Last week I took part in my first ever podcast, and I actually quite enjoyed it.

It was a little bit outside my comfort zone to be honest, but what do they say, “Feel the fear and do it anyway”?

It helped, of course, that I was talking about a subject I know pretty well—steelmaking; that I was in my own environment—the steelworks; and that I was explaining a project that is about as exciting an undertaking as I have ever been involved in: the £1.25 billion Megaproject that is our investment in electric arc furnace-based steelmaking.

I hope I did it justice - I guess you’ll be the judge of that when the SteelCast podcast is broadcast shortly.

"We want politicians and civil servants to really value the importance of the steel industry to our communities, to our manufacturing supply chains, to the UK economy and to UK sovereignty." Peter Jones

In the old days this sort of filming (yes it’s on video as well as audio!) would have been described as an Outside Broadcast as we toured everywhere from the railhead (knuckle yard) to the scrap storage area, the site of the new steel conveyor that will feed the furnace, and then inside to where the EAF will operate, through to secondary steelmaking where the Ladle Metallurgy Furnaces will live.

I think we were out for about 3 hours – which is quite a lump of time.

But I know how important these sort of communications are.

Because how else can all those people who are so important for our future, be expected to understand what we’re trying to do? 
I don’t think it’s realistic to expect them to beat a path to our door.

Our job, therefore, is to help to show, to explain, and to inspire people about what we are doing here – to positively influence them, you might call it. 

We want our employees to be excited about the project and the future of the business; 

We want our customers and suppliers to join us on our green steel journey;

We want the brightest and best youngsters to come and work in one of the most exciting environments in UK manufacturing; 

We want the local community to continue to support and speak up for the steelworks;

And maybe most importantly, we want politicians and civil servants to really value the importance of the steel industry to our communities, to our manufacturing supply chains, to the UK economy and to UK sovereignty. 

Because then we might have some expectations that they will create and implement policies that support all those ambitions, whether on energy, trade measures or public procurement.

And I’m hoping my participation in this podcast—in a small way—will help to do that.

I’m pretty sure I know what sort of look the kids will give me when I tell them I’m a social media influencer!

Peter

Peter Jones is the Project Manager for the design and installation of the new 3 million tonnes-a-year Electric Arc Furnace and the Continuous Casters life-extension at Port Talbot Steelworks in South Wales 

Keep your eyes out for the SteelCast podcast with Peter, which will be issued shortly on all the usual platforms as well as in video for on YouTube