Media trust is a charity that gives a voice to other charities, community groups and young people by providing them with a range of media training from experts in the field. Last week Eve attended the Media Trust Summit, where a number of charities and communication experts presented their fantastic achievements. In this week’s blog Eve talks about what she learnt from the day.

The day started with a few words from the chair, Alex Kann. Alex showed us a short video, highlighting how the Media Trust have helped transformed lives by sharing their knowledge and expertise with organisations that are passionate about making a positive change. He ended the talk with an emphasis on the three main aims: creativity, collaboration and innovation.

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We then heard from several speakers from the world of charity and communications. Emma Sheppard from St John Ambulance shared the journey behind their very successful campaign; The Chokeables. Market research found choking was a major fear among parents and with the help of famous voiceovers David Walliams, Johnny Vegas and David Mitchel they produced a fantastic, educational campaign. The best part about this campaign is that 45 parents contacted the charity to say the technique they learnt from the advert saved their child’s life!

We also heard from Deborah Alsina, CEO of Bowl Cancer UK, who stressed the importance of social media in reaching out to patients. Deborah shared an emotional blog from Charlotte, who lost her life to bowl cancer. The blog went viral in days and she praised Charlotte’s bravery in sharing her story and ultimately saving other people’s lives.

After a short break, I attended a morning workshop on innovation in charity films. Two representatives from War Child UK talked about their experience of making films on a small budget. They emphasised the importance of engaging with their supporters online and saw video as a key way of doing this. Their video ‘Duty of Care’ showed the reality of war through a child’s eyes and was incredibly emotive and powerful.

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British Heart Foundation also shared some of their successful video campaigns. This included ‘Last Words’ where individuals affected by heart disease shared their final words to their loved ones. The film really pulled at your heart strings and reminded viewers of the sudden and unexpected nature of heart disease.

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After lunch we were treated to more stimulating talks and workshops. Matt Haworth from Reason Digitaltalked about developing an app to ensure the safety of sex workers working in the UK. With murder and rape reports being far too common among sex workers, Matt developed an app that sends instant warnings when incidents are reported.

We also heard an exceptionally moving talk from Johnny Benjamin, mental health campaigner and ambassador from Rethink Mental Illness. Johnny shared his very personal journey, where he discussed the mental health problems he had experienced from the age of 10. Johnny hid his mental health problems for many years until everything came to ahead and his suicidal urges took over. As Johnny was about to take his own life, a persistent stranger made him believe that things could get better.

Years later Johnny joined Rethink Mental Illness as an ambassador and together they launched a campaign to find the stranger that saved his life. The campaign soon went viral, with over 300million people seeing it worldwide! Johnny shared the emotional moment they were reunited and has since featured in a documentary sharing this journey. The strength and hope gained from this stranger gave Johnny the power to help others struggling with mental health.

The Media Trust Summit was a fantastic day, where so many inspirational stories were shared. The day really emphasised the power of the media in sharing your story and getting your message across to the world!