Christmas/Winter Conferences
Christmas/Winter Conferences are ready made media events.
The media is looking for “feel good” stories during the holidays. The media is intrigued by the idea that students go to a conference during their holiday break.
Day of Outreach activities that affect local residents can become true Media Events covered by every major media outlet in a city. Boxes of Love or other neighborhood activities meet tangible needs that the media understands.
Positive media relations during the conference can set up the regional and, especially, the local ministry for coverage of their future on-campus activities.
Here’s a Planning Timeline, a broad To Do List, to help the Conference Media Relations Director or Liaison establish a Conference Media Relations Plan:
One of the best and easiest ways to help the news media cover a conference is with an On-line Newsroom. The Newsroom works best as a tab or link on your main conference website.
The most important aspect of an on-line Newsroom is its ease of use. It doesn’t need to be fancy or flashy like your student website. In fact, it’s almost dull. It’s designed for the working journalist who wants to get what he needs, quickly, to do his job.
Please look in the Sample Christmas Conference Newsroom. You’ll see several tabs or headings: Press Releases, Schedule. Speaker Biographical Profiles, and Photos. Your Media Relations Director or Liaison’s name and contact information should be prominently displayed.
You will find numerous samples in each area that can help with your conference media relations plan. Almost daily releases or alerts keep the conference continually in front of the media. Different outlets may cover different parts of the conference on different days. Coverage breeds more coverage.
Please email Tony.Arnold@uscm.org for information on where to go to download a newsroom template you can use for your conference.