{"id":120,"date":"2018-12-05T14:41:52","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T14:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisariemers.com\/?p=120"},"modified":"2024-05-28T11:32:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T10:32:22","slug":"content-designer-writer-director-speaker-facilitator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/05\/content-designer-writer-director-speaker-facilitator\/","title":{"rendered":"Content designer, director, speaker, facilitator &#8211; 2018 in review"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_126\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-126\" style=\"width: 945px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/94.136.40.103\/~lisariemers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-a-year-of-firsts-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-126\" src=\"http:\/\/94.136.40.103\/~lisariemers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-a-year-of-firsts-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"945\" height=\"756\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-a-year-of-firsts-1.png 945w, https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-a-year-of-firsts-1-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-a-year-of-firsts-1-768x614.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 945px) 100vw, 945px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-126\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Montage of screenshots of work and pictures of a person on various stages &#8211; Lisa Riemers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>2018 was a very interesting year indeed. Both in the &#8216;participation in fascinating projects&#8217; sense, and &#8216;interesting times&#8217; proverbial way.<\/p>\n<p>I have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Worked with some brilliant organisations as a content designer, making web content easier to access<\/li>\n<li>Brought my experience training as a teacher to work &#8211; I&#8217;ve facilitated workshops for central government departments and edited teaching resources on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redcross.org.uk\/get-involved\/teaching-resources\">British Red Cross website<\/a> to make them easier to access for teachers<\/li>\n<li>Worked on video and web content for a big four professional services firm to help recruit the best young people<\/li>\n<li>Ghost-written for (amongst other things) charities, big pharma and an org who supports responsible drinking<\/li>\n<li>Photographed, sketch-noted and live-tweeted events and written up post-event reports<\/li>\n<li>Proofread some interesting documents including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.steptwo.com.au\/iia\/\">Step Two #IDWawards<\/a> which showcase great practice in intranets and digital workplaces<\/li>\n<li>Presented to an international audience in Sydney about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.steptwo.com.au\/speaker\/lisa-riemers\/\">stakeholder engagement at #DEX2018<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Participated in panel discussions about content design, branding and intranet technology<\/li>\n<li>Helped small businesses improve their web presence<\/li>\n<li>Written a byline on how much I love headphones which help me get more work done wherever I&#8217;m based,\u00a0 and commented elsewhere in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ioic.org.uk\/voice-magazine-january-2018\">Voice, the IOIC magazine<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Co-organised and co-hosted <a href=\"http:\/\/intranetnow.co.uk\/\">Intranet Now<\/a> &#8211; the best independent conference for comms and intranet people with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wedge\">Wedge Black<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Oh, and this is the year I went freelance, did my first ever speaking gig and have been finding my way through it all.<\/p>\n<p>This means I have also:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Been delighted at the lack of office politics although I can be an awful boss who has had to learn how to set boundaries with my employee.\u00a0 Setting up a separate space to work, where I can close the door at the end of the day has been brilliant and long-overdue.<\/li>\n<li>Missed having the IT support of a large organisation, having to navigate the joys of selecting your own tech, setting up inboxes and remote working processes, with the pitfalls of having to be the first and second-line support when it goes wrong.<\/li>\n<li>Not missed picking up every bug my helpful colleagues bring into the office, but missed the sick pay\u00a0when rendered immobile with a broken foot.<\/li>\n<li>Reminded myself about the power of networks.\u00a0 Most of my work has been directly or indirectly through recommendations, and people I know. I&#8217;ve worked with some brilliant people this year, who have helped me get to where I need to. I&#8217;ve long been a fan of finding your allies, inside and outside your organisation but when you&#8217;re physically on your own (rather than just feeling that way in a large org) it&#8217;s more important than ever.<\/li>\n<li>Navigated the minefield of switching registers; there have been times this year when I&#8217;ve had three clients at once. Each project comes with its own standards, processes, rules of engagement and controls &#8211; switching from one to another has caused a little friction at times.<\/li>\n<li>Been surprised at my lower incidental spend, with reduced travel costs, random &#8216;treats&#8217; at the shops while waiting for my train or spending \u00a310 a day on coffee and lunch.<\/li>\n<li>Spent a considerable amount of time questioning my judgement, my sanity, and wondering where the next contract might come. It&#8217;s not all flat whites and co-working spaces; keeping your mental health, particularly when you&#8217;re working from home and seeing people less often means it can be easy to forget to leave the house for days. It&#8217;s been particularly challenging at times when I&#8217;ve been unable to get out and about, but I&#8217;ve also been delighted by catching up with friends and colleagues at home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next year I want to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Do more of the good work.<\/strong> My favourite contract this year, working with Methods for Public Health England&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhs.uk\/oneyou\/every-mind-matters\/\">#everymindmatters campaign<\/a>, involved content I am passionate about, great colleagues to bounce ideas off (hi <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/finchwrites\">Rob Finch<\/a>), a great team that did Agile really well and\u00a0 a mix of working on-site and at home.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Get better at introducing myself.<\/strong> I\u00a0wear a few hats, and am a few different things to different people.\u00a0 A portfolio career makes it more important than ever to know how to say &#8220;hello&#8221; depending on who you are speaking to. I read a great <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allthingsic.com\/how-to-explain-what-you-do\/\">blog from Rachel Miller featuring Janet Murray<\/a> &#8211; both comms professionals who are brilliant at telling their story. I&#8217;m improving how I do this in writing, but when it comes to in-person I&#8217;m definitely a work in progress!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Put myself forward for more speaking opportunities.<\/strong> I&#8217;ve had some really interesting experiences this year and it&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve enjoyed &#8211; and I&#8217;m looking forward to what next year has in store.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If I sound like someone you&#8217;d like to work with, let me know &#8211; lisa [@] lisariemers.com or get in touch with me on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2018 was a very interesting year indeed. Both in the &#8216;participation in fascinating projects&#8217; sense, and &#8216;interesting times&#8217; proverbial way. I have: Worked with some brilliant organisations as a content designer, making web content easier to access Brought my experience training as a teacher to work &#8211; I&#8217;ve facilitated workshops for central government departments and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roundup","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisariemers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}