The Persuaders podcast Anders Kopp Jensen

Episode 3, season 3 of the Persuaders Podcast - with Maria Teresa Scardigli, Managing Director, Kellen Europe. Maria has more than 20 years of experience in European Public Affairs, advocacy, and management of trade associations. From Brussels she heads Kellen on a European level and manages a team of about 40 professionals serving +30 trade associations.    In the episode I talk to Maria about a new trend influencing the world of Public Affairs: More companies join forces and establish their own interest or trade association.  This development can be seen as a reaction to the increasing complexity in the policy arena and the need for more professionalization to continually catch and retain the attention of policy makers. A trend we have also covered from a more academic POV in previous episodes e.g. recently with Wiebke Junk in episode 2 of season 3.  In this episode with Maria Teresa Scardigli we cover:  
- Which factors have changed for the roughly 600 trade associations in Brussels
 
- Why policy makers have much higher expectations than previously 

 

- Marias views on why many new trade or interest associations are born
 
- If some trade organizations have become too big to represent all their members 
 
- How Public Affairs teams have changed - and how this is then reflected on the expectations on the trade/interest associations
 

All this in just 30 minutes!
 
And remember to check out www.thepublicaffairsengine.com for more insights from the world of Public Affairs. 
 
Enjoy!
 

Episode 2, season 3 of the Persuaders Podcast - with Assistant Professor Wiebke Junk.

This time we talk to Wiebke Junk, who is an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen. The starting point for our conversation in this episode is Wiebke's paper from 2022 "Is There a First Mover Advantage in Lobbying? A Comparative Analysis of How the Timing of Mobilization Affects the Influence of Interest Groups in 10 Polities", co-authored with Michele Crepaz and Marcel Harnegraaff.

Among other things we cover: 

- The effect of timing in lobbying
- Who can benefit from early lobbying
- What are the mechanisms behind timing
- The supply & demand side for moving early
- Why jumping to the front of the line and shouting is not always the right thing to do
- If small lobby organisations can just copy the big ones 
-  And finally we discuss if it's only ressources that matter in the end 
 
30 minutes filled with insights about Public Affairs.
 
And remember to check out www.thepublicaffairsengine.com for more insights from the world of Public Affairs. 
 
The episode was produced by Rikke Bergquist.  Notes:
The paper "Is There a First Mover Advantage in Lobbying?" can be found here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00104140221109441 

The Persuaders podcast is back with season 3! We kick off this third season with a special episode about trends in Public Affairs in 2023. 
At the beginning of each year Anders Kopp Jensen shares his thoughts about trends in Public Affairs, exclusively on the podcast. Again this year, Ulobby Public Affairs Director, Sosun Sendi, takes on the role as guest host for this special episode and interviews Anders about what will happen in Public Affairs in 2023. 
In the episode Anders answers:
Why he thinks PA pros are often underperforming, and what they can do to get out of the "fire-distinguisher" role

What PA pros should focus more on in a rough macro / recession environment 

Why the organizational setup matters - and the position of the PA function internally is more important than ever

Why PA pros fear KPI's - and why this is a mistake

Why it is more important than ever to have a Public Affairs strategy and why many often fail to create it

Why many organizations (without a Public Affairs strategy) should implement a Public Affairs Code of Conduct  All this in just 30 minutes. Remember to subscribe to the Persuaders Podcast so you don't miss the coming episodes of season three!
This episode is sponsored by Ulobby, the leading SaaS-platform for Public Affairs professionals in the Nordics. 
The episode was produced by Rikke Bergquist.

This time we talk to Ellis Aizenberg, Assistant Professor at the Faculty Governance and Global Affairs at the University of Leiden (time of recording Ellis was working at Aarhus University in Denmark). Ellis conducts her research in relation to interest representation, lobbying and perceived legitimacy.

We talk to Ellis about her recent article in Governance called “Conflict and salience as drivers of corporate lobbying? An elite survey experiment"

In the episode we cover:
 
- How conflict can motivate companies to lobby alone instead of together with a business organization
- Different strategies companies can take when they are lobbying 
- The challenges business associations have in interest representation

- What affects the "appetite" for seeking visibility (or the opposite)


And Ellis also shares her view on transparency registers.
 
All this in just 30 minutes!
 
This episode was produced by Sidsel Nørgaard and sponsored by Ulobby, software for Public Affairs. 

This time Alan Hardacre swings by the studio and shares his perspectives on the state of Public Affairs as well as the importance of the internal side of Public Affairs. 
 
Alan has a PhD in international relations from the Loughborough University. Alan has many years of experience both in public administration as well as on the corporate side. He has been practising, teaching and writing on advocacy and Public Affairs for over 20 years. Among other publications, Alan has authored the book “How the EU Institutions Work and... How to Work with the EU Institutions”. 
 
In this episode we cover: 
 
- How to build a high-performing Public Affairs function, and how not to!
- Why Public Affairs in the EU is behind the US 
- Why EU companies see Public Affairs as a risk-managing function & why that is problematic
- The importance of getting buy-in from senior leadership
- How to avoid being isolated as a Public Affairs proffesional, e.g. if you are based in Brussels
- And one of my favorite topics: the importance of taking the internal side of Public Affairs just as serious as the external side 
 
All this in just 30 minutes!
 
This episode was produced by Sidsel Nørgaard & sponsored by Ulobby. 

In this episode 4 in season 2 of the Persuaders Podcast we talk to Marko Kovic.
Marko has a PhD in communication and media studies from the University of Zurich. He is now a researcher, author and podcaster. 
Marko co-authored the paper "Digital astroturfing in politics: Definition, typology, and countermeasures", which is the basis of our conversation.
In the episode we cover: 
- What is digital astroturfing
- How common is this phenomenon
- How is it performed - by governments, IO's and corporations
- What it does to our brains 
We also talk about misinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories and what causes them to go viral. And finally we talk about psy-ops & disinformation e.g. in wars like in Ukraine. 
All this in just 30 minutes.
The episode is sponsored by Ulobby, software for Public Affairs.