Oct
30
YBF at Nottingham: A Review
Filed Under Events
On the afternoon of Wednesday 29th October, a group of twelve members of the Nottingham University Conservative Association attended a ‘Campaign Skills Training Workshop’ run by the organisation for training young conservative activists, the Young Britons’ Foundation. This was the first step on their Universities tour, and after a very successful conference at Wellington College only days earlier, everyone was in good spirits about the afternoon.
The workshop began with talks on ‘Building Coalitions’, ‘Handling Negative Information’ and ‘Handling the Print and Broadcast Media’. This was followed by just under two hours of ‘Television Skills Training’ where each attendee got a couple of minutes on camera, followed by a playback, a critical analysis, and then a second attempt to work on the things they were doing wrong previously, from fluttering eyelids to lack of smiling.
Donal warmed everyone up with some ‘nice’ questions on the current state of the Conservative Party and trust in the Party, before Christian gave everyone a grilling on their views of Europe in light of the forthcoming European elections. Although this was most people’s first time on camera, everyone did surprisingly well and gave coherent answers to some tricky questions.
At the end of the workshop we headed to the Students’ Union bar where we were treated to free drinks and had the opportunity to chat to Donal and Christian about how YBF could help us personally, from getting speakers to come and visit the University, to opportunities for summer internships, and also the YBF summer trip to America.
I know that everyone who attended was very impressed with the professionalism shown by YBF and positive feedback was bountiful, with everyone interested in attending future YBF events. YBF have to be commended for their ability to run workshops which convey important messages, yet retain a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.
I cannot recommend events run by the Young Britons’ Foundation highly enough, and I implore my fellow University Chairmen to take advantage of the fantastic services on offer, and give your members a unique afternoon, unrivalled by any other organisation for quality and cost.
I would like to extend a sincere thank-you to Donal, Christian and Ben for a fantastic afternoon, and can confirm that Nottingham University Conservative Association will definitely be attending many more YBF events in the future.
Will Bickford Smith
President, Nottingham University Conservative Association