New forum brings IT media and vendors together  published October 2004 There are more than 100 media and over 500 journalists in Australia specialising in technology.  For any company in the IT sector, this group represents the gateway to reaching a host of key audiences.  And success and failure in engaging with them can often have a significant impact on the business. It’s a sector where PR - whether through in-house staff or PR agencies - plays a significant role in the flow of information between business and media, and then to end audiences. Some IT vendors do very well through the media.  But others struggle.  And regardless of who wins and loses in the battle to  ‘get in the limelight’, even with the plethora of IT media and journalists, probably less than 20 percent of what IT vendors release to the IT media gets into print. So when someone comes up with a way to put IT vendors and media together for 2-3 days in an open forum, any IT vendor who is serious about PR and getting its ‘share of voice’ should be interested.  ‘Face the IT Media’ was held in mid September by MediaConnect, an organisation that has set itself up to improve the links and interface between IT business and media. Held at Cypress Lakes in the Hunter Valley over three days, it followed another similar event, ‘Kick Start’, held earlier this year in Queensland. It’s an interesting approach from MediaConnect, encouraging all stakeholders in the communication chain to come together in groups to discuss issues and topics.  There were sessions on new technology, on mature IT solutions as well as sessions dealing with working with the media. ‘Face the IT Media’ provides an opportunity for both businesses and media to take the time to step back from the day-to-day pressures and put matters in perspective and look at some of the wider issues - eg Which technologies are going to be the main contributors to better business performance? What is marketing puffery as opposed to technical reality?  What are the trends and issues within the various sectors? How can IT business and media better work together? The program was structured to include a series of panel discussions on several sectors by including key vendors in the one session. In a way, the event program helps instil a sense ‘community’ among the various players. It also reflects the fact that each group; media, vendors and PR all have valid roles to play… they simply need to respect each other’s roles and values as well as gaining a better understanding of the rules of engagement. According to Philip Sims managing director at MediaConnect, the concept for these events came out of first hand experience as a journalist, and the frustrations involved in maintaining high levels of industry knowledge.  “After eight years as a journalist I had been on hundreds of conferences, junkets and the like, and came to realise that only part of each was relevant to my needs.  My goal was to create an event that would combine all those good bits into one event created specifically for IT media,” said Sims. Sim claims that where, in their daily work, journalists are hearing individual marketing messages from vendors, this event is the chance to hear competing and complementary vendors as well as commentators discuss issues, corporate positions and product relevance.  “Although we structured the event to be educational, the networking events within the program encourage vendors and journalists mix in a social environment.  I think this helps bring down the walls a bit, although I’m sure they go back up a bit when people get back to their offices.  But it’s a start,” said Sim. At the end of the day, events such as ‘Face the IT Media’ offer all parties real benefits. For Media the opportunities include being able to: Better understand the ‘bigger picture’ and technology directions Discuss issues/challenges with a range of vendors Present their requirements/preferences to PR people Follow-up with one-on-one meetings after formal sessions Develop new story angles by meeting so many people For Vendors and their PR Agencies the opportunities include being able to: Get in front of up to 60 journalists Background media on industry and sector issues and general developments not possible during the ‘daily grind’ See first-hand how competitors present their stories to the media Build relationships with key media Better understand and appreciate (or refresh) about media requirements An initiative such as ‘Face the IT Media’ will only work if both media and business continue to see value in it.  The key determining factor in achieving this is to ensure that top media and leading IT vendors attend.  Like any PR initiative, the value of attending ‘Face the IT Media’ has to be thoroughly evaluated.  Some of the questions to be asked include: What is the standard of media knowledge and reporting of our sector? What is our position in the sector ie are we the market leader (or a significant player)? Are we running a large enough ongoing PR program to justify attending? Are we confident enough to be on the same platform as our key competitors? Can we get key management ‘heavyweights’ to give two days time? Do we have the PR expertise available to fully prepare us to be able to front such an event and acquit ourselves adequately? Note:  Network PR, publishers of PR Influences, attended the most recent ‘Face the IT Media’ event and clients of the agency have attended the two events held to date. For more articles on IT media, see: Moving from Enterprise to SME markets - the communication challenge for IT vendors

PR Influences Australian Public Relations Newsletter. Article: IT Industry PR: Forum brings IT media & vendors together. Information Content: Media & Media Relations