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Tips to cover an APC-related event

If you are attending an APC-related event that you would like to cover/write about, here’s some essential reading.

First of all, some pointers on how to write…

A blog post

A blog post is where you get to be yourself – use more informal language, express opinions and challenge your readers. Blog posts are usually quite short, no more than 500 words. For more on this, here are some tips on blogging for APC.

Some examples from different APC-related events:

Now… some words on social media!

Twitter

  1. Make sure that you have a Twitter account: Make it open (otherwise people who are not following you – the ones we want to reach – won’t be able to see your tweets). If you want to keep your Twitter account private you can create a new one for work. Make your user name as personal as you can, because people tend to be more interested in personal opinions and views than organisational speech. Writers are expected to use their accounts for tweeting during events.
  2. Follow our accounts: APC's Twitter accounts are @APC_News @APCNoticias @APCNouvelles.
  3. Once at the event, find out what hashtag people are using: Sometimes there are various hashtags circulating. For instance, with the IGF, Twitter users could be using various tags – such as #IGF_2017, #IGFGeneva or #IGF2017. Identify the most popular one. 
  4. Tweet (in different languages): You can quote panellists and participants (short, summarised and catchy phrases) and/or your reactions to what is being said, about conversations you have or overhear, your observations, sound bytes, links to interesting resources or news, photos, reminders about events. You can also reply to other participants.
  5. Retweet interesting stuff from other people: This will help you build your Twitter audience.
  6. Blog: Many times you can cut and paste some tweets and replies and make an interesting post with little effort. You can also use tweets for reporting or as a way of taking notes.
  7. Invite people to share their own writings: You will not be alone in the coverage of an event, so these other people are your allies. Contact them via Twitter or email to give them a heads up on the coverage plans and ask them to send you their stuff.

Step by step:

Make a plan: Choose your sessions in advance. If you are attending an event with multiple tracks, schedule which sessions you’ll be attending and covering in advance. If you don’t want to cover everything you sit in on, consider what your readers will benefit from the most. Once you decide what you will be covering, prep your posts with these basics to save time:

  • Name of the session and speaker: Make sure you can provide a bit of background about the speaker, including links to his/her organisation, Twitter handle, etc.
  • Details of the session: Is there a programme available that you can review in advance? If so, it may help to type up the basic structure of the presentation and then fill in the details as you listen.
  • Tip: Be careful. Some events are more private than others; if it’s a small event make sure that people are OK with your tweeting.

Now, regardless of whether you are publishing your content in real time or saving it for later, here are some ways to generate interest in your coverage:

Announce what you will cover: If you are going to be changing your regular posting schedule and publishing live blogs throughout a conference, it’s a good idea to let your readers know. You can also use this post to announce if someone from your organisation will be speaking.

  • Example: Check out this event on #gender_rights that will be covering at the #IGF2017

Tease your session: If you are speaking at the event, you may want to write about your session before it occurs. Not only is this is a great way to re-purpose content that you have spent a lot of time creating, but it also builds anticipation for your session.

Share outputs as they are published: 

A compilation of photos/videos/messages: There are a lot of intangibles you experience when attending an event. Capture them by taking photos, videos or curating what others have shared and post that on Twitter (always remember to respect people’s right to privacy and anonymity).

Wrap-up posts: When necessary, instead of covering individual sessions, consider writing a wrap-up post that outlines the key points you found most valuable or compelling, and share the link with a tweet that is appealing and captures the best of the article.

Facebook

  1. APC is our official Facebook page.
  2. You are invited to post all links and photos considered relevant for the coverage on Facebook using your personal account.
  3. Inviting people at the event to “like” our pages and to post relevant links on their own accounts as well is another possibility.

Pictures, video

We always appreciate having pictures to illustrate the articles or for some other purposes, so picture taking is more than encouraged. You can upload them to a Flickr account and send them to APC’s Flickr group.

Videos and audios are great resources when you are doing event coverage. You can record the interviews and panels, and then decide how you want to use that material, depending on factors like the quality of the audio/video, the permissions you get from the people featured in them, and your capacity to edit the material. We publish our videos on our video platform.

Tip: Please remember that this entails security and privacy issues for the people in the pictures/videos, so make sure that the people appearing in the images are fine with that.

One last word

  • Please contact communications@apc.org to send us your articles and other materials, so we can publish them on apc.org
  • Also please do write to us if you have any questions about topics to cover, what to write, where to publish, etc.
  • Have fun! We want you to enjoy this experience as much as possible.