In 2004 Andrew Melville established Spoke, a communications agency specialising in engagement, facilitation and media content.
Drawing on over two decades of powerful and diverse community engagement through storytelling and team facilitation, Spoke offers a people-focused communications practice that centres on innovative storytelling and the diversity of the human experience.
Andrew’s methodology grew out of his time working alongside Sir Robert Harvey at Waitakere City Council. Through the use of storytelling and the facilitation of workshops, Andrew worked with the Council’s strategic development team to bring the voice of the community and of mana whenua into government in a tangible way. To this day, elements of this work is recognised as best practice in local government throughout New Zealand.
These facilitation techniques and creative storytelling methods were further developed through Andrew’s time as a communications lecturer and later Public Relations Manager at AUT, where he worked with the University Relations team to embed storytelling as practice, taking the work of academics, researchers and students to wider audiences.
Facilitating engagement through story.
Since its inception, Spoke has worked with a wide range of clients on engagement projects, ranging from major infrastructure projects, government departments and large companies through to Iwi authorities, not-for-profit agencies and small entrepreneurial businesses.