Training Workshop: Designing and Running a Successful Advocacy Campaign

Lobbying and campaigning are highly complex multi-stakeholder communication activities that take place in a competitive and crowded policy-making environment. Strategic campaign design requires a thoroughly researched analysis combined with a strong framework that emphasizes the need for all practitioners to acquire a helicopter view of strategic advocacy campaign design.

This workshop combines campaign design best practice into an 8-step strategic campaign design model, which clearly introduces practitioners to strategic advocacy campaign research and design. Through the 8-step model, practitioners explore key tools and tactics relevant to each step of the design process.

After the training participants will:

• Understand the 8-step campaign design model and the key stages in the development of an advocacy campaign;
• Understand the professional products that are used in each of the 8 stages of the 8-step model;
• Acquire initial experience using three sets of key professional products (Results Chains, Problem & Solution Analysis, and Stakeholder Mapping);
• Understand how Theories of Change can be used to articulate flexible, SMART and measurable campaigns;
• Understand how to analyze policy issues, and create, plan and execute campaigns based on policy goals;
• Understand how to map and analyze stakeholder communities, and to translate results into strategic campaign choices.

Paul Shotton brings expertise from ten-years working with European civil society, umbrella organizations and blue-chip companies designing and implementing European advocacy campaigns and lobbying actions. This is complemented by ten-years in academia teaching courses on European Affairs and European Public Affairs combined with research on interest group influence. Most recently Paul has spent several years leading large teaching teams (70+ staff).

Aside from his work at the Public Affairs Council, András Baneth served as co-founder and director of the European Training Academy and senior partner at Arboreus, where he conducted public affairs training and consulting for a wide array of corporate and multinational clients. András also has experience in several EU institutions. He’s served in the European Commission as counsel to a Commissioner, delivered policy briefings for President José Manuel Barroso and held staff positions in both the European and Hungarian Parliaments.