This Government Brochure Is Something to Brag About

Some people may find it hard to get excited about a brochure. But an informative outreach piece can be a very powerful tool. That's why I'm excited to announce the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy’s program overview brochure recently received a prestigious Award for Publication Excellence, also known as an APEX Award.

As a Senior Project Leader at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), I was the project manager for this piece. Alongside super-smart colleagues behind the research and deployment of technologies once thought to be science fiction, I lead a team of professionals in NREL’s Communications and Public Affairs Office. We have been providing strategic communications support to the Office of Indian Energy since 2011, and during that time we’ve envisioned and executed hundreds of communications products designed to expand the Office’s presence among tribes, as well as throughout DOE, other federal agencies, and Congress.

When Office of Indian Energy Director Chris Deschene approached us last summer asking for an impactful takeaway for the National Tribal Energy Summit held in September 2015 in Washington, D.C., we were up to the challenge. With a turnaround time of just over one month, we found a way to summarize an entire year's worth of progress made by the Office of Indian Energy in a clear, impactful way. 

I'm surrounded by extremely talented communications professionals at NREL who all share the same passion for using words, images, and technology to help make this world a better place. Together, and with the support of Office of Indian Energy leadership, we produced an award-winning brochure that visually highlights what the Office does, how it gets done, and the impact it’s had on the American Indian and Alaska Native communities it serves.

In 2015, the Office of Indian Energy successfully reached more than 1,500 individual student interns, webinar attendees, energy ambassadors, and forum participants. And that's not counting the many tribal communities that received technical assistance and access to project funding. The impact was certainly there, so the story just needed to be told.

Through our work with the Office of Indian Energy, my colleagues at NREL and I have built on our 10-year history of supporting DOE’s efforts to advance energy projects on tribal lands. We nearly tripled the number of website visitors and page views from 2012 to 2015, increased the number of visitors from Alaska more than sixfold, and boosted the amount of time visitors spend reading content on the Office of Indian Energy’s website by 20%. We helped the Office realize a 450% increase in social media mentions and a 154% increase in media references over a single year.

We have also had the opportunity to provide strategic communications support to several tribes, including the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York and the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe in California. And we were able to present on the importance of education and outreach when it comes to creating consensus around tribal energy projects at the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians 2015 Energy Summit in Portland, Oregon, and the 2015 BIA Providers Conference in Anchorage, Alaska.

NREL is proud to partner with the Office of Indian Energy to provide tribes with the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to make informed decisions about energy projects. I am grateful to the Office of Indian Energy leadership for recognizing the valuable role strategic communications plays in contributing to the success of any program or project (and for encouraging me to write this blog). And I am honored to work with such amazing people at NREL and to receive this award alongside Communication Strategist Karen Petersen and Senior Graphic Designer Stacy Buchanan. This brochure serves as a great example of how our combined efforts can inspire more tribal energy successes in 2016 and beyond.