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I WENT TO COVER A PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE NEW ECONOMIC PLAN AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS POST ON NOT COVERING A PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE NEW ECONOMIC PLAN
Before I write this, let me note that House Speaker Bobby Harrell’s office, Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell’s office and other elected officials have been very good about treating bloggers as members of the media and I hope they will continue to do so.
However, I must note that it is slightly moronic to send out a press release saying a event will be at an certain address outside a certain building, then NOT have the event at that certain address outside that certain building and then NOT tell those you’ve invited.
Like today when I grabbed my camera and decided to head to a press conference where “Legislative and Economic Development Industry Leaders will unveil a collaborative plan for South Carolina’s future economic success.”
Harrell, McConnell, incoming President of USC Harris Pastides, and others would all be speaking, so I figured I better videotape this for TPS readers.
On each of three press releases I received, I was told the event would be at the South Carolina Employment Security Commission, 1550 Gadsden St. in Columbia. I got there with 15 minutes to spare and no one was in sight.
I double-checked, “The huge sign in front of me says ‘South Carolina Employment Security Commission.’ This is 1550 Gadsden.”
I then bumped into a few other lost folks trying to find the press conference. By the time I finally learned that it had been moved across the street, they had pretty much wrapped things up.
Ergo, no video.
I won’t say who sent out the releases heralding this event, but I will point out for their sake that Public Relations 101 usually advises against changing locations for press conferences without telling people.
So instead of getting a post where I put up inside video of the event complemented by my almost-divine wisdom and insider analysis of how great this proposal might be, they get a post with me complaining. And seriously folks, I’ve been doing way too much of that lately.
Adam,
I think you do an excellent job of blogging. So I’d have to say, don’t quite your day job to seek any profession that requires you to find the physical location of anything.
Every press release contained this in the “Where” section of the media advisory:
Where: The South Carolina Employment Security Commission
o 1550 Gadsden St. (Event will be outside on the Hampton St. side of complex)
o Link to Map here
Sorry you had trouble finding the event…it was on the outside of the complex on the Hampton Street side, incase you were wondering. And that was the address for the Employment Security commission, where the event was held. The complex takes up almost the entire block, I thought most people would interpret “Event will be outside on the Hampton St. side of complex” to mean they should probably go to the Hampton Street side of the complex.
But it must not have been too difficult for most folks, considering about 50 industry leaders, 6 TV cameras, at least 5 print reporters and one radio reporter were able to find it. And they were all there 10 minutes before the event was scheduled to begin…unheard of for reporters in the “usually late to every event” media world.
But thank you for pointing out areas in which I can improve my PR skills. Next time, I will include a better mapquest link, GPS coordinates, put a couple of those “fan guys” near the event that blow up twenty feet high and wave their arms (you know…the kind you see outside car dealerships) and provide you personally with a military trained sniper scout.
Haha. It’s all good.
But FYI, Hampton St. runs perpendicular to Gadsden and the sign for the South Carolina Employment Security Commission is on the side of the street that I was on. That’s also the side of the street that comes up on your included link, in any GPS, etc. So there’s a Hampton Street side for both places.
Unless you’ve been there before, there’s no way to know any of the other buildings were part of the same complex.
The wacky waiving inflatable arm flailing tube man would have certainly helped. Or maybe the bat signal. And, I definitely wouldn’t mind the personal sniper.
Anyway, on a tight schedule, most people don’t have time to build in for a scavenger hunt. Sorry.
Greg,
I don’t think I’d want anybody who would write “a event” in a published story, writing about your event anyway. So it’s probably a good idea the little kid couldn’t find his way. The difference between using “a” and “an” should be about the same as finding the right street. Oh well.