The panel (from left to right): Sophie Crousse (GSK), Brendan (Hill+Knowlton Strategies), Thomas Tindemans (Hill+Knowlton Strategies), Alain Berger (Alstom)
As part of the third European Public Affairs Action Day held on 8 February in Brussels, Hill+Knowlton Strategies hosted an interactive workshop session entitled: “More than the sum of its parts – how to build and run coalitions successfully”.
Chaired by H+K Brussels’ Managing Director Thomas Tindemans the session featured three keynote speakers each of whom highlighted different aspects of the increasingly important role that issue-specific coalitions are playing in public affairs campaigns in Brussels:
- Brendan Hodgson (Digital Strategy Director, H+K Brussels) showed how the wide array of new digital opportunities can best be used by coalitions to educate, inspire, mobilize, and activate. At the same time, he warned about potential pitfalls in the digital arena caused by eg. slactivism, short-termism, lack of transparency and astro-turfing.
- Sophie Crousse (Vice-President European Public Affairs, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare) underlined how coalitions can become effective tools to reach out to different stakeholders in an increasingly complex and faster moving policy environment. She presented the recent work of two issue-specific European coalitions – the European Obesity Day and the European Platform for Better Oral Health – which, in their respective fields, had helped stakeholders and policy makers to engage in a constructive dialogue that focused on specific advancements towards a common goal.
- Alain Berger (Senior Vice-President European Affairs, Alstom) turned to another type of coalition, the horizontal issue-specific coalition. The uniting factor for such coalitions was not a common concern throughout the same value chain but one horizontal issue that, in principle, would allow all those concerned by it to adhere. The example he focused on was the Trade Secrets & Innovation Coalition which had enabled actors from very different backgrounds to unite and to focus policy attention on an important, yet long-neglected topic. For these coalitions to be successful it was important to allow for a flexible membership mechanism, keep the group small and back it up by a Secretariat that could provide strategic and legal support.
Sophie Crousse (GSK)
The session was followed by a Q&A session in which participants had the opportunity to raise concerns and issues pertinent to their day to day activities.