HOW TO ORGANIZE AN EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL NEWS CONFERENCE
Organizing a zoom news conference is similar to organizing a regular news conference but without having to worry about the weather. Below are our tips to ensure that your news conference is effective.
Start with a gut check. Before you do anything, you need to decide if your news is actually newsworthy. Competition for the attention of reporters is fierce. Does your “news” warrant a news conference or can it be handled by a news release with follow-up calls and emails to reporters? If you decide that, yes, you do have big enough news to warrant a news conference, get moving!
Make sure your Zoom account is up to snuff. Do you have a Zoom account that allows you to hold meetings for longer than the 40-minute limit offered on free accounts, and that can accommodate the number of people you expect to participate? If not, find someone who does or pay to upgrade your account.
Line up your speakers. Keep it to three or fewer. Pick people who know your issue well and who you know are also good at public speaking. Confirm that they can attend both the news conference and the practice run a few days prior to it and invite them three weeks in advance. Send them a calendar invitation for the town hall with the Zoom log in information and make sure they’ve accepted both of them. Follow up several times to make sure they are still able to participate.
Choose a good moderator. Some good options include a trusted colleague who’s knowledgeable about the issue and a good public speaker, a local reporter, a League of Women Voters volunteer, or a local teacher or debate coach. Confirm that they can attend both the news conference and the practice run a few days prior to it and invite them three weeks in advance. Send them a calendar invitation for the town hall with the Zoom log in information and make sure they’ve accepted both of them. Follow up several times to make sure they are still able to participate.
Schedule a practice run one to three days before the news conference. Make sure that you send the Zoom log in as both an email and as a calendar invitation to your speakers and your moderator as well as your tech support person. Follow up to ensure that everyone has the information and has accepted your invitation.
Pick a good date and time. Do a scan of news and social media to see what else might be going on that week to avoid going up against other big events that may compete for coverage. If you want west coast and east coast media coverage, pick a time of day that works for both time zones but is not too late in the day when reporters are already committed to other stories. Noon, Eastern Time is a good choice. Or, you can hold the news conference twice at say, 10:00 AM Eastern Time for East Coast reporters and 1:00 PM Eastern Time for West Coast reporters. Advertise both times to provide flexibility for reporters.
Schedule the news conference via Zoom. Although you may be tempted to use the “webinar” feature, a regular Zoom call is our preferred format because it allows reporters to ask their questions directly. If you do choose the webinar feature, you’ll need to issue presenter invitations to your speakers and moderator - these log in links will be unique to them. Requiring registration via Zoom is a good idea because that way you will capture the email addresses for any reporters who attend, making it easy for you to share the recording after the conference, and building your press list for the next big announcement.
Identify your tech support. Find someone who really understands Zoom and get them to agree to do a practice run with you and the speakers a few days in advance and have that person attend the Zoom in case of technical difficulties.
Draft your media advisory. Don’t forget to include the Zoom registration link along with the date and time of the news conference. Click here for a sample advisory you can customize.
Share key info ahead of time. If you are releasing a report, you can send an embargoed copy for reporters to read in advance. Just keep in mind that the more reporters you send it to, the more likely it is to leak before your release date. Another approach is to send the report one hour before the news conference and recognize that some reporters might then skip the Zoom news conference.
Prepare your virtual office. Make sure you have a strong, stable internet connection - the safest thing to do is to wire your computer directly to it using an ethernet cable rather than relying on wifi. Are your speakers good? If people have reported difficulty hearing you on Zoom calls, consider using a mic or headset. You should also consider what people see behind you - is it appropriate, distracting? Make changes as needed.
Do a “run of show” beforehand. Plan a practice Zoom call with the moderator and the speakers a day or two before the event. Speakers can practice sharing their screen to show visuals and run through their prepared remarks to check the length and highlight any changes needed. Please note that although it’s fine to share a few visuals or slides, powerpoints can get boring, so encourage your speakers to focus on the news.
Issue a news advisory. Send the news advisory out two days in advance. Don’t forget to also send the news advisory to the Associated Press Daybook, a calendar listing of media events at News@applanner.com
Send a reminder. Send the news advisory out again the morning of the event. While sending a blanket email is an important base level effort, don’t forget that personal pitches and phone calls to individual reporters and editors are the best ways to spark reporters’ interest and boost attendance at the event.
Log on early. When event day arrives, have the speakers log on to Zoom a half hour in advance of the scheduled news conference to make sure you can iron out any and all technical hurdles and glitches before it’s go time.
Plan a slightly late start. Start the zoom news conference five minutes, late, leaving time for any stragglers to get on.
Don’t forget to hit RECORD. This is something the meeting host has to do so it’s best to remind her or him again at the moment you want to begin capturing the proceedings.
Share your speakers’ names. Ask all the speakers to both say and spell their names before they speak and make sure they’ve got their names and organizations listed in their display names on Zoom.
Don’t skimp on the Q&A. Leave plenty of time for questions.
Explain how you will handle questions. Some reporters will type their questions in the chat area while others will not wish to do so. It can work well to use the “raise hand” feature and have the moderator call on the reporters in the order in which they asked their questions.
Share your moderator’s name and contact information. Have the moderator announce her/his/their email and phone number at the end for any follow-up questions. Close by thanking everyone for joining and let them know you will share the recording with them.
Edit and post the recording. Note that the recording often requires some editing – trimming away any unnecessary chatter and potentially also the Q&A session at the end. You can post the recording on social media and your website as well as emailing it everyone who attended as well as to key reporters who may have missed the news conference.
