[cma-l] Creativity, Diversity, Wellbeing – what’s behind our conference theme

[CMA-L]

By Lucinda Guy, Chair of the Community Media Association

Over the last year, discussions at CMA Council meetings have often been
about how we could help to change public perception of community media. Are
we amateurs, playing at radio, TV and print? No! We are professionals,
working in community development. We have found the ‘magic bullet’ for
transforming the lives of individuals, and improving things for our town or
area – it’s getting people together to create and distribute their own
media. We all see the incredible changes that take place, and dedicate our
lives to making it happen, often underpaid, under appreciated and over
worked.

As the Council has worked on a new strategy for the CMA, with the tag line
‘Community Media Changing Lives’ we’ve thought about how to get the message
across to stakeholders and the general public. Thinking towards this year’s
Conference, we wanted to take time to celebrate what is really amazing
about community media, whilst acknowledging the problems, challenging those
with influence and improving our skills to help all of our organisations
become more sustainable. We need everyone to be part of this conversation –
those rooted in community media, and representatives from the BBC, Ofcom,
PRSfM/PPL, funders and others.

I’m not the only person who has felt underwhelmed by talks delivered by
someone high up in their profession in mainstream media. They may not
really understand what we do, and no-one likes being talked down to. Let’s
avoid those situations, and instead, invite all kinds of people to discuss
things together, and share skills. Our annual conference can be a place
where new ideas are generated, new connections made. Moving to a mix of
panel discussions and workshops will help this to happen.

Our theme of ‘Creativity, Diversity, Well-being’ sums up all that is best
about what we do. Creative risks can be taken, with people making content
that wouldn’t be found anywhere else. Some of these amazing ideas gradually
seep into mainstream media. Diversity here isn’t just tokenistic – some of
the most marginalised and misunderstood groups have real ownership and
control of media platforms. And the well-being of many people around the UK
is being transformed by locally owned, non-profit, grassroots media outlets.

My hope is that the Conference itself not just looks at these points but
lives them. Let’s have a creative event, where we are buzzing with ideas.
Let’s have a good range of people speaking, diverse in every sense. And
let’s look after one another on the day. Take time to welcome new people,
listen to one another’s points of view, and have a positive shared
experience that helps us to thrive over the coming year.

http://arts.commedia.org.uk/news/creativity-diversity-wellbeing/

Conference tickets available here: http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf

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Community Media Association
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*Book your tickets now for the Community Media Conference
2016: http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf <http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf>*
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