Empowering citizens to talk about climate change
We helped the City of Edmonton to engage Edmontonians in a conversation about climate change, and reinforce its reputation as a proactive municipality that brings people together to solve complex problems.
Communications Challenge
The City of Edmonton hosted the inaugural CitiesIPCC Cities and Climate Change Science Conference from March 5-7, 2018, an international event for the world’s scientific community working to address climate change. The Change for Climate Community Series was created to support the conference and bring Edmontonians into the conversation.
iilo was engaged to create and execute the marketing and communications strategy for the Change for Climate Community Series on a compressed timeline. This was a complex task, since the series included lectures, film screenings, art exhibits and science fairs about climate change leading up the Conference, and three days of speaker sessions during the Conference, at the same venue. The sessions were free to the public and featured local, regional and international climate change experts, and government representatives including mayors and provincial and federal ministers.
We began with discovery work to build relationships with all the players involved, capture the marketing and communications ideas already identified, and understand the work underway. We wrote several drafts of the marketing and communications strategy for the Series, and led many strategic meetings to ensure buy-in from internal stakeholders.
At the execution project phase, we worked closely with team members across various City of Edmonton departments and branches working on both the Conference and the Series. We led and nurtured relationships with many event partners and sponsors, and were in constant communication with everyone involved. And we managed the execution of a large volume of Community Series event promotional materials, including print and digital advertising, billboards, and on-site signage, to promote each Series event and the speaker sessions.
Outcomes
The Series was created in the spirit of partnership and community engagement, and was truly a team effort. We made sure our interactions with everyone involved reflected this spirit and reinforced the positive reputation of the City and our client. And we ensured all work produced was of the highest quality. The Change for Climate Community Series was a success, with solid attendance at each event and extensive local media coverage. The Series took place at the start of the City’s conversation about climate change, which continues today through its Change for Climate initiative.
