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After another successful Civil Service Live, the communication profession came out on top as most inspiring.

Civil Service Live is the government’s annual staff conference and learning event for everyone in the Civil Service and wider Public Service. This year the event was attended by over 20,000 civil servants at locations around the UK including Edinburgh, Birmingham, Blackpool, Newport, London and Belfast, with the final event to be held in Exeter in October.

The event provides an opportunity for civil servants to engage with colleagues from across the Civil Service, listen to thought-provoking sessions, and hear from inspiring people sharing their experiences, knowledge and expertise.

There were also keynote addresses from the Cabinet Secretary, Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, Permanent Secretaries and senior leaders and the content at this year’s event was built around the three themes of ‘A Modern Civil Service’: a skilled Civil Service, an innovative Civil Service, and an ambitious Civil Service.

Civil Service Live in Edinburgh

Each year the Government Communication Service (GCS) delivers their own session for the communication profession, and is one of 16 government professions who present at the event. 

The GCS session, called ‘It’s what you say and how you say it’, was voted most inspiring out of all the professions sessions, and ranked 8th overall out of the 85 sessions held across the whole event, beating last year’s ranking of 11th.

There was even more success for the communication profession with ‘The ABC of writing to make an impact’, delivered by John Gannon and Alex MacDonald from the Cabinet Office communications team, taking the number one spot out of all 85 sessions.

The GCS session was designed by members of the GCS People and Membership Team and Simon Morykin, Broadcast Team Manager in the Press Office at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). 

The aim of the session was to give practical guidance to help participants tackle their fears about presenting and public speaking, and to help them become more confident. This included exploring what confidence is, what it looks like and how you can build confidence, as well as learning that presenting and public speaking are not just about what you say, but how you say it; effective planning, preparation and delivery are also essential.

The session was delivered by members from across the profession, some of whom were experienced speakers but for others this was their first time presenting to a live audience.

Commenting on their experience as a speaker at the Blackpool event, Shelley Tattersall, Internal Communications and Engagement Manager from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), said:

“I loved it! I like the challenge of putting myself forward for opportunities that many may fear or be too nervous to try. The content of the presentation was perfect and my fellow hosts were lovely – supportive, down to earth and friendly.”

During the session the speakers shared their personal stories about presenting and public speaking, including how they’ve overcome their own fears. 

HMRC Broadcast Team Manager, Simon Morykin, who helped design the session said:

“It felt such a privilege to be given the opportunity to share my own experience of developing my confidence with public speaking and presenting. I know from the feedback we received on the day, that many Civil Service colleagues at the session felt empowered to go and develop their own skills for public speaking. 

Presenting to an audience is a challenge we face more and more at work and overcoming those nerves, butterflies and fears can be quite the task. The feeling you get once you become more confident, even to the point of enjoying public speaking, is brilliant!”

This approach of sharing personal experiences was received particularly well by the audience, with the speakers being described as ‘honest and inspirational’. 

A member of the audience from the London event said:

“A well delivered session with real rapport between the hosts who presented. I loved the honesty and openness of the hosts in their challenge with public speaking which felt that this was a session understood and delivered with empathy and demonstrating that public speaking can be done by all with some helpful prep, advice and support.”

Overall, the session received lots of positive feedback from the audiences, many of whom said it was ‘very helpful’ with ‘useful tips’. A member of the audience from the Newport event said:

“Excellent session. As somebody who has to give a lot of presentations virtually and in person (and hates it) I learned a lot. I will certainly practice more and put those tips into action.”

All the speakers enjoyed the experience and were delighted to be given the opportunity to be a part of the event. They can’t wait to do it again at next year’s event!

Commenting on their experience of presenting at the London event, Jessica Ball, Assistant Internal Communications Officer from HM Land Registry, said:

“Doing these sessions were amazing and pushed me right out of my comfort zone. As an autistic person, I didn’t think I could do anything like this. But I told myself I can do this. 

“Hopefully I have inspired other autistic and neurodiverse people to do something like this, because it has made me feel more confident to deliver talks like this in the future. I also hope to mentor some staff in my organisation on public speaking, so they can become more confident delivering presentations virtually and in person. 

“Delivering a session at Civil Service Live was something I wanted to do for a while and I am really glad I did it. I recommend anyone in GCS to volunteer to do a Civil Service Live session, as you will feel amazing afterwards.”

Jessica Ball (left) and Funke Oham (right) presenting at Civil Service Live 2024 in London

Members of the Civil Service can now watch recordings of all the sessions from the London event, including our session on the Civil Service Live website.

We would like to thank everyone involved in supporting the comms profession at Civil Service Live 2024, particularly our volunteer speakers including: Ian Bickley (Department of Work and Pensions), Josie Stoneman (DEFRA), Alison Brooks (Ministry of Defence), Chi Ukata (GCS International), Alex White (HM Prison & Probation Service), Ross Middleton (Met Office), James Evans (Ministry of Justice), Funke Oham (Home Office), Jess Ball (HM Land Registry), Louisa Christodoulou (GCS), Hayley Higgins (GCS), Emily Vickers (Ministry of Justice), Shelley Tattersall (DEFRA), Andreas Heslop (Home Office), Tom Rostance (Ministry of Justice), and Simon Morykin (HMRC). 

We have already begun planning for Civil Service Live 2025 and would welcome suggestions for the topic of next year’s session. We are also looking for more GCS members to join our pool of volunteer speakers. So, if you would like to support us at next year’s event, either as a speaker or with planning our session, please contact the GCS People and Membership Team.