Tobago Hilton, Tobago

Summary Report

Friday July 18 and Saturday July 19, 2003

Training was conducted by Diane Jukofsky (Director of Communications and Education & Neotropical Communications) with the assistance of Chris Wille (Chief, Sustainable Agriculture Network, and Journalist) both of the Rainforest Alliance.

Friday July 18th

Day 1 of the workshop was a review of skills and tools necessary to work with the media.

•  Get to know media personalities in your city, country, region, and keep an updated media contacts database .

•  The Do's and Don'ts of preparing a media release

Keep release to one page. Double spaced.

Put all the more important information (Who, What, Where, When, How) in the first paragraph.

Put contact details where further information may be accessed at the end of the release.

Circulate release 2 weeks before event and do follow-up calls.

•  How to prepare a press kit and use/design Fact sheets.

Participants were given examples of simple one page fact sheets that the RFA had developed and used effectively.

•  Holding a press conference.

If there is truly important news to announce, consider holding a press conference. Successful press conference require a great deal of preparation time. Important considerations are: who will be the speakers, where will the conference be held, date and time (Tues, Wednesday, and Thurs. in the morning are usually the best for media). Fax the invitation announcement a week in advance to give time to prepare. Follow-up by calling all invitees etc.

•  Experiences of BirdLife Jamaica in media relations since the April 1998 Rainforest Alliance training in Kingston, Jamaica – presentation by Leo Douglas .

•  Working with Radio and Television.

Do not wear white clothing for television. Wear something with your organization's logo and or name (T-shirt, cap, or pin etc.). Try to have something visual on hand. E.g. a Map, Poster or enlarged photo. `

•  How to manage interviews with reporters and the Do's and don'ts of a field trip with journalists .

•  Review and Preparation for Saturday's morning field trip .

The media kit for the SCSCB training media trip contained:

•  A map and handout on the area to be visited

•  A handout on the SCSCB

•  A one page biography of Richard French, author of the book “A guide to the birds of Trinidad and Tobago”.

•  A copy of the SCSCB conference media release

Saturday July 19 th Field Trip - 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Grafton Bird Sanctuary was chosen to showcase a threatened rainforest habitat and the island endemics such as the Saber-winged Hummingbird – which was also the mascot of that year's SCSCB meeting circulated.

The day ended with a 10 minute reflections on the field trip to Grafton Bird Sanctuary.

Prepared by Leo Douglas

Wednesday, June 29, 2005