Christmas Wishes and 2020 Reflections

2020 is finally coming to an end, it will be a great relief to many of you, but you know what I think 2020 has taught us so many lessons. 

I think for everyone working in government and public sector, the biggest learning has been how agile, how responsive and how committed you have been to digital communications this year. 

In the absence of a vaccine in 2020, the public were reliant on the direction and the communication from government and public health in particular around what actions to take, how we should change our behaviours and what we could do individually in the collective public interest. 

You stood up online, by and large the public listened and now you are hopefully going to supercharge your online presence in 2021, starting off again in particular with government and with public health agencies around vaccine communications. 

It's been a whirlwind of a year here at Public Sector Marketing Institute. 

In February we began to get the cancellations for our in-person training and consulting right across Europe, all of those were cancelled, they were pulled. 

But it was time to pivot and that's exactly what we did. 

We began to develop the digital crisis communications certificate accredited program, over 50 public health professionals from Ireland and the UK went through it and graduated. 

We also created our professional diploma in social media for government and public sector and graduated 24 students in December. And we have another cohort starting in January, if you want to level up your digital skills, your social media, your digital, prices come in 2021 then get in touch. 

I want to thank everyone who has worked with us throughout 2020, it was really a year of growing in so many ways. 

My vision and mission at Public Sector Marketing Institute is to elevate the standard of digital communications one digital message at a time right across the world, so that the public trust their senior leaders, their public institutions and so that they respond particularly in times of crisis. 

And boy have we learned this in 2020. 

I'm looking forward to 2021, hopefully bringing the public sector digital marketing summit back to Dublin, inviting our international guests from the US, Australia, Europe and the UK who have committed to speak on that stage in Dublin. 

I will continue to train and to mentor and consult and to help all of you bring your skills into the digital age. 

Thank you once again, Merry Christmas and a happy and a safe 2021.

Joanne Sweeney

Public Sector Marketing Institute