THE PRESS CONFERENCE - 2

Organisation

You'll be providing the location and amenities. How many people are you expecting? Mostly local journalists or a number of foreign correspondents? Is this a hot story or a cool one? (Gulf war or change in tread pattern on a car tyre?) You'll obviously have to make different arrangements depending on the temperature of your story.

The tyres might well be dealt with in a restaurant or at a race track. But most press conferences are in conference rooms - either at your place of work or a hotel.

Which you choose depends on many factors; the number of people expected is, of course, the most important of those. If you do decide on your own premises, try to find a location with easy access. Reporters don't take kindly to signing forms and waiting for security approval.

If you're expecting a large number of people, try to arrange for somewhere with a good sound system. Without that, reporters tend to converge on the speaker and poke microphones at him. All that shuffling around can unnerve even the best speaker.

Consider what sort of layout you'll need. A Gulf war update is obviously a very formal matter; a dais, lectern and 'audience' chairs might be appropriate.

For most 'average' stories, a large conference table is right. If you can't find a table big enough, try a number of trestle tables in a rectangle (perhaps with a hole in the middle).

If you expect a large number of reporters, a platform or stage with rows of 'audience' chairs might be okay. Chairs with foldout rests for notebooks are good; rows of small trestle tables even better.
Are you expecting television or film coverage? If so, ensure that the speaker(s) are well-lit (and I don't mean pouring lots of light on them). Then tell the journalists involved what you're doing. You ensure your speaker appears at his or her best, and the crew can travel lighter.

On the subject of shooting facilities, try to anticipate peoples' needs; parking, big lifts, enough power circuits, feeds from your sound system, etc.

Television and radio people will probably ask for a one-to-one interview after the main event. Try to accommodate the request if possible; television is a curiously intimate 'mass medium' and the normal two person interview always looks better than an open forum. If you can, have available close by a separate room with reasonable sound insulation for shooting the interviews.

By the way, the actual news conference isn't usually exciting visual material. A publicist called Betty White who worked for the US army once sent out invitations to a conference to announce something called a 'floodplain park'. But not one reporter turned up! They went to the location of the new park and shot there - both television and newspaper journalists. The result was that the story wasn't as well-covered as it might have been - no interview with an enthusiastic environmentalist, for instance. The conference should have been on site.

But if you do decide on a real outdoor setting, you've got a whole new lot of headaches to take care of. Make sure you plan to cope with bad weather, access, parking, crowd control and noise control!

The Invitation

When you've decided on all that, you can send out your invitations. These should be no more than one page long, and should cover the obvious information: who, what, why, where, when and how. If the location is an unusual one, include a map or directions.

Please be accurate. There exists in the annals of public relations the most wonderful story of what happens when you're not too careful. A junior in a PR company wasn't doing too well. Her boss summoned her to his office and listed her shortcomings. She pleaded for one last chance, saying she'd had family problems which were now behind her.

He agreed, and put her in charge of a very simple project; the two hundredth birthday party of a brewery in West London. Well the location guaranteed a big attendance; all she had to do was arrange for the food (a lavish spread from a top caterer) and booze (the brewery and its associated companies provided vast quantities of beer wine and spirits), tours round the brewery and its museum (cleaned up and decorated just for the occasion) and entertainment (a pop group at one end of the compound, a jazz band in the beer hall and a small orchestra for dancing). She set to, spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on ensuring that everything was just perfect.

Sadly, nobody turned up. She'd got the wrong date on the invitations!

Her boss summoned her once more and gave her her marching orders along with the immortal line; "Let's face it darling, you really couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery".

Send your invitation to individual journalists, sub-editors, editors or organisations as seems appropriate. Many large organisations have an 'events' unit that compiles lists of happenings and circulates them not only internally, but to external subscribers in the case of the larger news agencies.

The invitation should include your name, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address and an RSVP request. You shouldn't expect people to decide two weeks in advance if they will definitely be attending but, hopefully, you'll get some idea of the numbers to expect. You might also get early warning of a clash; it has been know for two or more similar occasions to be scheduled simultaneously. And if yours isn't the better 'lig', you'll be the loser.


Reminder

Depending on how far in advance your announcements were sent, it's probably a good idea to do at least a few 'reminder' calls on the evening before, or on the morning of, the day itself. Some organisations resent this kind of call, so be careful how you phrase things; don't infer that the journalist might have forgotten.

If anybody is vague about attending, offer to send a press kit - either by fax or e-mail attachment, or by messenger.

Next - more about preparation for the actual event.

Press Conferences - Part One

Press Conferences - Part Three