Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Los Angeles

Title of entry: UCLA Strategic Communications Bar Raiser

About this entry: UCLA Strategic Communications is committed to sharing information, knowledge and best practices to ensure marketing, communications and events professionals across UCLA have the tools they need to be successful. Bar Raiser was created as a new way for university professionals to plug in to training opportunities to hone their skills or learn new ones. The series of events — open to all UCLA communications professionals and some faculty — has included:
• Bi-monthly webinar/virtual sessions offering bite-sized opportunities to learn actionable information and new skills;
• An annual summit; and
• Smaller, focused sessions on op-ed writing tips directly from op-ed page editors (New York Times; Los Angeles Times; Washington Post), faculty media training and “Pitch Lab” media pitching advice

Universities can often feel siloed, particularly when it comes to resource and knowledge sharing. Bar Raiser aimed to level the field by bringing together professionals and faculty from every department across UCLA who might benefit from focused marketing, communications and events training. It has also served as a showcase of our staff’s versatility and deep bench of knowledge. The result has been hundreds of UCLA staff members plugging in to various offerings, learning new approaches and skills, and reporting greater success in sharing UCLA’s story with others. Recordings of virtual sessions are available for future reference or for those who were unable to attend initially.