The Social Impact Festival – Skilling up community storytellers to spread the word

The Social Impact Festival is one of the most forward-thinking festivals in Australia, inviting people from all walks of life to participate in creating a better future. While almost 6500 people attend the festival in person, the team from the Centre for Social Impact at the University of Western Australia were set on expanding the message by sharing the stories of some of the speakers and organisations involved.

When we were first approached to help train up the #SIFest18 community storytellers, it seemed like an impossible task. The storytellers were all based in Perth, while our facilitators were based on the other side of the country, in Sydney.

However, after developing our Stories for Impact Online Course last year, and with the power of virtual communication at our disposal, we were able to design a smartphone video training program without ever needing to meet face-to-face!

After a series of webinars and workshops, supported by the materials in the course, the storytellers went on the find, make, edit and share stories from the festival. Each participant also had access to 1-1 virtual consultation and troubleshooting sessions with members of our team.

We’re so proud of the stories that they created and we’re super-excited about the possibilities that open up with the world of online training for storytellers!