Michael Lea Rock has enjoyed a stellar career in communications.He served David Cameron and Gordon Brown as Chief Writer to the Prime Minister in 10 Downing Street before spending four years as a speechwriter at the US Department of State, where his material was used by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Here he talks to Harpswood founder James Clench about how digital communication is causing “news” to be replaced by “views”, which PM failed the football fan test and how whiskey helped him to think differently about speech writing.

Jodie Ginsberg is a recognised expert on media freedom. She was chief executive of Index On Censorship, the global freedom of expression group, and is now CEO of Internews Europe, an organisation which empowers people worldwide with high quality news and information. Here she tells Harpswood why communicators in countries with limited free speech tend to be better listeners, why Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary is effective at getting his point across… and why organisations should never bury their heads in the sand.

Tom Fletcher CMG spent four years as foreign policy adviser to three Prime Ministers and four more representing the UK as Ambassador to Lebanon. Here, he tells Harpswood about the communications strengths of the different PMs he worked with, the pros and cons of Zoom and why it’s getting easier to pick out phoney communicators like Donald Trump.