Compared to a press conference, a briefing is a more efficient means of informing the public, and therefore potential customers, about your business, its capabilities, prospects and benefits of cooperation. Skillful briefing creates a positive first impression, favorably delivers new products, highlights trends, allows you to quickly respond to events that occurred literally a few hours ago.
The essence of this event is eloquently described by the English word brief (short, concise) lying in its root. In practice, public relations means that the maximum briefing time cannot exceed 30 minutes. Successful ones happen that fit within a quarter of an hour, but in this case they should be carried out by a true PR professional with significant experience in this field.
Extremely compressed time allows you to do without a room specially adapted for this, which allows you to organize an event literally “off the wheels”, “on the fly”, providing only standing places for speakers and journalists. Therefore, a briefing is possible in almost any lobby of an office building, hotel or airport. At the same time, mineral water, coffee, sandwiches, etc. are not served.
In order to turn a briefing into a kind of PR-campaign, attracting the attention of society, you must, first of all, strictly adhere to the generally accepted scheme. Due to the extremely short time, the briefing program excludes the presentation obligatory for the press conference and immediately proceeds to the essence of the matter stated by the speakers in a short information statement.
The text of the statement is prepared in advance, must be pre-worked out and polished. Its purpose is to state the information or position so clearly as to exclude its inaccurate presentation or twisting in the media. The statement should also be comprehensive and understandable for journalists so that they do not follow clarifying issues that complicate the briefing.
Its timing is divided into two unequal parts. About a third of the time is devoted to a statement or informational message. The remaining two-thirds are blitz: journalists ask short questions and get the same short but informative answers. At the same time, it is highly desirable that on the other side there are people who have a quick and clear response to any questions and the ability to adequately answer them.
For a briefing to take place successfully, its leader must constantly manage the situation and, like a surfer, “keep the wave”. Its task is to ensure the maximum presentation by the speaker of information and at the same time clearly observe the time frame so as not to turn the event into a press conference.
Holding a briefing is unthinkable without properly and timely preparatory work done by managers with public relations . It includes notifying the media about the place and time of the event, setting out its main line, clarifying the main issues, planning the sequence of performances. Before starting the briefing, it is necessary to check once again how prepared the place is for holding it and whether the audio and video equipment is in working condition. If possible, it is advisable to remove sources of distracting noise and light effects from the venue.
It is necessary in advance to prepare a package of materials in which the topic of a briefing is presented in the form of an abstract or abstract without bringing personal opinions and quotes.