In this blog we celebrate a milestone partnership of 15 years working with the Department for Education (DfE) on their purposeful 'Get Into Teaching' campaign. Jess Ford, Head of Events at Blackberry, talks us through the partnership, the outcomes and what she learnt along the way, being lucky enough to be part of it.
The partnership dates back to before Blackberry was even born! Co-founders Jackie and Steve worked with the DfE for a number of years before taking the plunge to set up acompany of their own. It wasn’t long before the DfE contract was once again in their safe hands, only this time with Blackberry Events!
When the Get Into Teaching campaign (known then as Train to Teach) was created, Blackberry Directors had already worked with the DfE for a number of years across a variety of other events. With a strong working relationship already in place, we were able to jump straight in and hit the ground running, planning a countrywide roadshow to provide prospective teachers all the relevant information, advice and support they could need.
Over the years the campaign has developed drastically, ranging from 9 to 90 in-person events per year and stretched from Carlisle to Plymouth, Canterbury to Newcastle. In addition to the main Get Into Teaching campaign, we worked alongside the DfE to develop the ‘pop-up’ event, which saw the Blackberry team visit 50 universities each year to inspire students to consider a career in teaching.
One of the biggest developments to date was during covid, which saw the entire campaign move online; from conference style online events to replicate the Get Into Teaching campaign, with live panel discussions, 1-1 meetings and anywhere between 200 and 1000 attendees, through to virtual webinars to mimic the pop-ups which saw informal Q+A sessions with smaller university groups.
The Get Into Teaching campaign is designed to provide information, advice and support to anyone interested in a career in teaching. Whether they had never thought of the profession before, or they were fairly sure they wanted to apply – these events provided everything they needed to take the next steps.
Across the 15 years our events have welcomed over 170,000 prospective teachers, supporting the annual demand for newly qualified teachers.
This partnership is where Blackberry’s values around purpose flourished. The team soon discovered they had passion for creating experiences with meaningful outcomes and lasting legacies and what could be more meaningful than driving the recruitment of the leaders of our future generations.
I enjoyed talking to the attendees as they left the event and were filled with enthusiasm overall they had just learned. Attendees will tell you their situation and how the event had helped to clarify what they needed to do next, it was very inspiring. In our feedback report, 89% of delegates stated they felt clear on next steps after attending the event – it’s a great feeling knowing you’ve met the objectives set by the client.
In total, over the 15 years working together we planned and executed 1,553 events in over 45 locations!
My personal favourite venues were Brighton or Scarborough because the venues were on the seafront and it was lovely to be able to grab 5 minutes in front of the ocean before heading into the event or travelling home. It gave the event some peaceful bookends.
I will miss the client team, over the last 12 years of working together they have felt more like colleagues than clients. It will be strange to no longer have almost daily contact with them. After working with them for so long, they found that as each campaign term came around, we were already putting in place the previous decisions and could roll over the programme year on year with no disruption.
For me personally, working with the DfE has helped me to grow in confidence. When I started working as an Event Co-ordinator at Blackberry 12 years ago I was fairly new to the corporate world of events but over the years as my responsibilities and confidence grew, I took over the GIT campaign and now sat here as Head of Events, can reflect on 12 wonderful years with the DfE!
As a business, one of the key lessons we learnt throughout the campaign was the ability to adapt -whether due to limited lead time, last minute changes, a quick visit from government minsters or turning up on site to a venue we hadn’t held an event at before because roadshows with 90 venues and 50 universities a year don’t always allow time for site visits. Yet our understanding of the client and the key aspects of the event allowed us to adapt to any venue, layout or challenge thrown our way!
As a result, there are a number of ways this experience is applied to future roadshows, such as requesting full venue floor plans to demonstrate distances between event spaces to achieve better delegate journeys within the event. It could also be finding the perfect balance between local and sustainable suppliers and key partners that tour along with the campaign. Our most important lesson learnt is to develop a deep understanding of our client early on, including their campaign aims and objectives and any event considerations to ensure we are able to act as an extension of their team throughout.
Communication –open, honest and regular! Not only does it allow our team to develop that deep understanding of the client and their event aims but practically means any issues that arise are often dealt with quickly and efficiently.
This and the ability to understand our client also allows us to not only anticipate their requirements now but predict what they are going to need in the future – very helpful when managing a multi event campaign roadshow!
Getting under the skin of the wider organisation early on, to ensure every decision you make is aligned with their wider business objectives as well as the objectives for the event itself. Understanding and considering this helps install trust with their internal teams and quite frankly, take a load of their shoulders!
If you found that interesting here are some suggestions from us to find out a bit more about Blackberry Events and our events management services.
In this blog we celebrate a milestone partnership of 15 years working with the Department for Education (DfE) on their purposeful 'Get Into Teaching' campaign. Jess Ford, Head of Events at Blackberry, talks us through the partnership, the outcomes and what she learnt along the way, being lucky enough to be part of it.
The partnership dates back to before Blackberry was even born! Co-founders Jackie and Steve worked with the DfE for a number of years before taking the plunge to set up acompany of their own. It wasn’t long before the DfE contract was once again in their safe hands, only this time with Blackberry Events!
When the Get Into Teaching campaign (known then as Train to Teach) was created, Blackberry Directors had already worked with the DfE for a number of years across a variety of other events. With a strong working relationship already in place, we were able to jump straight in and hit the ground running, planning a countrywide roadshow to provide prospective teachers all the relevant information, advice and support they could need.
Over the years the campaign has developed drastically, ranging from 9 to 90 in-person events per year and stretched from Carlisle to Plymouth, Canterbury to Newcastle. In addition to the main Get Into Teaching campaign, we worked alongside the DfE to develop the ‘pop-up’ event, which saw the Blackberry team visit 50 universities each year to inspire students to consider a career in teaching.
One of the biggest developments to date was during covid, which saw the entire campaign move online; from conference style online events to replicate the Get Into Teaching campaign, with live panel discussions, 1-1 meetings and anywhere between 200 and 1000 attendees, through to virtual webinars to mimic the pop-ups which saw informal Q+A sessions with smaller university groups.
The Get Into Teaching campaign is designed to provide information, advice and support to anyone interested in a career in teaching. Whether they had never thought of the profession before, or they were fairly sure they wanted to apply – these events provided everything they needed to take the next steps.
Across the 15 years our events have welcomed over 170,000 prospective teachers, supporting the annual demand for newly qualified teachers.
This partnership is where Blackberry’s values around purpose flourished. The team soon discovered they had passion for creating experiences with meaningful outcomes and lasting legacies and what could be more meaningful than driving the recruitment of the leaders of our future generations.
I enjoyed talking to the attendees as they left the event and were filled with enthusiasm overall they had just learned. Attendees will tell you their situation and how the event had helped to clarify what they needed to do next, it was very inspiring. In our feedback report, 89% of delegates stated they felt clear on next steps after attending the event – it’s a great feeling knowing you’ve met the objectives set by the client.
In total, over the 15 years working together we planned and executed 1,553 events in over 45 locations!
My personal favourite venues were Brighton or Scarborough because the venues were on the seafront and it was lovely to be able to grab 5 minutes in front of the ocean before heading into the event or travelling home. It gave the event some peaceful bookends.
I will miss the client team, over the last 12 years of working together they have felt more like colleagues than clients. It will be strange to no longer have almost daily contact with them. After working with them for so long, they found that as each campaign term came around, we were already putting in place the previous decisions and could roll over the programme year on year with no disruption.
For me personally, working with the DfE has helped me to grow in confidence. When I started working as an Event Co-ordinator at Blackberry 12 years ago I was fairly new to the corporate world of events but over the years as my responsibilities and confidence grew, I took over the GIT campaign and now sat here as Head of Events, can reflect on 12 wonderful years with the DfE!
As a business, one of the key lessons we learnt throughout the campaign was the ability to adapt -whether due to limited lead time, last minute changes, a quick visit from government minsters or turning up on site to a venue we hadn’t held an event at before because roadshows with 90 venues and 50 universities a year don’t always allow time for site visits. Yet our understanding of the client and the key aspects of the event allowed us to adapt to any venue, layout or challenge thrown our way!
As a result, there are a number of ways this experience is applied to future roadshows, such as requesting full venue floor plans to demonstrate distances between event spaces to achieve better delegate journeys within the event. It could also be finding the perfect balance between local and sustainable suppliers and key partners that tour along with the campaign. Our most important lesson learnt is to develop a deep understanding of our client early on, including their campaign aims and objectives and any event considerations to ensure we are able to act as an extension of their team throughout.
Communication –open, honest and regular! Not only does it allow our team to develop that deep understanding of the client and their event aims but practically means any issues that arise are often dealt with quickly and efficiently.
This and the ability to understand our client also allows us to not only anticipate their requirements now but predict what they are going to need in the future – very helpful when managing a multi event campaign roadshow!
Getting under the skin of the wider organisation early on, to ensure every decision you make is aligned with their wider business objectives as well as the objectives for the event itself. Understanding and considering this helps install trust with their internal teams and quite frankly, take a load of their shoulders!
If you found that interesting here are some suggestions from us to find out a bit more about Blackberry Events and our events management services.
Take a look at our news, industry insights and our thoughts and opinions on a range of current topics.
.webp)
