The comms community’s favourite podcasts and conferences

We asked the people who read the Big Yellow Newsletter and follow Comms Creatives on LinkedIn:

Which podcasts and conferences actually help you do your job in comms?

The ones you’d recommend to another comms person.

And you REALLY came through.

We’ve collected all your recommendations into one enormous list, covering comms, PR, internal comms, social media, marketing, leadership, psychology, current affairs and quite a few things that aren’t technically about communications at all, but comms people love them.

(We’ve tried to fact check titles and hosts etc., but we’re working off a lot of lovely info supplied from busy people off the top of their heads, so if you notice any errors – please shout.)

Conferences and events for comms people

Thank you to the comms people who built this bit of the list

These recommendations came from Clarice Lowe, Robyn Burke, Sarena Clarke, Asif Choudry, Debbie Chapman, Melissa Johnson, Ellie Birch, Sarah Sweet, Abi Browning, Amy Jimenez, Lynne Milford, Jill Ancrum and Bernadette Burroughs.

Several recommendations came with detailed explanations about why they were useful, which is proper helpful.

Marketing, social media and creative events

Quite a few comms people are sensibly looking outside the traditional communications conference circuit too.

Recommendations included:

• Social Media Conference Cymru, a social media event for communicators and marketing people in Wales
• The Marketing Meetup, with IRL events as well as its podcast
• MAD//Fest London, described to us as pricey but good
• MAD//Masters with Rory Sutherland, more of a learning programme than a traditional conference but Rory’s there so it will be entertaining
• Technology for Marketing, including its free seminar programme
• SocialDay B2B Social Media Marketing Forum, hosted by the magnificent Luan Wise and Andy Lambert
• brightonSEO, which now covers a much broader range of content and marketing topics than the name might suggest
• The Institute of Promotional Marketing Experiential Expo, described by one person as one of the best events they’d been to in a while

Thanks for these recommendations

Angharad Wyn Jones, Chantal Palmer, Amy Jimenez, Jill Jones, Jade Staiano, Tamzin Kerslake, Rob Phillips, Ruth Darling, Catherine Jones and Zara Barton pointed us towards social media, marketing and creative events that comms people rate.

Brilliant sector-specific events

Some recommendations were particularly useful if you work in a particular sector:

• Communicate Conference, run by The Natural History Consortium, came up repeatedly for people working in environmental, nature and conservation communications
• FirePro Conference, for fire service communicators
• CharityComms conference and events, particularly recommended by people working in charities
• The Good Agency Summit, a charity sector event
• CommsCamp, the public sector event run by Dan Slee
• Comms Unplugged, particularly popular with public sector communicators
• LGComms Academy, for local government comms, including its Zero to Hero Comms training and webinars
• Comms2point0 UnAwards and Winners Masterclasses, particularly popular with public sector communicators
• National Housing Federation Comms and Influencing Conference, for social housing communicators
• LGA Heads of Comms strategic sessions, for local government comms heads
• Creu Cymru Conference, for arts and culture
• International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, does what it says on the tin
• NHS Scotland’s annual event, for health comms pros
• LGMA Communicators’ Forum, for local government comms in Canada, which one respondent called “hands down the best conference for people working in communications”. Sounds likke the Comms Ccreatives team needs to book our flights…
• IAP2 North American Conference, another great Canadian recommendation
• Comms Cymru, with recommendations for its discussions around government, politics, elections, crisis communications and AI
• EuropCom, for people working around EU communications
• Government Social Media Conference, in New Orleans
• Arts Marketing Association Conference, for the artsy comms pros

And thanks to…

These recommendations came from people working across public services, charities, housing, healthcare, environmental communications, arts and culture and beyond: Mandy Henshall, Debbie Stenner, Shelly Dennison, Victoria Boorman, Amy Jimenez, Vikki Waters, Leanne Ehren, Debbie Chapman, Jessica Bomford, Bernadette Burroughs, Siobhán Dransfield, Abi Browning, Miles Edwards, Amrin Bhatti, Jill Ancrum, Lizzy Felton, Shonagh Buchanan, Barb Floden, Carys Evans, Angelo Strano, Sienna Spencer-Markles and Anna Cornelius.

Podcasts every comms person should investigate

Then came the podcasts.

There were LOTS.

Podcasts actually about communications and marketing

Let’s begin with the reassuringly relevant ones:

• AllThingsIC Podcast
• Social Creatures, from Sprout Social
• Social Media Marketing Podcast, with Michael Stelzner
• CIM Podcast
• Less Chatter, More Matter
• 68 Hats, now dormant but still fondly remembered
• The Marketing Meetup Podcast
• Your CMO Mentor
• The Truth in Ten, with Jeremy Connell Waite
• Strong Message Here
• Why It Matters
• Candid Comms
• The Internal Comms Podcast
• It Gets This Crazy at Comms, from Adaudo Anyiam-Osigwe
• Curious Route, from Joanna Parsons
• Informed, from John Espirian
• Public Relations Stories and Strategies
• The CMO Podcast, with Jim Stengel
• Smart in Public
• Under Embargo
• Comms Confidential, from Joseph Gallo
• Communications Business Advisor, from Tara McDonagh
• Big Duck’s Smart Communications Podcast

And for people working in housing,

• Raising the Roof, from Yorkshire Housing, HQN and Inside Housing’s podcast were recommended too.

Recommended by

Debbie Chapman, Sarah Black, Robyn Burke, Rob Phillips, Tamzin Kerslake, Rachel Carter, Jade Staiano, Jill Jones, Anita, Ayla Iskender, Adaudo Anyiam-Osigwe, Sarah Sweet, Tess Marshall, Abi Browning, Nwabundo Okoh, Tessa O’Neill, Joseph Gallo, Hailey Finnigan, Lindsey Moyo and Jillian Driessen.

So if you host one of those podcasts, congratulations. Someone was listening and thought you were useful enough to voluntarily tell us about you.

High praise indeed.

News, media and current affairs

This category was fascinating because being good at comms requires knowing rather more than communications.

When It Hits The Fan, from BBC Radio 4, was the standout recommendation here, mentioned repeatedly. It’s one of our favorites too, especially since the fabulous Farzana Baduel joined forces with David Yelland as the co-hosts with the co-most.

People also recommended:

• The Media Show
• The News Agents
• The Rest Is Entertainment
• The Rest Is Politics
• The Guardian’s podcasts
• BBC podcasts generally
• Bold Politics with Zack Polanski
• Third Sector
• TRIP, including its UK and US output
• Cannonball
• Page 94
• Start the Week
• More or Less

And, for the really serious political analysis…

The Harry Hill Show.

Thanks to our unofficial newsroom

These came from Lisa Cartmill, Joshua Gardner, Amy from Creative Leopard, Anita, Vikki Waters, Charlotte Silver, Tessa O’Neill, Debbie Chapman, Katie Townsend, Caroline Coomber and Tess Marshall.

It’s a good reminder that staying informed about politics, media, culture and what’s happening outside your organisation is part of being a better communicator too.

Leadership, psychology, creativity and generally making your brain more interesting

This might be my favourite category.

Because if all you consume is content about communications, eventually all your ideas start coming from other communications people.

The recommendations included:

• Diary of a CEO, Steven Bartlett
• Think Fast, Talk Smart, Matt Abrahams
• You Are My Comms Hero
• Nudge, Phil Agnew
• WorkLife
• The Curiosity Shop, from Adam Grant and Brené Brown
• Anything featuring Rory Sutherland
• Cut Through, with Simon Baugh
• Brené Brown’s podcasts
• Cal Newport’s podcast
• The Daily Creative, Todd Henry
• Beautiful Misfits, Mary Portas
• Woman’s Hour
• Squiggly Careers
• The Mel Robbins Podcast
• Rethinking, Adam Grant
• Sisters of Defiance, Anita Rani
• Complex

For freelancers, people also recommended:

• Freelance Teabreak, Emma Cossey
• Unfrazzle, Louise Miller
• The Other Side: The Charity Freelancer’s Podcast

And then Victoria Boorman recommended The Archers omnibus as her stress-relief listen.

Which might be the most sensible professional development advice in this entire article.

Thanks to the people who took us outside the comms bubble

Recommendations in this category came from Clarice Lowe, Vikki Waters, Charlotte Silver, Lisa Cartmill, Anita, Alex Tomlin, Stewart Argo, Tess Marshall, Ayla Iskender, Graham Rigby, Lizzy Felton, Julie Bailey, Natalie Tannous, Sara Inkpen, Siobhán Dransfield, Madeleine Ruse, Sophie Crabtree, Ruth Blanco, Melissa Johnson, Jules Benham, Victoria Boorman, Lynne Milford and Shelly Dennison.

A few bonus recommendations

We also came away with recommendations for:

• Luan Wise’s Social Media Updates to Kickstart Your Week
• Luan Wise and Andy Lambert’s monthly social media briefing
• Golley Slater Effectiveness Sessions, including its free online sessions
• Turn the Page, free storytelling webinars particularly popular in the public sector
• Smart Thinking’s communications network
• Soapbox’s communications network
• Public Sector Comms Headspace Facebook group
• J & PR webinars
• Rachel Miller’s All Things IC
• The London Minute
• Cultural Content
• Archrival’s Culture Brief
• The Government Analysis Function’s Communicating statistics and analysis guide
• Internal Communication Strategy, book by Rachel Miller
• Better Internal Communication, book by Lesley Allman
• Comms Creatives Academy! Of course!

And thanks for the extras…

These recommendations came from Clarice Lowe, Ruth Darling, Carys Evans, Harshil Shah, Katie Townsend, Sarah Black, Jade Staiano, Anne Forshaw and Conor O’Brien.

Now you have a treasure trove of stuff to feed your creativity

This list came from the people actually doing the job: communications officers, social media managers, internal communicators, PR people, freelancers, Heads of Comms and people working across charities, public services, housing, healthcare, culture, environmental organisations and businesses.

So a massive thank you to everyone who shared something.

The really interesting thing about the list is how much of it isn’t specifically about communications.

Psychology. Politics. Creativity. Culture. Leadership. News. Marketing. Careers. Behaviour.

Because becoming better at comms isn’t only about learning more comms techniques.

Sometimes you need to put something completely different into your brain and see what comes back out.