The Importance Of Press Conferences

Often companies, associations, politicians, public figures need to organize a press conference to communicate important information to journalists and other gatekeepers. In this post I'll explain how to organize a press conference and I'll show you some suggestions that have come back to me very useful during the last years.

Times
Generally, the press conference is organized at 11 am, in order to give journalists time to write articles in the afternoon. The invitation should be sent to the media list of journalists about 5-7 days before, better if on Friday, to ensure that the conference is included in the weekly agendas of press agency meetings. It is important to check that there are no other concurrent press conferences, perhaps more relevant.

These are precious contacts that could come in handy later.

Where to organize a press conference
If you do not have your own office, it would be desirable to organize a press conference in a central or easily accessible place. It is advisable to make a preliminary survey to verify that everything is working properly: microphones, video projectors, room capacity, speakers' table with their riders, and so on. It is also necessary to provide spaces to be reserved for interviews, especially for television interviews, with an appropriate background.

The contents
During the press conference (which almost never lasts more than an hour) intervene from two to five speakers (better if they are the top of the company) introduced by a moderator. At the end, journalists are given the opportunity to ask questions. Considering that the press kit will be sent to him by e-mail, in fact, journalists often go to press conferences to get exclusive statements, ask questions, get first-hand news,

A USB stick can also be attached to the folder, containing multimedia materials, such as videos, that journalists can use to package the news.

Launch a hashtag
If the event is relevant enough, you can launch an official hashtag, in order to involve more both the people present and those who follow the event through the Internet. Furthermore, this will help you to monitor online discussions and allow you to better gather the main user feedback.

Live streaming
To reach even journalists who can not physically participate in the press conference, it is useful to prepare a live stream, exploiting the digital channels of the organization. This way you will not only give journalists the opportunity to follow the conference while they are working in the desk at the desk, but you will allow anyone to follow the event, potentially increasing the gatekeeper crowd.

How will we contact the journalist ? we need to know the main contacts of potentially interested journalists who will write an article or do a service on the subject.

The journalist's