A right royal do

At that point, I had no idea of the scale of the events or how invested I would become to the Royal Family… eight years on, I understand it only too well, having delivered comms for two royal weddings, a 90th birthday, and the Forth Bridge, the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh. And now, (was it really only a few weeks ago?), the biggest event of them all: the procession and committal of Her Majesty the Queen as the world watched on.

I was in Windsor when it was announced that the Queen had died.

It was an odd day. I had a meeting about an artisan Christmas market and then went to the Theatre Royal to talk about how we work together. It was a lovely sunny day and then my phone started beeping – a lot!

Lots of text messages with links to the BBC alert that the Queen was not well. I called Jodie in my Windsor team and got her to start looking at the first 24 hours’ messages. Something didn’t feel right. And then I knew, there was a massive clap of thunder and it rained non-stop for two hours.

I’m also interim head of comms at Reading Borough Council and I called them to make sure they were ready. I didn’t know anything, but I felt it.

The storm stopped and a rainbow appeared over Windsor Castle and that’s when my phone went off again, people asking me if I had heard anything.

I think we waited two hours and then the news came through. I have practised this for years, but I felt sick, one of my team shouted at me (in a really nice way) and said, ‘you’ve got this.’ And then the whirlwind started.

We had planned everything – social media on all council platforms were changed immediately to the prepared black graphics, web pages were created, messages of condolences went out, staff messages and councillor messages were issued. Our day one actions were completed in less than two hours.

That evening, I went to Windsor Castle. You could hear a pin drop. There were dozens of people there and every now and again I could hear sobbing. I spotted a photographer friend, and we had a hug, a smile about our memories and a promise I would see her in the coming days as well as wiping away a few tears.

So, a few tips from this event that could apply to any complex or sensitive events:

Planning – we had planned for the activity we knew would happen (messages of condolence, road closures and disruption to residents and businesses). We also planned for what we thought could happen (floral tribute process and Windsor being busy).

Partnerships – I’ve worked in the Thames Valley for 20 years and I have built those relationships. That made all the difference for this event. We had over 100 partnership organisations in the mutual aid rolling chain, and we had mutual aid from all the Berkshire authorities and Surrey County Council.

Practice – Literally a month before the announcement, the council and Thames Valley Police comms teams came together and had a training session where we all worked with each other on scenarios. They weren’t the bonkers ones, but things we thought might happen.

Know your audience – I knew that Windsor would be on the front page of the nationals following the funeral, so I updated the national council call every day with information about Windsor. It was important for the country to understand the implications of an event of this importance to a small town and how it would deal with the potentially thousands of people who would attend (over 100,000 watched the procession from the Long Walk and then the committal service, and many more thousands paid their respects in the week before, and are still coming now)

Trust – I had to find people I trusted to help with the comms operation. I was well aware that I couldn’t work 10 long days. I picked people who wanted to work for me, who appreciated the enormity of the event and what it meant to me personally and professionally and who weren’t there just to add it to their CV. Trust in your team makes or breaks any crisis, not just the historic ones.

Teamwork - I also absolutely trusted my Reading team to deliver without me needing to be there – they knew what they were doing. I phoned them most mornings on my way into work to check they were ok. They did an amazing job, running the town and county proclamation as well as offering mutual aid to my Windsor team (well, I told them to do it!).

Remember it’s not over – it is the Coronation next.

And finally, some things that will make you laugh or smile…

• Days of the week – not a clue, I had to check my diary each day to know what day of the week I was on.
• Sleep – I barely had any but a bag of skittles was a great help at 8am after being in overnight for the rehearsals.
• Junk food - Greggs, McDonalds and microwave meals! I went shopping and cleared the shelves of snacks and food! No time for diets just quick, easy food!
• Meetings - I truly believed I would manage to attend Reading meetings so much so I carried two laptops around for a week and then gave up on that thought and told them I would be back after it had calmed down.
• And the only time I cried, and it still makes me cry is when Andrea at Surrey sent me a message to say ‘She’s in Windsor, Good luck!’
• I made my son come to the proclamation because I said, ‘this is a part of history, one that might not mean much to you now, but when you are older you will understand the enormity of the event.’ He told his grandma that it was pretty cool to be at the Windsor proclamation and take photos. That made me smile.

For ten days, the eyes of the world were on Windsor. It was the most amazing comms journey but also one of the saddest. I smile and cry when I think about the part we played which will be in the history books forever. That picture of the Long Walk with the procession will be talked about for years to come.

I had lots of jobs and comms campaigns at the council but this was biggest (4.4 billion global audience) and I am proud to have delivered it. But how do you follow a once in a lifetime event like that? For me, it feels right to move on now and I am joining Reading Borough Council permanently as their new head of comms and marketing ready for a new challenge.

Operation London Bridge, wiping tears away, standing down.

Louisa Dean has been Head of Communications at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and is soon to be Head of Communications at Reading Borough Council. You can say hello on Twitter at @LouisaDean23

This post originally appeared on the comms2point0 blog.

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Image by olyniteowl on iStock