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Abstract
The Research
to Prevent Blindness (RPB) Science Writers Seminar acquaints science,
health and medical writers with the latest advances across the spectrum
of basic and clinical eye research. This poster describes RPB's 15th seminar
held September 26-29, 1999 in Los Angeles, CA. The program featured 32
presentations by leading vision scientists over a four day period. Topics
included all major eye diseases and many less common ones.
The goal is to inform
the public about serious threats to vision and about scientific progress
in combating blindness. It is also hoped that increased public awareness
will bolster support for vision research and spur progress in preventing
vision loss.
The target audience
includes the public, 17,000 eye doctors and 2,200 vision scientists. We
reach all three groups through the press. We also reach the doctors and/or
scientists by sending them a timely publication of the complete proceedings.
We furnish the public with reprints of reports pertinent to expressed
interest. Those of greatest public interest are produced in large print.
News reports of the seminar reached an international audience via print,
electronic and broadcast media.
How does one achieve
these goals? When your public information department consists of two people,
it helps to start with a bucket of elbow grease and to season it with
humor.
Budget
Approximately
$185,000.
Toolkits
- To
succeed, you must build a good program and attract writers to cover
it.
- To build a good
program, recruit a Program Director who knows science and who knows
news.
- Good science attracts
good writers; pack the program with good science.
- Each day, include
a story with a news edge sufficient for reporters who file daily.
- Establish a format
for the presentations, edit them in advance and provide all texts in
the press kit.
- Adhere to a strict
timetable. Limit presentations to 7-10 minutes followed by 15- minute
"Question and Answer" sessions.
- To avoid delays
in the program, let extended Q & A and interviews spillover to a
press room nearby.
- Give reporters
ample access to scientists throughout the meeting.
Research
and Evaluation
- To
reach our audience we must first reach the writers. A lot of other musts
necessarily follow i.e. we must:
- Understand the
writers' needs.
- Stay on top of
the news.
- Keep a finger on
the pulse of the science; scour the field for interesting science. (We
receive as many as 300 nominations for 30 spots on the program.)
- Stay in touch year
round with writers via press releases, newsletters and research reports;
attend meetings of writers and of scientists.
- Strive always to
be available for the press whether or not a story is likely to mention
RPB.
- Provide reliable
information and references to experts.
- Prune and build
our media lists continually.
- Issue "Mark-Your
Calendar" notes in various media within a year of the meeting.
- Four months prior
to the meeting, launch a series of increasingly detailed press alerts.
- Be good hosts.
As one reporter from the West said, "You put on a good feed!"
Our press kit, weighing in at 4 pounds, is ideal for aerobics workouts
between sessions to work off the good feed!
- To help monitor
the coverage, we retained a press clipping service. The Seminar attracted
nearly three dozen writers and yielded an international audience via
print, electronic and broadcast media. At least 24 scientists and RPB's
top officials each appeared in at least one report. Many appeared in
multiple articles.
- After the Seminar,
we produced a 4-part series based largely on seminar reports and released
it to 10,000 newspapers nationwide, resulting in 1,740 news clips with
a readership surpassing 111 million.
- Since the seminar
tends to be far ahead of the general news curve, its reports are of
lasting value to reporters and yield stories for years to come. Journalists
aware of RPB's involvement in the early stages of important work often
seek us out when studies begin to show practical results. We also post
the Seminar book on our web site
and use reprints of selected reports in information kits for the press
and the public.
Contact
Thomas Furlong
Director of Public Information
Research to Prevent Blindness
645 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
(212) 752-4333
1-800-621-0026
fax: (212) 688-6231
tfurlong @ rpbusa.org
Web
Site
www.rpbusa.org
Back
to Best Practices home page
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to Best Practices posters page
Created: 7/2/2002
Last updated: 8/17/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov
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Gary
S. Rubin, Ph.D., of the Institute of Opthamology at the University College,
London, addresses the opening symposium on "Senior Eyes, Driving,
Mobility, and Quality of Life" at the 1999 Research to Prevent Blindness
Science Writers Seminar in Eye Research.
H.
Dwight Cavanagh, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern,
fields questions about the safety of extended wear contact lenses at the
Research to Prevent Blindness Science Writers Seminar in Eye Research.
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