Issue 35 autumn 2022 - Flipbook - Page 72
credentials of informed conservation practice as a core
part of our 25th anniversary.
As the pandemic continued to take its toll too, by 2021
we were ready to help lead volunteers and members out
of lockdown. We realised early on how devastating the
pandemic had been for a small but significant percentage
of our volunteering members. Also, it was not difficult
for us to see that the primary challenge in our anniversary
year was the need to reconstruct our human infrastructure. So in advance of the anniversary, the IHBC’s Board
allocated funds and supported plans to rebuild networks,
targeting first our local volunteer networks: our national
and regional Branches
Planning and launching #IHBC25
As we knew where to direct our energies for the
anniversary – our members – and how – by taking
advantage of our digital know-how - all we need to be sure
to do was to capture the right mood. As, most of all we
wanted our 25th anniversary to look at our future as
much as our past, and help push ahead with our modernisation, we needed to promote a forward-looking, holistic
take on the institute and its operations. With these
priorities in mind, devising the anniversary strategy
became much easier to plan and programme.
Digital directions added another thread to build in in our
anniversary plans. As part of our recent modernisation,
even before the pandemic struck, we had developed some
sore tools, experience and protocols that we could build
on then and into the current year. That said, we still
needed substantial innovation and imagination to
upgrade and deliver core services.
The first step was to make sure our communications were
in place, so we started off by launching a logo and links to
some accessible digital resources on our NewsBlogs news
service (https://newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk/?p=32973).
Looking to engage as widely as possible, the publication
called on members, networks, volunteers and Branches
to contribute ideas, proposals or queries on events,
projects and/or news to the #IHBC25 programme.
Branches could register events and links to the anniversary using the social media tag #IHBC25 and the
new logo, with both representing the first steps taken in
our public plans.
The modernisation of our governance and linked operations dated back to before 2015, and by early 2020 we
were already operating ‘pandemic compliant’ arrangements in hosting meetings of our Board of Trustees. From
2015 two-thirds of our Board meetings virtual and by
2019 we had hosted a series of blended and open-access
Councils (‘assemblies’) of up to 50 delegates. So by 2020
most officers were familiar both with the technology and
the protocols needed for formal virtual events!
We also appointed a new support officer – Jude Wheeler
– to help develop locally-led ideas. While specifically
appointed to mend and support our post-lockdown
human resources and infrastructure, attaching to that a
proactive, positive and properly pitched message about
the quarter-century anniversary could only help the
establish the right mood for any wider recovery.
With that kind of depth of experience of digital
communications under our belt, we were well prepared
to be formally pushed into the ‘digi-sphere’ by the pandemic. So right at its start, in Spring 2020, and with little
more than a handful of staff, professional and technical,
we replaced our planned 2020 annual conference in
Brighton on 19 June with a wholly virtual event boasting
practitioners from across the globe: ‘Old Towns | New
Futures, Heritage Reflections and Speculations from a
Global Pandemic’ (https://virtualschool20.ihbc.org.uk).
Following those design and personnel developments, we
established a dedicated if very simple web hub for member
and public interaction. To help control management
costs, this wove itself around services we already provided
as noted below. Indeed the basic thinking was in fact
modelled on our IHBC@COP26 initiative in that it
offered a simple web interface into the ‘service’ network
– this time focussed on the anniversary. Though publicly
accessible too, this service was primarily designed for volunteers and Branches, from those wanting to promote
new initiatives to those seeking targeted funds for their
own anniversary and recovery events. That said, it also
offered basic resources for anyone interested, from the
wider public and the press.
That experience of ‘virtual’ events laid the foundation for
our approach to our anniversary. However it culminated
first in November 2021 with our innovative, low cost virtual programme of free learning and public engagement
for the Glasgow: our IHBC@COP26 virtual helpdesk
(https://ihbcatcop26.ihbc.org.uk). That helpdesk service
operated as an online public, heritage and construction
sector service, opening on every day of the COP and accessible to the widest public, global audience in the simplest cheapest way possible, via Zoom It was also the
longest ever CPD event hosted by the IHBC, extending
over 13 days – including weekends – and typically for 5
or more hours a day! Clearly the virtual world could be
our greatest strength for the anniversary programme too!
To be absolutely sure that costs were kept in hand, the
web resource page ranged around three simple sections
that reflected ongoing and core services offered to our
members and networks: :
• News: This links to all IHBC Newsblogs with the
#IHBC25 tag. Anyone interested could sign up for free
Newsblogs using the form HERE
(https://newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk/?p=32973)
The good fortune of such readiness in the lead-up to the
anniversary – from Spring 2020 to Spring 2022 – meant
we could look to further advocating the environmental
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