The history of the “press conference” has taken various forms over the many years that I have been in this friendly, relationship-based PR world. I still remember the very long ones in the ‘90’s where we would set up shop at 8am, start the conference at 11am and “hometime” was never prescribed shall we say? Great fun but then the world got busier.
Breakfast meetings became fashionable. We could all do the job on our way into work, enjoy a coffee and croissant and be back behind our desks writing it all up at 11am. Big conferences, and European factory visits, made way for individual, exclusive briefings at times.
And here we are in 2022! Obviously, the pandemic changed how we spoke to our media friends and, arguably, the briefings and interviews were more time and cost-efficient. The work was still productive – but, for everyone, impersonal.
I have noticed, looking at my PR and media friends’ channels, that face-to-face client/media events are rocketing in popularity again and we are now planning a fair few.
I see the “press conference” taking all sorts of forms now. Yes, we can still do Teams; one last week was fantastic and the results have been great. Yes, I can see breakfast catch-ups. I can see factory and showroom visits and exclusive lunches. Not quite so sure of the “Fleet Street” style long, long lunches though!