It’s the official launch of the ‘Aiva for staff conference 2016’ campaign!

Dear Reader –

You may have heard the wild rumours swirling around, or — more likely — read the title of this article and thought, “surely not?”, but it is indeed true. For the past four weeks, the campaign team and I have been busy working behind the scenes and today we are officially launching my full campaign to become your next host of the annual LGA Staff Conference! This coincides with the launch of the official staff conference page; I urge to you to check it out and register.

Through the campaign blog, the team and I will be sharing whatever we find out about the staff conference and providing regular updates from the campaign trail!

You can also:

- Like and receive updates from the official Facebook campaign page which has exclusive content and footage: https://www.facebook.com/staffconf/

- Receive video updates by subscribing to the official Youtube channel if Facebook is not your thing:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCja82kg_bY2980GRtthhJJQ

- Read all of these blog entries at https://medium.com/aivaras-for-staff-conference-16

- Participate in various competitions to win prizes! (For example, see below).

Without further ado, here is the first edition of the campaign blog!

1. Introduction!

If you’ve read this far, by now you might probably be asking yourself some, if not all, of these questions:

Who is this Aiva person?
- Why would I care?
- Is this really happening?
- Since when is there an actual contest for the job of host?
- Do you expect me to buy that there is more than one person interested in the job?

If so, go you! You’re exactly the type of inquisitive staff member I aim to represent at the staff conference.

My name is Aivaras, although I am most commonly known as Aiva [I-vah]. I’ve been part of the LGA’s local government finance policy team for more than 3.5 years (as you can probably tell from the use of decimals) and you may have met me or seen me in action through various finance-related work or presentations. I am running to be the host of the conference because I believe that, as I continue to say in my video updates, together we can make it glorious!

As for whether there is actually a contest, I am covering every eventuality with this campaign. Better safe than sorry!

2. The plan of action!

Throughout the coming weeks, expect to see promotions galore: posters, business cards, t-shirts, adverts at Piccadilly Circus — all with the hashtag #aivaforconf (erence). 
I pledge to you right now that I will be pulling out all the stops on the campaign trail, including:

- Knocking on every door in England (and then running away giggling at my own prank);
- Making rousing, inspirational speeches (to my wife);
- Raising campaign funds (cash only please to minimise ‘administration’);
- Running print ads (in Lithuanian media as it’s cheaper);
- Always giving up my seat on public transport. For anybody.
The team and I always welcome ideas for how to make the campaign more engaging and effective so if you have additions to the list above please send your ideas to Aivaras.statkevicius@local.gov.uk or aivaforconf@gmail.com .

3. Competition time!

Any good campaign needs some catchy slogans to make sure the message is snappy, memorable and recognisable.

It would be great to hear from all of you. If you were running the campaign, what do you think would make the perfect tagline? Is it a perfectly crafted LGA pun? A serious account of your priorities as prospective host? A play on your name?

Please send your ideas to Aivaras.statkevicius@local.gov.uk or aivaforconf@gmail.com by Friday, 23 September and winning entries will be announced (and appropriately rewarded!) in a future blog entry.

CONCLUSION

Dear Reader –

if you made it this far, thank you. Your persistence is much appreciated. You are quite frankly the greatest person to have ever lived and I’m lucky to have had this blog entry read by you. Please keep it going over the next couple of months. Together we will make this campaign a big success!

Yours,
Aiva

#aivaforconf (erence)
https://www.facebook.com/staffconf/ 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCja82kg_bY2980GRtthhJJQ
https://medium.com/aivaras-for-staff-conference-16