With over 17 years of experience in communications in both the public and private sectors, Victoria has worked at Reading Council for the last 7 years and has been the lead for the council’s social media since 2019. During that time, she has introduced Orlo as the council’s social media management tool, which now supports over 48 users and 34 social media channels. Her ongoing goals include increasing channel followers and engagement.

Kirsty started her career in the finance sector but soon realised it wasn’t for her. She moved into the charity sector in 2007 and has never looked back. She’s worked in a number of in-house communication roles before going freelance in 2015. In 2018 she took on an interim Social Media Manager role at the British Red Cross and worked on two emergency appeals. Kirsty was the interim Social Media Manager at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH) in 2021/22 where she worked on a number of high profile campaigns. As well as specialising in social media, Kirsty is a copywriter and writes regularly for Third Sector and Charity Digital. After a high-profile charity Twitter crisis, Kirsty realised there was very little resource and support, in terms of wellbeing, for those working in social media. So in 2019 she authored the Wellbeing Guide for Comms Professionals for CharityComms, which is still their most-read resource. She has also featured on a number of podcasts, including CharityComms, Do more good, Third Sector, Tech for Good Live and more.

Spike is the Head of Social Media at Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity. Having worked at Shelter for over a decade, Spike has led numerous national social media campaigns designed to help raise awareness of the housing emergency.