<div dir="ltr"><div>By Lucinda Guy, Chair of the Community Media Association</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://arts.commedia.org.uk/news/creativity-diversity-wellbeing/">http://arts.commedia.org.uk/news/creativity-diversity-wellbeing/</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>Conference tickets available here: <a href="http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf">http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf</a></div><div><br></div><div>\\</div><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Community Media Association</div><div>-- <br><a href="http://www.commedia.org.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.commedia.org.uk/</a><br><a href="http://twitter.com/community_media" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/community_media</a><br><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation</a><br><br>Canstream Internet Radio & Video<br><a href="http://www.canstream.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.canstream.co.uk/</a><br><a href="https://twitter.com/canstream" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/canstream</a></div><div><br></div><div><b style="color:rgb(136,136,136);font-size:12.8px"><font size="4" color="#0000ff">Book your tickets now for the Community Media Conference 2016: <a href="http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2016CMAConf</a></font></b><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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