues like strategic planning, engaging at Board level, partnership working and staying on track through good times and bad.

All that and a bacon sandwich with a view overlooking the 105m high Northern Spire, the north east’s tallest structure and newest landmark – what more could you want for a Wednesday morning!

The CIPR NE event takes place on 14th November at 8am at Liberty Browns just next to Northern Spire.

See you there!