Steph Gray

I'll miss Railway 200, but it's reminded me how much I enjoy supporting a small team with digital in the broad sense

As I see it, craft isn't demeaned by use of a machine - there's skill in blending them together with harmony and care.

Photo: Harry Woolacott, my wife’s grandfather, and her aunt Tessa, c. 1942 As Helpful Digital, my team worked on the 75th anniversary of VE & VJ Day in 2020, which was sadly overshadowed by the pandemic.

Sometimes, I’ve just felt a meeting or pitch slipping away from me.

David C.

When I first met Max St John, I think he had recently taken over running social media agency Nixonmcinnes in Brighton.

Given the turmoil in social media in the last year or so, it’s been lovely to see friends like Neil and Jeremy revive their blogging.

Originally published at climatehabits.co.uk Over the last three weeks I’ve been part of a Climate Habits group, so I’ve been through the process for myself.

Just over a week ago, I got a call from a friend at DCMS asking for ideas on how they might help people to find the end of the queue for Her Majesty the Queen’s Lying-in-State.

I’ve not written here much about leaving Helpful, the company I set up in 2010 and left in the early summer of 2021.

Google Analytics has an ancient feature tucked away to help you glance at your web stats without faff: scheduled reports by email.

I’m thrilled to be leaving Helpful in the hands of the people who have built it over the years with me and the rest of the team.

I noticed the other day that the odometer on my bike had ticked over 1,000km of riding.

Seven areas to look at to answer the question: how well does our website do its job, and what improvements do we need to make?

We had a little retrospective last week to reflect on some of the highlights of the year in our website build and support work.

It’s a hot week, so here’s my heatwave-hot hot takes on where digital comms under Prime Minister Boris Johnson might go.

A tweet from Dave reminded me how hard it is to actually work out loud.

Chez Gray, we’re into our cooking.

Like a lot of people, I ldentify strongly with the idea of no-nonsense.

I don't tend to feel I can write much here about the other side of what I've been doing these past nine years - our crisis simulation work.

Bureaucracies are quicker to mandate common solutions than they should be.

2008-9 was a good time for me.

My family enjoys trains, apps and adventure.

I’ve not pitched a session at UKGovcamp for a few years, but I’m hoping to pitch one this year on something that’s been troubling me for a while.

We were having a family chat over breakfast one Sunday morning about the kind of holidays we enjoy: “Somewhere interesting & exciting” “Somewhere not too bleak” “Go interrailing” “Go somewhere on a beach” As it’s a truth commonly acknowledged that a chap…

September 2012: five years ago.

I’ve been at the annual summer CommsCamp unconference event in Birmingham today organised by the awesome Dan Slee, Emma Rogers and volunteer team.

The thing about digital engagement is, followed to its logical conclusion, it drives a rational person to despair.

Taking a cue from Matt Jukes and others, here’s some of my abiding memories of 2016, in pictures: Took a bit more time to think and let things percolate on my daily commute into London.

When Stephen Hale blogs about something, I usually stroke my chin and nod approvingly.

This popped into my timeline today, from the fabulous digital team at the Department of Health.

As someone who runs an agency offering WordPress website development, I get quite a lot of website development briefs in my inbox.

I’ve spent a really lovely day at CommsCamp in Birmingham, recharging my batteries after a busy few weeks.

Five years ago this weekend, I packed up my things at BIS, waved goodbye to the Civil Service and set up Helpful Technology as a freelance business.

Five years ago, I remember being in Government trying to buy an enterprise licence for Huddle, an innovative UK cloud-based project management tool.

I was sorry to see the Science & Innovation minister get the chop.

I attended the launch of Labour’s Digital Government Review tonight: the culmination of a few days’ fiddling and some heroic web publishing by my colleague Al, helping the Review team get the report online in commentable form.

Photo: Jimmy Harris/Flickr I’m something of a closet nerd when it comes to Government buildings.

At Helpful HQ we’re a big fan of tools like the Lean Canvas or our friends Comms2Point0’s Comms Planning tool (PDF).

Here’s a conversation that I have quite frequently during training courses when we play Dave Briggs’ evergreen Digital Engagement Game: Me: So, tell me how you’ll implement your plan… Team: Well, we’ll [do creative stuff with social media] and work with o…

Every Scot would be £1,400 better off each year by staying part of the UK, Government analysis shows, apparently.

Our office partners, Claremont, have a new motto: Do the right thing right.

Four years ago, I left the Civil Service and started trading, rather than simply blogging, as Helpful Technology.

The giant of local government social media at the coalface, Dan Slee, has gone freelance.

What holds people back from using digital tools and techniques at work?

One early morning the other week, I was in the office sorting out evaluation forms from six of the digital skills courses our team had delivered over the last few days.

If GOV.UK is delivering the website, what’s the purpose of digital communications teams in government departments?

I’ve always suspected there’s a damn sight less success around than people claim, and a damn sight more dumb luck and hidden failure brushed under the carpet.

Our clients do some jolly interesting things online.

I’ve been a bit grumpy lately that use of digital tools to engage the public creatively around policy consultations has stalled.