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Project Overview
RoboBusiness, the robotics industry’s premier event, wanted to improve the annual conference by increasing its awareness and reach. Walker Sands leveraged its relationship with technology publications to develop a public relations strategy that made the conference the largest in its 12-year run, capping it off with top-tier media placements and on-site interviews.
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The Challenge
Located at the heart of Silicon Valley, RoboBusiness 2016 was set to be the largest in its 12-year run with more than 100 exhibitors and 2,000 attendees. As such, the RoboBusiness team wished to increase awareness and reach of the conference, its sponsors and its products within the local and robotics communities by welcoming new media and analysts to the event.
With a proven track record for successfully promoting technology-focused industry events, Walker Sands was selected to help RoboBusiness broaden its media reach by securing local and national media coverage before, during and after the event, and increase media attendance on the show floor. Walker Sands was also tasked with providing on-site support to the RoboBusiness team and facilitating media interviews at the event.
The Solution
Borrowing tactics from previous industry events and leveraging the agency’s relationships with top-tier technology publications, Walker Sands developed a public relations strategy to accomplish the PR goals for RoboBusiness 2016.
Key elements of Walker Sands’ approach included:
- Media pre-briefing coordination: Walkers Sands targeted a wide range of local and national print, digital and broadcast media outlets in the robotics and automation spaces to prompt journalists to register for the conference. By briefing journalists on the biggest tech executives, investors and startups that would be in attendance, as well as the tools, solutions, and tactics available to discuss and demo on-site, Walker Sands began to build anticipation around the event and secure registrations from journalists who had and had not attended the event in the past. In addition, the team shared descriptions of RoboBusiness 2016 with local event blogs, calendars, newsletters and community publications to inform the Silicon Valley community about the agenda and encourage their attendance both on the show floor and at the startup pitch competition.
- Pre-event coverage organization: Once registered, Walker Sands worked with journalists to facilitate pre-event interviews and briefings with industry leaders attending, sponsoring and speaking – from Toyota, to NASA, to Johnson & Johnson – to secure coverage in top-tier publications leading up to the event. For journalists looking to meet with these industry leaders on-site, Walker Sands scheduled interviews between parties. The Walker Sands team also worked directly with event speakers to develop content for publication in top-tier outlets prior to the event, promoting specific speaking sessions as well as the conference.
- On-site support and media interview facilitation: At the event, Walker Sands supported the RoboBusiness team by assisting with media registration and facilitating interviews, both on the show floor and in the event’s designated media room, and communicating media results in real-time. In addition to the interviews scheduled prior to the show, last minute registrations and interviews were coordinated on-site by the Walker Sands team.
The Results
Walker Sands’ media outreach prior to the 2016 RoboBusiness Conference generated 48 media placements in just 60 days, including feature stories in top business and technology publications like TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Guardian and Mashable.
Other outcomes of Walker Sands’ work included:
- Pre-event outreach to local and national print, digital and broadcast media outlets in the robotics and technology spaces resulted in 73 total media and analyst attendees including journalists from Forbes, MIT Technology Review, Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury Times, Design World, and EE Times.
- More than 20 on-site interviews were conducted by local and national publications including The Guardian, Bloomberg, NBC Bay Area, CBS Radio and PC Magazine.
- Multimedia stories published in top tier and local publications including TechCrunch, The Guardian and San Francisco Chronicle.
Going forward, Walker Sands continues to work as a trusted PR and marketing partner for events across the country, garnering widespread media attention and increasing media attendance for each.