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Spring 2008
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Stempra newsletter
FEATURE:
University Challenge: Promoting conferences On the one hand, you recognise that it's a good thing your academics are coming to you for help and advice on media-related issues. On the other, you wonder just how on earth you're going to find a news hook for the Eighteenth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia. The above title isn't made up – it's an event I was asked to promote by our School of Computer Science earlier this year. Despite my assessment that this was going to be a harder sell than Heather Mills' Guide To An Amicable Separation, I decided to give it a go. I leafed through the programme and managed to find a few presentations that a) had titles I vaguely comprehended and b) I thought could possible have some interest to mainstream media if presented right. The was no easy task, I can tell you. My next move was to approach the conference's Publicity Chair and request advance copies of papers, speaking notes, PowerPoint presentations and indeed anything else giving more details on the subjects to be covered. This was done in the hope I might be able to spot an angle for a potential news story and publicise a presentation at the conference with an embargoed press release. Alas, nothing came back – the Publicity Chair became simply too wrapped up in the organisation of the event to help me. As the opening day approached, I asked one of our senior academics in Computer Science for the text of her opening address and was told: "I won't have written it until the day before....It's going to be what the abstract is about." The abstract, alas, was impenetrable and I was snookered. With this experience in the bank, you can imagine my initial reaction when a few months later I received another approach from The School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Studies, to promote a conference; 'Workshop on Arsenic in Groundwater in SE Asia with Emphasis on Cambodia and Vietnam'. But what made this different was that organiser Dr Dave Polya was full of enthusiasm, willing to spend time talking to me about potentially interesting presentations and sessions, and readily provided me with research papers, abstracts and PowerPoint slides. He also chivvied other academics to send me the information I requested and needed. Although he was flat out with organising the conference, he always answered emails (sometimes very late at night) and always rang me when I asked him to. He also kept his mobile on more often than not. Having identified a few areas of potential interest, including research that suggested people living in West Bengal could be exposing themselves to cancer-causing arsenic by eating locally grown rice, and a closing talk from a development agency boss that warned thousands of people in Cambodia would die of arsenic poisoning if urgent action wasn't taken, I was positive about my chances of getting some coverage. Using some snappy quotes from key speakers and some press-release style paragraphs, I produced a media notice and sent it out to a select bunch of journalists about 36 hours ahead of the start of the event. My distribution included the SE Asia correspondents on the British nationals and some environment and science people at the BBC. Dave rang me on Monday morning to see what the interest had been. There had been nothing at that point and I tried to manage his expectations, while also telling him that I still thought that it was a good story and someone might go for it. And then came a call from BBC World Service, asking for a pre-recorded interview with the development agency boss and Dave Polya for its Health Check programme. The producer said they had previously covered the problem of arsenic poisoning in West Bengal, and were very keen to do something on the emerging problem in Cambodia and Vietnam. A few days later and their voices were being broadcast to a potential audience of millions across the globe. So a fair few hours worth of work (including some at the weekend) led to a short interview on BBC World Service and a bit of interest from the Independent's SE Asia correspondent (but alas no published article as yet). So was it worth it? Well, the University's aim to become one of the top 25 universities in the world by 2015 means that media coverage that reaches an international audience is a must. So on that level, we scored a big fat success. I got the name check for my academic (and even got his School credited on Health Check's web pages), and Dave was delighted at being able to raise awareness of the problem on worldwide radio. The problem is that not every conference will have a subject as accessible as arsenic poisoning or an organiser as proactive and dedicated as Dave Polya. As a media relations officer, it takes a lot of work to get your head around a specialist subject, dig down and find perhaps one or two potential news stories. Even then you must rely on others to go that extra mile to help you get the information you need. But to my mind, if you can spare the time, it's probably worth it. I'd be interested to hear of other press officers' experiences (and frustrations) of promoting conference and any tricks and tips that work particularly well.
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