Vicky Burns

Experience

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  Ipsos UK

  Apr 2001 - Dec 2005

  Supervisor

  Supervised a team of up to forty staff in a market research call centre. I led on training and quality control and carried out administrative duties.

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  Diversiton

  Jan 2007 - Jan 2009

  Project Coordinator

  Developed and managed a number of projects, often simultaneously, writing content for Diversity and Equality issues, including Disability, Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Religion and Cultural Competence. Creating brochures and training packs. Clients included the NHS, Lothian and Borders Police and the City of Edinburgh Council.

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  Just Festival

  Jan 2007 - Jan 2009

  Festival Coordinator

  Coordinating a three-week festival of over 150 events. This included managing distribution of published marketing materials, signage, and displays, writing press releases, and liaising with printers and designers, updating the website using a CMS and basic html, and writing content for newsletters in Mailchimp. Was also involved in coordinating HH The Dalai Lama's visit to Scotland.

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  Reddishpink Design Ltd

  Oct 2008 - Oct 2009

  Operations Manager

  Developed relationships with clients and liaised between them and the team of web designers and web developers to ensure the product met specifications, was on time and within budget. I was also responsible for managing workloads of staff and project management, as well as liaising with printers and other suppliers.

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  Education Support

  Jan 2009 - Jan 2010

  Marketing and Communications Manager (Scotland)

  A pioneering position that meant I was responsible for establishing a Scottish charity as part of the national Teacher Support Network, a counselling support line for teachers. My role involved kick-starting all branding, marketing and communications activities to improve donor care, raise the profile of the organisation and increase revenue from donations. I was also responsible for developing stakeholder relationships with teachers’ unions and local government, and working with designers to develop and produce a national campaign. I was responsible for a budget of £80,000 and reported to the Chief Executive in London, working independently in Edinburgh, and travelling across Scotland. Show less

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  Local Motive Markets

  May 2011 - Nov 2014

  Director

  I started my own business in 2011 operating street food markets in four different locations in Edinburgh’s city centre, including the Network Rail-owned Waverley Railway Station. I also hosted the Scottish Heats of the prestigious British Street Food Awards. My duties included all aspects of running a business, including marketing, communications, relationship/stakeholder management, sales and promotion/PR.

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  NatureScot

  Apr 2015 - Apr 2017

  Communications Coordinator (Scottish Wildcat Action)

  I was responsible for the communications for a complex and high profile conservation project for Scottish wildcats. This involved working with over 20 partner organisations, including Scottish Natural Heritage (now NatureScot), the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Forestry Commission Scotland, the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scottish Gamekeepers Association, National Museums Scotland and National Trust for Scotland. My role involved developing and managing awareness-raising campaigns, creating and managing the website, social media and e-newsletter, working with designers and printers to produce marketing and event materials, writing press releases and copy for articles and magazines as well as fielding press enquiries and working with TV crews.Much of my work involved collaborating across the partnership with the many organisations who make up Scottish Wildcat Action. This included developing communications strategies and protocols as this was a new project. I managed two ProjectScotland volunteers. I particularly enjoyed developing content for our social media and award-winning website. We currently have over 7000 followers on facebook alone with an engaged audience with our weekly blogs reaching up to 50,000 users.We also featured on BBC Winterwatch, Into the Wild with Gordon Buchanan and John Simpson (BBC Two), and Highlands with Ewan McGregor (BBC One). My role involved liaising with the TV crews and colleagues working in the field to ensure we raised the profile of Scottish Wildcats and the action happening to try to preserve this native species. Show less

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  The Open University in Scotland

  Apr 2017 - Apr 2018

  Communications and Events Coordinator

  This was a maternity cover role and involved:- Developing strategies for events, media, social media, and website for The Open University in Scotland- Overall responsibility for the social media, website, newsletter and busy events schedule- Line managing the Communications Assistant- Liaising with editors, designers, printers and other suppliers to produce literature and web assets, such as video- Building rapport with academics, project leaders and external partners to identify opportunities for stories- Regular use of Adobe Photoshop for cropping images, Publisher for creating our newsletter, and the Office suite- Setting up and maintaining Social Wall Pro to live stream social media content during our graduation ceremonies- Setting up evaluation mechanisms to measure success of our social media, website and events. This included using analytics (Google/Adobe) and also measuring participants' response through surveys (BOS)-Shifting our communications to an engagement-focused approach, using video and infographics to create more visually appealing assets, as well as quizzes and hashtags Show less

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  Self Employed

  Mar 2018 - Mar 2020

  Communications Consultant

  I worked as a freelance writer when I took some time out to have children. I worked on a number of projects writing briefings and articles for clients.

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  University of Strathclyde

  Mar 2020 - now

  Digital Communications Officer

  Sharepoint - Created a new site for my directorate, recruiting and working with Digital Champions (subject experts). It's now the second most well-used site for all staff with up to 11,200 site visits per month. I am currently working with the Champions to develop a Digital Accessibility policy.Power Automate - Creating flows to automate repetitive administrative tasks. Most recently this has included working on an internal selection process for managed funding calls at the University. I was also seconded to the Organisational & Staff Development Unit for 4 months where I developed some flows to help them manage course module completion.Website - Building and managing webpages using Terminal 4 content management system. Worked with multiple stakeholders to refresh the 'Work With Us' top level section of the University website. This included working with a video production team. Phase 2 of this project includes working with an external company to develop a LLM AI enquiries process. This will use our Pure database to make recommendations of relevant Researchers that can help solve a specific business problem. Communications – Developed an internal communications plan working with Senior Management to identify vision and goals. Launched a new Sway newsletter and changed how our team meetings were structured, as well as contributed to Away Days. I also created a series of Top Tip videos for staff on using MS365 applications and am currently redesigning our staff induction pack.Content - Create interactive documents using Page Tiger. The interactivity and design makes these documents more engaging and the built-in analytics help me to track user journeys and improve content. I create and edit small bits of video, produce graphics using Canva and write/edit content.Continuous Improvement - I am currently on a 6 month secondment with the CI team as part of a University-wide Process and Systems Enhancement Programme (PSEP), using lean skills to improve processes. Show less