Found another great blogging site today

A news blog to collect ideas from around the world - of where small changes have been made to the public & third sector services that have resulted in big benefits.

Take a look at this site, there are quite a few success stories from the public sector

Communication and Marketing Award 2009

Marketing the suggestion programme is vital to its success and a Marketing Plan should be drawn up identifying how marketing activities will assist with the delivery of the overall Business Plan.

All plans should of course be regularly reviewed, analysed and outcomes reported to management. This award is based on an assessment of your Marketing Plan and the effective communication of your programme.

To enter for this Award you must submit FOUR copies of your Marketing Plan, and all supporting documentation including reviews, outcomes, results and management reports to ideasUK by 31 July 2009.

An independent panel of judges, appointed by the ideasUK Executive Committee, will evaluate submissions based on the above criteria.

All ideasUK Organisational Members are eligible to participate. Entrants must attend the ideasUK Annual Conference 11th & 12th November 2009, where Awards will be presented, and display information relating to their entry for the benefit of Conference delegates (this does not form part of the judging).

Points to consider in your marketing plans:

Executive Summary (Where are we now and how did we arrive here?)

Current situation (include last 12 months of data that supports the description of your current situation e.g. a graph showing current position of suggestions submitted and any fluctuations).

Overview of marketing activity (describe recent activities and their results).

Targeting of specific segments of your organisation or the organisation as a whole

Marketing Strategy and Objectives (Where do we want to be 1, 2 or 3 years time?)

Business Plan - identifying aims and objectives of programme in relation to the organisations strategic plan. (It could be useful to project results that are more than just suggestion scheme related e.g. A strategic direction could be for a company to expand and open up more stores over the next year. One could run a communications campaign that was designed to increase suggestions targeted at this goal.

The expected results would be not just reporting of an increase in suggestion numbers BUT also what effect did those suggestions have on the strategic goal of increasing stores. More stores, less time to get more stores, better and more efficiently run new stores, etc).

Marketing Strategy - identifying the role that marketing will play. (Include any information relative to other areas of the business that you will interact with in your marketing strategy e.g. finance for expenditure approvals, human resource for company wide promotions. Knowledge of and assisting with the delivery of other quality initiatives etc.) Need to show that marketing/communications do not operate in a vacuum.

Marketing Objectives - identifying actions required in next 12 months. (Show any contingencies such as mergers, infusion of capital).

Marketing Plans (How do we intend to get there?)

Identify specific activities and consider what, when, where and how these will be delivered.

For each activity identify – Key tasks, priorities and responsibilities: Targets, timetable and budget implications: Promotional and communication tools to be used: Monitoring and risk assessment, considering external constraints. (Also include any rational of why you chose the specific activities and why you rejected any. e.g. I chose to run a poster campaign because I networked with people from ideasUK who had a similar organisation and was impressed with their results and methods).

Measuring and Reporting (What happened, where are we in relation to our goals? What do we do now?)

The outcomes of the Marketing Plan should be reviewed quarterly in tandem with the Business Plan. Assess how targets have been achieved and what adjustments are necessary to ensure continued success. All activities and outcomes should be included in management reports.

In developing the Marketing Plan it is important to undertake a SWOT analysis to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is also essential to consider the needs and expectations of customers (i.e. the people in your organisation who use or have a stake in the suggestion scheme). Be sure to ask them what they want and regularly review.

Why is management support crucial for the success of your ideas programme?

The stronger and more active management support, the stronger and more active the suggestion/recognition scheme becomes.

How can leaders/managers demonstrate support?

Leaders/ managers should be involved in setting goals and targets for the suggestion scheme and ensuring these are communicated within the organisation. The goals and targets for the suggestion scheme should link with those of the organisation.

Involvement in recognition events; actively encouraging employees to participate in the programme, ensuring regular reports on the programme are included in team briefing.

Encouraging a culture, which fosters creativity and innovation, inspire change and recognise and reward people for their efforts.

Ways to gain support for the programme

• Gather benchmarking information – show how successful other organisations are
• Highlight benefits gained from implementing employee ideas – financial and non financial
• Include information about programme in all briefing forums to ensure profile is maintained.
• Include in job specification/requirements
• Evaluation/implementation responsibilities should be included in job requirements and be included in annual appraisal
• Use the ideasUK Toolbox Accreditation in planning and reviewing procedures. Scheme credibility is enhanced by the effective use of business plans with targets, measures etc.
• Report regularly to management on all outcomes of the programme.

International Recognition for ideasUK

His Highness Sheik Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chief Executive of Emirates Airlines Group, presented an award to ideasUK Chairman of ideasUK, Andy Beddows, 'In recognition of his significant contribution in the field of suggestion and reward schemes'at the conclusion of the 4th Annual Ideas Arabia International Conference in Dubai.

On stage for the presentation were also Dr. Wafi Dawood, Chairman of Dubai Quality Group (DQG) and AbdulQader Obaid Ali (Dubai World) & Ideas Arabia Chairman.

Other Conferences

29 September - 2 October 2009 sees the 67th Annual Training Conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Indianapolis, IN, USA. Attendance for ideasUK members is at EIA member rates; please call the if you are interested in attending

The 23rd ideasUK Annual International Conference, 2009, will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Chester 11th & 12th November. We look forward to welcoming presenter s, finalists and vendors from around the world to share their knowledge and most importantly their experience to help our delegates in their day job.

For more information of associations around the world log on to www.ideasworldwide.net/

Conference Report Dubai

Our sister association Ideas Arabia held its 4th Annual International Conference in Dubai during April, titled 'Innovation: From Victim to Solution', with local, regional and international participation.



Organized by Ideas Arabia, a Subgroup of Dubai Quality Group (DQG)Dubai Quality Group (DQG). The conference aimed to help organizations to redesign, innovate and suggestions schemes within the constraints of the new economy.



It explored how companies can access the collective ideas generated from various work teams in organisations to design strategies for a more effective economy.
'This year's conference was of special significance because it adopted the principle of innovation as the start point towards an effective and constructive work in organisations.



In a departure from the usual conference format, the morning of the second day was devoted to one large brainstorming exercise involving all the 200 delegates and speakers. The activity was broken into various phases, included input from a team of experts and culminated in groups voting for the best ideas. The whole session proved a practical and enjoyable way to reinforce the reality of innovation as discussed on the previous day by speakers.






Final judging of the Ideas Arabia Idea of the Year took place during the conference and the event concluded with the announcement of the winners in six categories and Idea of the Year. The awards were presented by His Highness Sheik Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum. Ideas Arabia also inaugurated national and international lifetime achievement awards. The first national recipient was Shawqi Sajwani known for his hard work in the Gulf in the promotion of suggestion and reward schemes. The first international award went to Andy Beddows of ideasUK.

Overall an active, educational and enjoyable conference.

Conference Report Hamburg Germany

The DiB International Conference was held in Hamburg during May and followed its usual pattern of full sessions early Sunday evening and the following two mornings, with the Monday afternoon featuring all the workshops.

New for this conference was a degree of interaction, from a cartoonist highlighting' the points made by opening speakers, innovative graffiti following conference activities and the facility to 'sign up' for the workshops of your choices.

Prior to the workshops delegates were briefed so that after these sessions everyone came together and the workshop presenters summarised the learnings agreed in the session and one of the delegates gave feedback on the session.

There was also the opportunity to meet representatives from Austria, Switzerland and of course Germany and in addition there was an interesting selection of vendors (primarily multilingual software) from the host nation plus a newcomer with software from Finland.

Another high standard event from the DiB Team.

Idea of the Year Award 2009

The closing date for the 2009 competition was 30th April and this year we had 94 entries up from the 90 we had for the 2008 competition.

The standard this year was very high and the judges had a hard time trying to come up with a shortlist to take forward to the conference in November.

After 2 days of being locked in a room together and after much discussion, we have managed to come up with a shortlist of 35 ideas.

These finalists have now been advised and invited to the conference in Chester where the final judging will take place.

To view the shortlist, please copy and paste the link below

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcc3nsqh_30nc56bp87