E3 Social Innovation Lab in Poland, online event

On 30th of June River//Cities held a webinar dedicated to Storytelling.

We created this webinar as part of the Local Multiplier Event (E3) - in place of the Social Innovation Lab which meant to take place in Gdansk in Baltic Sea Cultural Center, and which did not happen - down to COVID-19.

The webinar “Storytelling in Practice” was run in Polish by an expert Agata Górska (from Stacja Komunikacja: Agata Górska), a journalist and Brand Communication specialist .

We were pleasantly surprised to see so much interest in our online event, considering an increase  in online events caused by a pandemic.

Webinar was dedicated to culture industry, artists, NGOs and anyone who wanted or needed to learn about engaging audiences online, about better communication through Storytelling, and about  raising awareness of their own brand/organisation.

📌The subject of webinar was:
"Storytelling in practice, How to engage audiences, a story as a key to good communication"
📌Types of stories. Narrative writing templates.

The participants were welcomed by Magda Zakrzewska-Duda (R//C) who explained the context of the event (I_Improve project) and the method of work that our Foundation decided to improve and iplement - i. e. storytelling and story collecting.

Magda also described the role of the Changemaker in this process – for R//C the ispiration to employ this particular method came from Iwona Zajac – the artist who transferred the stories of Gdansk Shipyard workers into the works of art. The way Iwona collaborated with shipyard workers was a point of departure for Agata Górska’s presentation of storytelling in communicating the organisation’s values and activities.

Agata emphasised the importance of building trust with your target groups. That’s why it is important to build up your narrative around the values you share with your audience. She gave examples of four most common strategies of developing such narratives: 1/ personal stories, 2/ great aspirations, 3/ David’s fight with Goliath, and 4/ courageous attitude. You have to develop the story that your audience identifies with and wants to be a part of.

One of the universal formats used in engaging stories is that of the mythological journey of the hero. It was developed by Joseph Campbell in “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” as a template for the psycho-spiritual development of the individual. In response to that Maureen Murdock constructed an alternative ''heroine’s journey'' , which was discussed during our webinar.

Then Ms Gorska presented “the seven basic plots” (another link) according to the literary theorist Christopher Booker.

• Overcoming the Monster.
• Rags to Riches.
• The Quest.
• Voyage and Return.
• Comedy.
• Tragedy.
• Rebirth

Then, the tips were provided on how to tell the story in a better way e.g.:

• Make the story interestining for me!
• Don’t give me the answer, but provide necessary data!
• Show me the dynamics!
• Surprise me!
• Refer to your own experience!

In order to evoke emotions in your text use/refer to the following:

• metaphors
• pictures
• evil
• humour
• mystery
• suspense
• narrative

Summing up, stories help us connect emotionally with our audiences and thus tell in an engaging, thus memorable way about our goals and activities.

The participants of our online event had an opportunity to ask questions and to comment the presentation in the chatbox. Afterwords, everyone received the presentation in the pdf format, together with other related materials.

---

---