Trade Secrets Training: Setting up Projects for Success

With thanks to you for your suggestions and requests, we’ve brainstormed the kind of training 26 could offer and how. Our priorities: usefulness, desirability, affordability. You told us. We listened. Then we planned and we planned. Now we’re ready to go!

Training sessions will be active workshops that happen quarterly across the year, usually during an afternoon, covering things like writing pack copy, presentation skills, grammar, contracts and legalities, listening/persuasion and, er, hostage negotiation. Then we’ll carry on talking over drinks afterwards. All 26ers are invited to the pub, not just the training gang.

Our first ‘trade secrets’ workshop is all about Setting up Projects for Success and it’s happening really soon! Numbers are limited to 16 people. First come, first served.

Setting projects up for success – at a glance

• Getting the brief right
• Negotiating money, time and expectations
• Managing clients

When: 2.30pm–5pm Monday 1st June
Where: Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA
What: The importance of a good brief. Turning a bad brief into a good brief. Negotiating money, time and expectations. How much to charge. Costing a project. Proposals. Agreements. Billing. When to walk away. Managing clients. Approvals. The nth draft.
Who it’s for: self-effacing writer types, people new to freelance business writing, all 26ers
What you’ll get: less grief and more rewards when you write for clients
Who’s on tap: seasoned client-wranglers Elise Valmorbida, Fiona Thompson and Heather Atchison
Fee: a lowly £150 if you’re a member of 26 (if not, all you need to do is join)
Then: drinks at the Betsy Trotwood pub afterwards
Your call to action: email our training coordinator Rachel Marshall. She’ll tell you what you need to do to secure your place. If you’re not already a member, join 26 – it’s only £26 a year! And if you know someone who might be interested, please send this email their way.

About the team

Elise is creative director of communications consultancy word-design, with clients such as the BFI, LEGO, Carluccio’s, Dishoom, Arvon and GIANT. She’s a D&AD Writing for Design judge and External Examiner for Falmouth University’s MA in Professional Writing.

Fiona started as a journalist, writing features for national newspapers and magazines. As a copywriter, her clients include Nokia, the National Trust, the Paris Opera House, Save the Children, Help Musicians UK and Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

Heather is creative director at Afia, a tone of voice consultancy who ‘helps companies sound more human’. Over the years she’s helped the likes of Virgin Atlantic, eBay, Vodafone, Aviva and London Underground bring their tone of voice to life.

About booking
You can book a 26 event or training by paying the full fee. Places are limited, so it’s good to be quick. Your booking will be confirmed in writing. If we don’t have your payment of the full fee, we may offer your place to someone else.

About cancelling
You can cancel up to four weeks before a 26 event or training, and we’ll refund the full fee you’ve paid, minus a cancellation charge which is 50% of the full fee. If you cancel any later than this, you’ll lose the full fee you’ve paid – unless we can find someone to take your place. If we find a replacement for you, we’ll refund your payment minus the cancellation charge. If we need to cancel an event or training, we’ll refund the full fee you’ve paid, but no other costs.