Photo by Andy Priestner
I have run over 300 workshops across four continents, so I have a huge amount of experience helping libraries, cultural organisations and University departments find confidence, techniques and new ways forward. I aim to provide a comfortable, supportive atmosphere in which to learn and develop new skills, and everything in my workshops is designed to be applicable right away, as soon as you return to wok.
I run workshops for training organisations across multiple sectors, and I also run bespoke sessions for individual institutions. Clients include the British Library ("...this course was excellent, one of the best courses I have attended at the BL... ALL the content was useful - Ned was excellent. I have already recommended this course to colleagues!”), the NHS (“Fantastic training session, so useful... Best course I have been to in a long time”), and the Bodleian Libraries ("The best course I ever have been on").
My training can be in-person or online, and covers three broad areas. These are detailed below, along with a full list of the organisations I’ve worked with, and more feedback from previous workshops.
Marketing consultancy
Very occasionally I have undertaken full-on consultancy with an organisation, working with them to review and improve their marketing. This tends to happen in a few half-day sessions over a period of time. If this is something you’d like to explore, please get in touch.
Social Media TRAINING
NEW: Bluesky for libraries, archives and museums
Half-day or 2 hour | A new workshop offered due to the exploding popularity of Bluesky as an alternative to Twitter. If your organisation is ex-X Bluesky now offers a genuine alternative, and we cover what works, what doesn’t, starter packs and custom feeds, posting media, and examples of successful accounts.
Social Media for University Departments and Professional Services
Half-day or 2 hour | This new workshop is aimed at Academic Departments and Professional Services using social media in Universities. With the impending demise of X (Twitter) where should we be focusing our efforts in HE from now on? Practical guidance on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky.
Better Social Media FOR LIBRARIES
Full-day or half-day | How to reach and engage with your communities; tone and voice; content types; coordinating the platforms; and analytics. Focus on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Bluesky and Facebook.
Instagram for Libraries
Half-day or 2-hour | Instahacks! Understanding Instagram’s many types of content (Grid Posts, Reels, Stories); what works and what doesn’t; interactivity; content types; analysing success. I also run a less library-specific version of this, aimed at organisations across the GLAM sector, and non-profits.
Introduction to Social Media
Half-day or 2 hour | This workshop is aimed at organisations (or people within organisations) using social media in a professional capacity for the first time. It covers what the main platforms are; how they differ from one another and how they work together; setting up accounts and building audiences; and content types.
“Very, very worthy use of my time, and enjoyable too! This will spur me and my colleagues on to continue improving our social media practices. Excellently organised and delivered course. Thank you.” SALCTG, Glasgow, Scotland
Marketing WORKSHOPS
Strategic Marketing
Full-day or half-day | Understanding brand and branding; how to frame messages and choose platforms; understanding your audience and using UX to inform marketing; analysing impact; marketing in campaigns. Participants will work on campaign marketing document in the session, to take away and develop with colleagues.
NEW: MARKETING UPWARDS
1-hour | A session on internal marketing specifically: how to articulate the value of the library to Leadership of the institution.
Introduction to Library Marketing
2-hour or 1-hour | Keeping things simple; audience insight and empathy, framing messages, marketing in campaigns.
Marketing with Video
Half-day | Creating effective video marketing using freely available tools. Using software like PowToon and Spark; screen-capture; using PowerPoint to create video; getting the most out of YouTube.
Creating engaging online content and writing effective newsletters
2-hour or 1-hour | A digital marketing toolkit for creating content online; writing for websites; newsletter tools; crafting effective newsletters and updates, and how AI like ChatGTP can actually be useful.
NEW: Strategic Marketing for OA Publishers
A version of the workshop aimed specifically at publishers rather than libraries, covering both campaign marketing and social media.
“I’ll be bringing loads of new things back to teach others. I’m bursting with ideas. Great content, all legitimately relevant. Lots of good tips. I agree that everything Ned taught us can be used immediately as opposed to just talking about future trends like a lot of presenters do. Super practical!!” PICS, Wellington, New Zealand
Presenting and creating presentations
Presentation Skills
Full-day or half-day | Golden rules of creating presentation materials, different slide-making methods, PowerPoint and alternatives to PowerPoint, presenting itself and making your message stick.
Interactive Tools for Presenting and Teaching
Half-day | Focusing on freely available tools to help you interact with your audience, in-person or online. Includes Menti, Padlet, Google Slides, and creating interactive PowerPoint.
PowerPoint is your Secret Weapon
Half-day, 2-hour or 1-hour | In-depth hands-on time with PowerPoint, a surprisingly versatile tool which can make brilliant posters, digital content for screens and social media, and video, as well as presentations.
Alternatives to PowerPoint
2-hour or 1-hour | Hands-on time with newer presentation tools such as Sway, Prezi and Google Slides.
“I’ve been to many, many workshops + seminars and this was by far the best - interesting, engaging and very useful. Thank you!” - UKeIG, London
PREVIOUS AND CURRENT CLIENTS
Below are the organisations for whom I’ve run training. I’m proud to have on-going relationships with several of these, and have delivered multiple workshops for over 35 of the institutions listed here.
Feedback from previous workshops
I try really, really hard to make the training I do genuinely impactful, as well as supportive and fun. Here is a small selection of the positive feedback I’ve had for the workshops I’ve run.
“Excellent! Engaging, informative and full of useful hints and tips. Ned is a relaxed and personable presenter who really knows his stuff. A thoroughly enjoyable day from start to finish. ”
“One of the most useful training sessions I have attended - everything targeted to the audience, professional, knowledgeable facilitator”
“Very well delivered and paced. Ned was really engaging and the workshop was definitely useful and thought provoking. Really enjoyable session, I left with a lot of respect for Ned’s attitude and advice on communications and felt that it was really helpful to hear from someone who actually understands libraries and how librarians work!”
“Really interesting and useful, very helpful to have this training from an actual librarian – increases relevance. Trainer supportive of those who were slow doing task, but not condescending. Brilliant speaker, easy to hear and interesting, inspiring presentation.”
“Fantastic day again with Ned Potter. Lots of ideas, really knows his stuff. Really helps you choose what will work best for your library.”
“Ned was a fab tutor, very engaging, interesting and the time to do the tasks was good as it gave you a chance to really get into it. It was a brilliant course and would be interested to attend others of his”
“Comprehensive and useful, at a level that is readily understandable. Lots of useful tools to take away. Really, really valuable. Great presentation style. Relaxed and informative, lots of practical examples and visuals.”
“Very useful - well paced, felt the presenter had a real handle on the subjects but could also relate to individual issues that arise from being a library set within a large institution. Pitched at a good level too - not dumbed down but not over my head either. Thank you for coming out to us!”
“Excellent speaker, great to hear from someone on marketing who is a librarian! So many ‘marketing experts’ just suggest things we cannot do in libraries because they don’t understand the restrictions we work under.”
“Very informative, with a good mix of theory and practical exercises. Great facilitator.”
“I loved the content. It made sense, it was practical, and gave me lots and lots to think about. Best thing: we’ll DO something with it!”
“Ned Potter is extremely knowledgeable and a fantastic presenter - best webinar I have ever attended!”
“Make the speaker come more often for different subjects. Ned Potter was super!””
“Really good, enough talking and demonstrating then having a go yourself. Presenter had obviously done research about what we use and what is missing which we might want to investigate”
“My thanks for your wonderful workshop – it was more than useful, it made me think very hard about some of the preconceived ideas I didn’t even realise I had about Library marketing! ”
“Ned is an expert and an engaging speaker. Very supportive atmosphere for learning. I’ve looked at Ned’s material online but it was great to have him explain it. Very, very relevant and a big help in my day-to-day work. Thank you Ned!”
“It has actually made me look forward to practicing the skills I learned, and doing presentations. The instructor was excellent and his advice was spot on!”
“Lots of useful information presented in a fun and clear away. I came away with my head buzzing with ideas for things I wanted to do, learn more about, or information I wanted to pass on to colleagues.”
“I found the day extremely informative, Ned delivered the content very well and in a jargon-free way, he instantly made one feel comfortable about speaking up. First thing on Monday morning I made a Sway of our library!”
“Superb course, presenter and slides. Really helpful + practical session.”
“Totally awesome. Would recommend the training to anyone.”
“Wide range of useful applications given with practical tips on how to use them. Time flew by and was really productive.”