Ten Things is my newsletter. Each edition has ten links to interesting, thought-provoking, useful or beautiful things from the worlds of content, digital, business for good, culture and beyond.

These are the top ten Things of the year, according to clicks from readers.

1. Lockdown workshop tips

I feel slightly embarrassed, but the most popular thing of the year was something I wrote right at the beginning of lockdown about how to plan and run an online workshop. It’s probably not that useful now, as we’ve all become pretty adept at this since then.

2. Tropicana’s rebrand disaster

Next up, a case study with looks at how Tropicana…

Here’s what I read in 2020. Or more accurately, everything I read until I got a dog and reading became impossible.

Non-fiction

The Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells

A terrifying read on climate change, with a hint of optimism and a passionate call for change.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff

It was a worthwhile struggle to get through this beast of a book. It’s a landmark examination of how corporations are predicting, influencing and controlling our behaviour.

Because Internet, Gretchen McCulloch

I loved this book about the new rules of language, and how the internet is shaping them. Gretchen McCulloch’s enthusiasm and passion jump off the page and make for an engaging read.

On Bullshit, Harry G Frankfurt

This was a…

For the last month and a bit I’ve been working on a coronavirus help directory for Brighton & Hove (the city I live in) on behalf of two amazing clients — Community Works and The Trust For Developing Communities. It’s been quite a journey, so I wanted to share some learnings for anyone else working on a similar project. I’m also sharing some of our artefacts which I hope you’ll be able to reuse or build on. You can find the site at covidbrightonhove.org.uk.

A big thank you to NHS Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group and Sussex Community Foundation…

This week I should have been running two training workshops. I wanted to make a great atmosphere where everyone would feel comfortable and ready to learn. So I booked a venue: a beautiful barge with loads of space and natural light. I arranged delicious coffee and food. I planned a refreshing walk by the sea as a break. I set the agenda, wrote the deck, and created the handouts.

And then everything changed.

I scrambled to move things online and ran them this week as planned, but online instead. It went pretty well. …

Are your voice guidelines six adjectives in your brand book, with a line of explanation for each? Or maybe you have none, because they’re all in one person’s head?

You can be honest. I’m not judging, and you’re not alone. In years of consulting, I can count on one hand (with fingers and a thumb to spare) the number of times I’ve worked with an organisation that had a brilliant brand voice guide for me to work from.

Building a better brand voice is a big opportunity. It has a huge role to play in conveying what you stand for…

There’s this bit in Willy Russell’s play Educating Rita (also a film with Julie Walters and Michael Caine) where Rita, a spunky working class woman on an Open University course, hands in a five-word essay to her stuffy middle class professor. In response to the prompt ‘Suggest how you would resolve the staging difficulties inherent in a production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt’, Rita writes:

Do it on the radio.

Those five words are enough to answer the question. They show she knows what’s up with the play and provide a solution. But she’s not playing the game. …

I’m writing from my desk. My desk. I love saying that.

This is the first time I’ve had a desk of my own in seven years. I’m not alone in being desk-less: hot-desking is becoming more and more common, and coworking spaces seem to be popping up everywhere. But for me — and for many others — they just don’t work.

Before I started my business, I worked in an open-plan office where we didn’t have assigned desks. It was a lovely space, but it didn’t suit me. I’m introverted, my job is thinky, and I will procrastinate given the…

It’s been a brilliant year professionally. I’ve been doing the work I’m passionate about:

• creating a new brand voice for Samaritans as part of its brand refresh
• designing training for Samaritans to help its volunteers deliver an innovative web chat pilot
• carrying out a content audit for the Attenborough Centre for The Creative Arts
• working with Change Grow Live to create its first content strategy and overhaul its website
• helping Rickshaw Travel shape their content strategy
• writing new website content for The Clock Tower Sanctuary as a pro bono project
• curating and running the second Curio Conference.

I’ve also been…