A Denbighshire County Council member of staff has returned from a work experience placement of a lifetime – working with a television production company behind the scenes at a major local government conference in America.
Helen Burkhalter, the council’s Climate Change Officer, was chosen for the trip after the WebsEdge Government production team invited the four finalists in the 2010 Local Government Challenge to submit a 200 word article on what it would mean working for them.
The company chose Helen as the winner and she was invited to be part of the company’s team covering the International City and County Managers (ICMA) annual conference in San Jose.
They produced four television programmes at the event, looking at best practice in US local government. The team interviewed many of the leading speakers, covered some of the main sessions and reported from communities around the United States.
Helen took annual leave for the six day trip, funded by Websedge and spent her work placement getting to grips with television and film technology.
David Childs, ICMA President, said: “We enjoyed having Helen here and I’m glad she feels she’s benefitted from the experience. But in reality, we had as much to learn from her and she had from us”.
Helen said: “”I was opened up to a whole new world of film production and presenting. Whilst perhaps British local government is venturing tentatively into visual media, America’s city and county managers embrace the film cameras with open arms. It was good to see how authorities in the States have embraced technology and integrated it into how they engage with the public.
“I also learnt a tremendous amount about American politics and how they are battling global financial pressures to keep their economy vibrant. It was six days of solid hard work but an experience of a lifetime that I’ll never forget”.
To view her blog about her time in San Jose, visit: www.localgovernmentchannel.com/news
