12th January 2018 Vienna, Austria
I recently attended the annual diplomatic reception for ambassadors given by Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen. Result: a minor social media storm. Why? And why was this a good thing? The President’s annual diplomatic reception has taken place for years; someone recently sent me a picture of Kaiser Franz Josef meeting the diplomatic corps […]
31st October 2017 Vienna, Austria
A bloke in a leather jacket stands on a sunny railway platform, looking forward to starting a new job. Excited to be on my way from Salzburg today to take up my posting in #Vienna pic.twitter.com/S4oSK0J1TJ — Leigh Turner (@LeighTurnerFCO) August 27, 2016 I started as British Ambassador to Vienna and UK Permanent Representative to […]
30th March 2017 London, UK
Last year, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs brought together an interesting bunch of people from around the world, and me, to discuss digital diplomacy. I found myself speaking second on a panel. The first speaker announced the publication of the Digital Diplomacy Review 2016, ranking foreign ministries around the world. The United Kingdom was top. […]
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1st February 2017 London, UK
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is always front and centre of the UK government’s response to an overseas crisis. They’re always high pressure events and lives are often on the line. Depending on the scale there’s a whole set of processes and teams that swing into action, all centred around our Crisis Management Department (CMD), […]
19th January 2017 Austria, Vienna
A photographer is on his knees, stealthily taking pictures of Ambassador Leigh Turner from behind a Christmas tree. Another stands in the corner, facing the wall. Unnoticed by the other guests, she points her camera at the ceiling and triggers the shutter. Has the Ambassador’s residence in Vienna been infiltrated by foreign agents? Not quite. […]
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19th January 2017 Vienna, Austria
Which leading Austrian Instagramer features photographs of a figure in a yellow sou’wester? I was pleased to welcome to the Embassy recently a group of mostly young Austrians with leading accounts on the social media, like Instagram. In instagramese, this would read: Great to welcome @igersvienna to #BritishEmbassy #grambassador. One of the challenges of social […]
29th September 2015
Digital Diplomacy is a key part of our work in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We are encouraged to use social media and become closer to our audiences, to engage with and listen to them – it helps us reach a much wider range of stakeholders than through traditional methods of diplomacy. I started […]
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6th July 2015 London, UK
The FCO has a well established reputation for its digital work. At the heart of driving change is the Digital Transformation Unit, a talented team made up of diplomats and digital specialists working on digital solutions crucial to the UK – tackling conflict, increasing prosperity and helping Brits in trouble overseas. Here’s what’s coming up:- […]
23rd June 2015 London, UK
Last month FCO Posts in Europe created over ten thousand pieces of digital content, including tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, photos, infographics, videos and audio clips. But how do you evaluate the effectiveness of all this output? Part of a Digital Hub’s role is to help Posts in the region figure this out so that lessons […]
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26th November 2014 London, UK
The FCO has an ambitious change agenda to bring the organisation fully into the digital age. Our Digital Transformation Unit was set up in February 2014, bringing in the specialist digital skills and expertise that we need in our core digital team, but we also need to ensure the FCO’s diverse network of staff increase […]