I’ve been preparing for our third Switch on to Swindon Place Board meeting later this week which has forced myself and the team to take a breath and do a bit of a stock take of what we have achieved in the first five months.

The first phase of the Switch on to Swindon website has been completed with a dedicated ambassador section including an online image gallery, Swindon story book, infographics, films and resources. The Swindon in Motion film has now clocked up 125k views and has been used by local organisations in staff inductions, recruitment campaigns and pitches for business.

The Switch on to Swindon team have presented at over 40 events and had over 100 individual meetings in order to build momentum for the campaign and sign people up as ambassadors.

Local media have embraced the campaign with loads of positive coverage, including this weekly column. At a time when resources are stretched and every column inch or broadcast minute is incredibly valuable, Swindon’s media have shown great support for the campaign and town.

Over 360 Ambassadors have signed up to support the campaign and they are a highly engaged and active bunch. We knew that galvanising the businesses, organisations and people in Swindon would be the first, crucial step in getting the Swindon story out to the wider world.

I could go on but perhaps what is more important than what we have achieved is how we have done it. When we launched Switch on to Swindon it was an invitation for people to work together to promote Swindon. Everything we have done since has involved our ambassadors and has been created together. Where we have commissioned things we have exclusively used Swindon businesses and suppliers.

A great start and lots of momentum built – it’s what you do with it that counts now so my attention, and that of the Place Board, is turning to the next six months. I look forward to sharing the results of those discussions very soon.

What does an Ambassador do?

It is the most common question I get. There is loads of information on the website www.switchontoswindon.com but let me bring it to life by sharing a couple of examples from some of our ambassadors.

The guys at www.socmedsup.com have incorporated the Switch on branding into their website as have Total Guide to Swindon. Loads of people and organisations are including the branding in their e-mail footers. Please do follow suit on both counts if you are able to.

Switch on lapel badges are becoming the must have accessory for 2017. A recent business networking event saw several people wearing badges and when asked why they immediately told the room about the campaign, why they were proud to be part of it and where to find out more information.

That is what an ambassador does. Every conversation, meeting, presentation and interaction counts when you are trying to change the perceptions of a place and promote it. The more people you’ve got in your corner having those conversations, meetings and interactions the better chance you’ve got of succeeding.

Stocktake done – now it’s time to ramp this campaign up.