Ever since associations started giving out press attendee lists as a service to those exhibiting at their conferences, I have been inundated with phone calls, e-mails, faxes, snail-mails, overnight packages, notes delivered by carrier pigeons, the pony express, skywriting and singing telegrams from vendors, all pleading to get together with me at some upcoming meeting. It's driving me and my fellow editors crazy, and the bottom line is that I haven't agreed to meet with any of them. There are far more effective ways to get an editor's attention at a busy conference.

My office has been a madhouse the past four weeks, with communications coming in waves, first from those who exhibited at IIABA in Washington, then from those at RIMS in New Orleans, and now the past two weeks from tech vendors showing at the ACORD LOMA Forum.

I try to be as polite as I can, but franky, this trend is really getting on my nerves. It sounds as if they are all speaking off the same script. “I hear you are going to be covering the FILL IN THE BLANK conference at LOCATION next week. We'd love to sit down with you AT OUR BOOTH, FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, COFFEE OR A DRINK with our NAME SOME VIP to talk about FILL IN SOMETHING THAT SOUNDS EXCITING at our company.

First of all, I tell them, I would need to stay for a month if I agreed to visit with every single exhibitor that contacted me. Even if I wanted to meet with everyone, I couldn't possibly do so. So how do I choose? That's really up to you.

It's rare that reporters have time at a busy conference to just sit around and chat. If you happen to run into a reporter on the exhibit floor and can lasso them into spending a few minutes at your booth, terrific. But on the whole, meets and greets, while pleasant, are rarely productive for either party.

So, where does that leave you? How can you get an editor's attention–especially when they are stressed out from soliciations every time they pick up the phone?

MAKE NEWS! Reporters are under pressure to produce copy out of a conference, and they are always looking for interesting angles and prepackaged stories that will make their lives easier. Offer to help feed the beast with important content and you are far more likely to land an appointment.

How do you make news at a conference? Don't just introduce a new product or service. Everyone times product introductions to a major conference for their prospects, so for us to write about one and not all the others would invite those who didn't make the cut to gang up and come after us with torches.

To make news, you might consider doing a quick survey prior to the conference, and release the results at your booth or in your hospitality suite. Or do a study on a timely and controversial topic, and release your report (along with an executive summary, please…and graphics….editors love graphics!) during the conference. At one RIMS meeting, Lloyd's actually put together a group of syndicate managers for a 30-minute state of the market panel at their booth, which drew a healthy crowd. Now, that's real content, and easy to digest.

Yes, doing surveys and reports will take extra work and drive up costs, but do you want to get coverage at the conference, or listen to all the editors you call just grumble and blow you off?

ACORD and LOMA tried something different and interesting at their joint forum today. For the second straight year, they held a “speed-dating”-style of press conference, in which reporters rotated from vendor to vendor, allowing about five minutes for each to deliver their pitch.

When I first heard about this approach, I didn't like the idea of being taken hostage and coerced to see vendors that may have nothing important to say to me, but I actually found the experience very positive. It sure beat the mass press conference held by ACORD and LOMA in the past, when a parade of vendors took the podium to announce their latest initiatives, with most reporters nodding off or bailing out long before the event came to a close. Indeed, the vendors were forced to concentrate and focus their messages, and reporters had a chance to get a question or two in without having to share the information with their rivals.

In any case, the key point is that a reporter's time (and attention span) is very limited on the best of days. We are being buried by an avalanche of press releases, story suggestions and offers to serve as a source on a daily basis. That problem is multiplied exponentially at a conference.

Therefore, if we are short or even curt with you when you call to make an appointment with us at some conference, don't take it personally. It's the nature of the beast.

Indeed, on the whole, journalists are some of the most sociable people on Earth, but after being hounded for weeks, even the most even-tempered person will start snapping at the latest conference-related PR pitch, especially if they are empty-handed when it comes to making news.

We are, after all, in the news business. Make some news, and you have a much better shot at getting my attention.

Good luck!

Special Reports /

If You Don't Make News, You Lose

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