Landmark Conference
Opportunity:
A young organization targeting professional women had held several small conferences. The last conference had scored the coupe of having a well-known feminist figure as keynote, and the coverage had been disappointing. The keynote speaker got the publicity; the conference was mentioned as an afterthought. It was important to build credibility for the conference and the organization to give it the boost it needed to national visibility.
Strategy:
Breakthru counseled to focus on the unsung achievements of professional women in the target market to bring the emphasis of the conference, and its coverage, on the need for and benefits of a women’s professional organization. By establishing a “Hall of Fame” for women who had made significant, and often unrecognized, contributions in their fields, and by focusing the conference on women people should know about (but probably didn’t) we felt we could drive home the need for this organization and the benefits that would accrue to both corporate sponsors and individual members who associated with the organization.
Results:
Front page and major business section coverage of the conference in the local newspaper. Significant coverage for the conference and the Hall of Fame in industry publications. Dramatic increase in the size of the conference the following year.