Whether it’s a scientific conference, a business event, or a workshop, it is almost always worth investing in PR to draw attention to your event. However, the general rule is to stay realistic and find the right channels for your message rather than trying to cast the widest net possible. An international IT congress with high-profile participants and major news regarding data protection certainly has a better starting position for media coverage than a workshop series on mathematical physics. But with the right tools, even such an event can get the boost it needs.
Defining your objectives
To understand how this is possible, it helps to first clarify the purpose of your PR efforts. Every organizer’s primary goal is likely to fill as many seats as possible. This involves, on the one hand, making the event visible to others in the first place and ensuring it stays that way. On the other hand, it is not just about getting coverage, but about ensuring that the coverage is positive. After all, an event can also gain attention if it is perceived as particularly poor.
Another positive effect of event PR is seen in conferences that are present in various media long before they begin, which, thanks to this visibility, become attractive to advertising partners and sponsors. Last but not least, it is also about building long-term relationships, which is particularly interesting for organizers of recurring events.
Before public relations can have an impact, there must be a strategy in place that is designed to plan news precisely and distribute it to individual channels at the right time. This includes both traditional press work and online PR. Some organizers are still hesitant to use the latter. They aren't quite sure about it, and besides: does it really work? The answer is a clear yes. Online PR allows you to reach target groups that are difficult to access with traditional advertising. Furthermore, organizers can measure the impact of individual measures much more accurately and receive direct feedback—something that is hardly conceivable in this form with traditional PR. For this reason, Michael Heipel advocated a few years ago for finding the right balance between both forms of PR.
There is no strict step-by-step guide for what public relations for an event should look like. However, to give you an idea of what is possible, we have compiled some essential points.
1. PR Concept
Without a plan and relying on luck, perfect public relations won't happen. A few strategic thoughts in advance can’t hurt.
Who do you want to reach? What do you want to achieve in the end? What messages do you want to convey? Are there topics that are particularly important to you? Roughly speaking, you first outline the tasks and goals of your measures. For a conference, you might aim to sell 200 more tickets than the previous year, while for a business event, you might be more concerned with changing the general attitude toward a specific topic or sparking a discussion. Overall, you shouldn't try to get as many people as possible excited about your event, but rather move the right people to register. Therefore, always tailor your core message to your target groups.
Next, the focus is on which instruments you will use to implement your measures. Consider not only the choice of tools but also when the time is right for them to have the best impact. Plan ahead and distribute individual tasks within the organizing team. It is better to start planning early. Journalists' calendars fill up very quickly, and the later the press invitation arrives, the more likely the recipient is already booked.
First and foremost, always work with what you already have. As soon as the date and location of the event are set, your calendar shouldn't be the only one with the date marked. Look for online event calendars for your conference's subject area. In addition, there are often more general calendars for a specific city or region, which become particularly interesting if you also want to appeal to the local population.
Also not unimportant are the costs. Therefore, determine right away which budget you want to use for which measure.
Even in this initial phase, it pays to think ahead and, for example, determine the methods you will use to measure the success of your public relations. Otherwise, it helps to create an overview of all relevant media that should make up your press distribution list at this point. Try to be present where the people you want to reach spend their time.
2. Media Partnerships
Are there magazines or online media that are thematically in the same field as your conference? Or does your event have a regional connection and could be interesting for a local medium? A media partnership is certainly conceivable. The beauty of it is that both sides benefit from the cooperation, and it can be structured in many different ways. For example, you could offer the partner free advertising or a promotional booth at the event venue in exchange for free ad placement or a mention in their newsletter.
It is borderline, however, when organizers try to influence the editorial content of the partner medium. Especially in the online sector, the lines between PR and journalism are increasingly blurring, and many readers are now sharp enough to recognize native advertising as such. A report about the conference in the editorial section would still be conceivable—but it is better to wait until the event is over so that the results can be the focus instead of a subtle call to register. Otherwise, beyond the usual content, there are other forms that could be suitable for your events. Think, for example, of inserts or special publications.
For larger conferences, there can also be several media partners. The only important thing here is that you don't necessarily try to bring two direct competitors on board as partners.
3. Advance Announcements and Press Work
The best way to inform relevant media about an upcoming event is still the press release. The chances of journalists actually engaging with it are much higher if a compelling headline makes them want to read more and the text manages to get straight to the point. Don't bore recipients with three-page eulogies about your conference; instead, think about what exactly could motivate potential visitors to want to spend their time there—keyword: core message. Can participants earn CME points or have you managed to secure a well-known face as a keynote speaker? Then the press release is the right place to announce that officially. If a scientific topic is at the center, it is better to avoid terms in the press release that might be too abstract for most readers, including journalists. This does not apply to trade media, however, which is why you should always adapt the texts to the respective target group of the medium. PR expert Robin Samora recommends finishing the release about ten weeks before the conference begins and sending it to editorial offices no later than one month in advance.
Often, the chances of publication increase if the organizer provides additional information such as figures, facts, or images, for example from the previous year. Prepare the material in a somewhat more comprehensive form for the press kit. This usually consists of more detailed background information on the event and describes the conference in more detail. Journalists thus receive important material that they can incorporate into their reporting. Therefore, make sure that these texts also don't sound too much like advertising.
You can either offer the press kit for download or hand it out personally, for example at a press conference. The latter can be a very convincing tool in a PR context—provided there is enough interest. For larger congresses with a main topic that is interesting to many media outlets, this is usually not a problem. Organizers of smaller, very specific conferences should rather save themselves the not-insignificant effort. In addition to tips for successful press conferences, Mike Schnoor recommends avoiding them, especially for events with accompanying trade exhibitions. The participating companies often issue their own press releases, which reduces the chance that your own material will receive attention.
In addition to traditional methods of press work, some organizers now increasingly swear by blogger collaborations. In the second part, we will therefore reveal how best to contact bloggers and which tasks move to the center of attention as the conference progresses.
