The first ever Media conference took place yesterday with a room full of eager delegates and expert speakers in their fields the day proved to be a roaring success. The conference was a great mix of interaction, group work, traditional media and new media.
Expert speakers shared their expertise
Justin Hayward and Sam Stokes from MS&L began the conference with ‘Selling-in you stories’ playing a game of network bingo. Justin, Head of Technology & Telecommunications, went on to discuss the rapid changes in media and recognising ways to remain relevant as more consumers turned to the web as an information resource. This interactive session discussed successful and unsuccessful sell-ins and the importance of researching publications before getting them published. Account Manager Sam, followed with an MS&L case study.
Annie Noble from Noble Ink used her extensive experience to give a clear understanding of exactly what journalists/publications want from PR professionals. The outcome of her quiz shockingly revealed that journalists consider 40% of press releases to be badly written. Caroline Saunders from Inferno Communications, described by one delegate as ‘a fresh of breath air’, discussed new ways to target journalists and reviewed the success of how one of her campaigns helped the client develop a reputation as specialists in the industry.
Our afternoon began with our highly popular new media topics. Delegates soaked up information from the extremely knowledgeable Ian McNairn, Program Director of Web Technology & Innovation at IBM. He introduced new ways to present and share information using new technologies, blogs, podcasts, wikis, RSS and VideoCasts. This ‘eye opening’ session provided a lesson into the many possibilities for PR professional to adopt new media and business practices. Jude Habib followed with a case study laden with audio clips and her expert knowledge of using podcasting as a low-cost and accessible method of presenting information. She showed how sound could prove more powerful than words with planning being key to strong content and context.
A lively panel discussion on new media and how it’s impacting PR’ ended the conference. With Guy Ruddle from The Daily Telegraph, Katy Howell from Immediate Future and Paul Brannan from BBC News Website all agreeing that the internet had changed the way people consumed and search for news. They reflected on current changes to the industry concluding that “audiences have now become the creators, as well as the consumers of news content.”
As a result of the interest generated in the afternoon's discussions and debate around "new" media and its use, the CIPR will be holding a dedicated New Media conference early in 2007, repeated later in the year.
What the delegates thought
“It was useful to hear experience of other delegates. Good mix of PR & journalist perspectives from speakers”
“The panel discussion was thought provoking”
“The morning session was a great reminder on content. A wealth of knowledge about new media and loads of follow up information and websites”
For more information about the "Read all about it" Media conference you can visit www.cipr.co.uk/mediaconference. Other CIPR events and information are listed on www.cipr.co.uk also.
