José Rodríguez
Welcome to our latest installment in our series on the “Day in the Life” of nonprofit communicators! This series lets you describe your workday in your own words.
We’d love to feature YOU in this series! Don’t be shy – tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
José Rodríguez is the Communications Director of Trans Europe Halles. José is a professional with 12 years of combined experience in project management, marketing and communications, and innovation. He has worked for international public and non-profit organisations operating in the areas of creative industries, innovation and international cooperation. Since 2014, he has been responsible for marketing and communications at Trans Europe Halles (TEH), the European network of cultural centres initiated by civil society. TEH has been at the forefront of re-purposing Europe’s industrial buildings for arts, culture and activism since 1983. And as of 2017, the network bring together nearly 90 multidisciplinary cultural centres. He is also the author of IETM’s publication “To Sell or Not To Sell? An Introduction to Business Model (Innovation) for Arts and Cultural Organisations” (2016).
And this is his typical day:
Before 8:00 a.m. – Get up. Cook breakfast together with my girlfriend and discuss the plans for the day.
8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m – Commute from Malmö to Lund. In the train, I read about marketing and innovation or (lately) study Swedish. I also scan my inbox looking for urgent emails.
Start work at 9.00, although I am sometimes late… First things at the office: plan for the day and have a daily scrum with my comms colleague Burak. Three questions: What did we achieve yesterday? What are we working on today? What do we need help with?
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Before lunch with the whole team at 12.00, I usually spend time on tasks that require more reflection – and are normally more strategic – such as writing briefs, checking the development of the projects that I am responsible for, planning, approving creative work, writing copy, etc.
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. – I tend to schedule my meetings after lunch. Since we work with cultural centres in 33 European countries, I spend quite a lot of time in Skype conversations with partners and members of our network.
I also write emails at this time of the day.
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – From 15.00 to 17.00, I work on those tasks the require less attention, such as replying to less important emails, informal meetings with students, potential partners, etc., and doing some graphic design (if it is needed).
After 4:00 p.m. – In the evening after dinner, I still spend some time reading and learning.
I go to the gym and watch an episode or two of the Swedish series The Bridge 😉
Thanks for sharing your day, Jose!
Want to be featured in this series? Tell us what you do in a typical day as a nonprofit communications pro.
