VIP Visits

Writing about http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityfunding/story/0,,2226205,00.html

We are preparing for a visit from the Rt Hon John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

And we have been overwhelmed, if not suprised, by the amount of people who want to participate in person in this event.  We have 3736 people based in this location and 500 of them want to see the Minister - even more from other locations by video-conference and webcast.

Apparently this take-up is inprecedented.  I'd like to take the credit but the credit goes to the speaker and the topic.

Apologies for choosing this as a blog topic, but it is forefront of my mind at the moment.

500 participants - that's over double the size of our largest lecture theatre.  How do you accommodate the people that don't get to see the Minister in the flesh and keep them involved without making some people feel like the poor relation?

The other question is - if you are hosting a visit during a lobbying campaign and a Minister has expressed a wish to talk to staff as part of a closed event, is that then internal comms or is it part of the lobbying effort?

I think it's the latter and the internal communications on this is really how the event is handled..  Who gets to go?  Who gets a seat in the lecture theatre?  Who gets to ask questions?  Are they vetted? If so how heavily?

Challenge number 3 is creating this level of interest in other internal events.