Photo by Myles Tan on Unsplash

After our webinar last week on how to lay the groundwork before your press trips to make sure you’re prepared to get the most article research for the most stories done when you’re in the destination, I received an unusual email.

A writer that I know that has attended our weekend Pitchapalooza retreat in the past wrote me with the subject line “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.”

It turned out she had recently been on a press trip on which anything that could go wrong did go wrong:

  • it was the PR person’s first time running a trip
  • her father had passed away the previous week
  • the schedule was way too packed
  • the attendees only received the schedule the day before
  • all the attractions/restaurants/hotels were just the top/crowded tourist traps
  • even though this writer had sent her story ideas in advance, none of them were included in the itinerary

Wow.

I feel for the PR person who organized that trip. And so did this writer. She wanted to make sure she got some stories out of the trip, but didn’t know what she had to work with until hearing on last week’s call how to:

She told me that now she’s going to start fresh with that trip, use it as background research, and go back to the PR person to set up interviews with sources for the stories she originally wanted to research on the trip by phone from scratch–essentially recreating research she could have done in destination, but from home.

On today’s webinar on How to Get the Most (On the Ground) Out of Your Press Trips, we’re going to look at exactly how to make sure that no matter what is going on on your press trip, even if there’s a near hurricane during a beach photography itinerary or a PR’s first trip where nothing goes as planned, you are able to come home from your trip with material. And preferably not only enough material for a story or two stories or blog posts, but at least ten.

Last week we looked at the planning aspect of this process–figuring out what stories you can possibly get from the destination and itinerary site unseen–but this week we’re going to focus on how to do it in the ground, where the best, most specific story ideas are found.

Join us today at 12:00 pm EST / 9:00 am PST as we walk through best practices and how to make the best of the worst situations that can come up on press trips. Register here and you’ll get the replay even if you can’t attend the event. The replay is available to registrants for one week, after which time it available for coaching students or for purchase on demand in our Webinar Library!