who are we?

we are award-winning creative and strategic communications specialists with a national reputation and over 40 years’ combined experience in senior communications, pr and marketing roles. and we have created a highly engaged community of communicators through our website and daily industry tweets; links and tips.

we were named in the top 100 Digital Leaders in 2014. and in August 2015 we were named in the ‘top 50 most influential Midlands-based Twitter accounts in the UK' by @Lissted.’

what is comms2point0 and what does it do?

comms2point0 exists to champion, promote and deliver the very best in emerging and established communications thinking.

we work with organisations to improve their communications performance and with people to build their personal knowledge, confidence and skills.

 we create and deliver specialist creative communications services, including

• strategic consultancy and support
  
• communications reviews
• campaign development and management
  
• bespoke training and development
• interim solutions
• mentoring for communications professionals
• events including skills workshops and masterclasses
• facilitation at communications industry events
  

we also created the unique UnAwards, celebrating the best in creative communications, marketing, PR and digital plus CommsCamp - the UK's largest unconference for communicators.

we've completed multiple communications and digital reviews, for a range of irganisations including large local authorities and a social media review of seven local authorities in the South West which has led to 24 of our recommendations being approved for delivery.

we've also created 'Digital Councils' on behalf of the Local Government Association, for Health and Wellbeing Boards, as well as a download for the LGA on social media use.

we have advised and trained more than a dozen organisations across local government and the wider public sector as well as the European Union and Public Health Wales, plus private sector organisations such as Punch Taverns and Capacity Grid.

we produced the Best by West Midlands whitepaper which mapped the region’s social media best practice in local government and this year we were nominated as one of the top 100 UK digital leaders by Digital by Default.

in October 2014 we were asked by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deliver and facilitate their annual two day Middle East and North Africa communications conference in Jordan.

when leading local government communications team, we were one of the first 100 councils in the world to use Twitter and have used it extensively since  2008.

We have a deep understanding of how and where social media fits into the operations of a large customer-facing organisation. we also won the inaugural LGcomms best social media campaign award in 2011 for our #Walsall24 campaign - we were the first UK local authority to run a 24-hour twitter-fon highlighting the 700 services the council delivered.

other things we do

- strategy setters

- event makers

- skills trainers

- community builders

- conversation starters

- idea shapers

- comms mentors

people we have worked with include...

European Union Committee of the Regions, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Better Regulation Delivery Office, Punch Taverns, Dorset for You's seven local authorities, the Local Government Association, Redbridge Council, Staffordshire County Council, Peak District National Park Authority, Improvement & Efficiency West Midlands, Charnwood Borough Council, Essex County Council, NHS Public Health Wales, Helpful Technology, IE Recruitment, ICE Creates, Podnosh and Capacity Grid.

darren is a creative communications consultant and co-creator of unique communications business and industry resource, comms2point0.

he creates award-winning strategies and campaigns, delivers comms and digital reviews, and offers specialist communications consultancy, support, training and development for both public and private sector clients.

named in 'Digital Leaders 100' in 2014, he is an engaging leader committed to creative excellence and innovation.

his 20-year career in communications, marketing and PR spans 10 years as Head of Communications within local government, a director-level role in the NHS, 4 years as domestic marketing lead at a UK utility, and 2 years in consultancy, providing communications services for private sector clients and high profile events such as the Euro 96 football tournament.

a graduate in PR, darren has have a track record of creating and leading award-winning marketing and communications teams winning over a dozen industry awards in the process.

he has hosted and spoken at over 50 events across the UK, Europe and the Middle East, on integrating social media for business, building online engagement strategies and creating internal buy-in.

darren created the communications strategy for the multi award-winning Come Back to Nursing campaign, which attracted over 1,500 nurses back to the profession and saving the NHS £90million in the process. the campaign pulled off ‘Best Social Media Campaign’ at the UK Public Sector Communications Awards 2015 amongst others.

a mentor to half a dozen communications managers in the UK he is passionate about sharing knowledge and learning as well as supporting communications colleagues across the industry.

darren organises and delivers training and development workshops and themed masterclasses as well as the highly popular annual UnAwards and CommsCamp, the largest unconference for communicators in the UK. in 2015 he also hosted a party of Norwegian communications professionals to share ideas and knowledge, and is planning a return visit in 2016.

he is an associate member of industry body LGcommunications.

say hello to him @darrencaveney and @comms2point0

 

dan is co-creator and director of comms2point0 and an award-winning senior communications specialist, blogger and speaker.

A former journalist he has written for, or spoken at, events staged by The Guardian, SOCITM, Media140, FirePRO, Public Sector Networks and others.

He co-founded the annual Hyper WM event to share digital innovation in and around local government and co-founded the Brewcamp meet-ups in the West Midlands.

he has contributed to digital policy at the EU and Foreign Office.

he is a founding member of the LGA's localgov digital group.

dan organises and delivers training and development workshops and themed masterclasses as well as CommsCamp, the largest unconference for communicators in the UK.

he has a passion for social media and video as vital components of the communications mix.

say hello to him at @danslee and @comms2point0

how does comms2point0 work?

every day, via comms2point0.co.uk and our twitter feed @comms2point0, we link you up with fresh new feeds, tweets and posts.  we share six links links on twitter each working day - morning, lunchtime and evening - to point you in the direction of the very latest in best practice communications.  we want to help you create a brilliant resource and skills toolkit which supports you in all aspects of your communications planning, delivery and evaluation -  from building effective internal communications channels through to using social media to build your business.

some of what you'll find here is created by us.  some of it is created by you.  some of it is just good stuff that we've found and that we think you'll find useful.

we respect copyright, always credit and if you use what you find here on comms2point0 we hope you'll do the same.

feel free to get in touch if you need our help, advice, training or consultancy. and if you have any questions, or if you have anything you'd like to throw into the mix, do please give us a shout.

darren & dan x

darren photo credit: (c) EU Committee of the regions 

dan photo credit : UK GovCamp 2011 via Paul Henderson flickr