BCSDN and CSOs from the Region Building Communication Capacities at TACSO Conference

On the 5th and 6th November 2014 TACSO organized a regional conference entitled “CSOs and Good Practices in the Use of Communication Channels” in Skopje. The aim of the conference was to strengthen capacities of CSOs from the Western Balkan countries and Turkey in the area of communication, supporting their efforts in achieving their missions on various levels and themes.

Communication/Media experts and plenary speakers from established CSOs in the region discussed good practices and lessons learnt through sharing different experiences with advocacy and awareness raising campaigns. In the first part, the focus was put on social media, offline techniques and online tools for campaigning, fundraising and creating a network and support base, in order to effectively reach the target audience and achieve the communication goals. The second part put more focus on the context in which these communication activities are implemented, by highlighting the opportunities and challenges brought to CSOs by new social media trends in creating social change, and discussing how to engage public as well as the decision makers.

Three of BCSDN member organizations were represented at the conference, namely CRNVO (Montenegro), TUSEV (Turkey) and MCIC (Macedonia), and BCSDN EO Communication Officer Anja Bosilkova also took part.