One of your first promotional actions may be to draft a press release to be sent to appropriate media contacts that can help to publicise your business and the conference.

A press release is a one- or two-page statement outlining a recent or forthcoming news event which is forwarded to selected media contacts in anticipation of free publicity for that event and to the individuals and organisations involved with it. The types of `news event’ that might be covered in a press release are the addition of a new director to the board, the opening of another shop, office or factory and the staging of a first-class conference.

What are the key advantages of using press releases to publicise your event? There is minimal expense involved – they cost you virtually nothing, just your time plus some stationary and stamps, and are certainly much cheaper than other forms of promotion, such as press advertising. They are also flexible – it is up to you what to include, how to state it, how long you take to state it, when you send them and where you send them. So there is very little, if anything, to be lost by issuing them.

Their main disadvantages are that they are hard to write well. Typically they are full of gaps (so when exactly does that conference start?), contain irrelevant material (what does the chairman’s life history have to do with the event?), can ramble on and on (so what’s the point of it?), and the response is unpredictable.

There is an element of potluck involved here. Will the recipient be interested? Will there be space to publish an article? Will it be printed when you want it to be? The answer is often no.

1) What should your press release look like? What should be included in it?

2)Should you use press releases as part of your promotional activities? What are influences on your choice?

3) Having written a press release, what should you do with it?