“If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito!” – Anita Roddick

If a message is to reach its full potential in connecting with its target audience, it needs to create impact, to get people interested and engaged, leaving a lasting impression so they want to find out more.

Impact is one of Minerva’s key focuses: being able to create it, exploit it and map it effectively is vital in any communications strategy.

At the Technology Transfer Symposium in Dublin in late 2015, Director of Minerva, Rhonda Smith delivered a presentation on identifying opportunities and building co-operation between innovation leaders, focusing on impact –  particularly what it is and how to use it effectively.

The event was designed to build and improve connections between companies, universities and research institutions that carry out publicly-funded research. Rhonda emphasised that to make connections between institutions with different aims, communication activity needs to be both carefully pitched and memorable.

“This was a great chance to spread the message about how necessary it is to consider impact, and how effective that can be,” Rhonda says. “Creating impact doesn’t have to be complicated – you need to focus on the right knowledge and strategies to make it happen.”

Feedback from attendees stated that the presentation was immediately applicable to their communications strategies.