You will find that professional PR and media activities relating to the exhibition are really worthwhile! The following tips are intended to provide you with support for your PR campaign and to help ensure the success of your exhibition presence.

In order to be able to report effectively on your company, the absolute minimum that journalists need is information about your new products and services and details of the media contact on your stand.

PR activities in the run-up to ILMAC

Advance information

• Provide the editorial teams with information about the new products and services you will be presenting at ILMAC well in advance.
  

- Industry press: around 3 months before the exhibition
- Daily press: 1 – 3 weeks before the exhibition

• You can download the addresses of the most important industry publications in Switzerland and other countries from the ILMAC website.
  

Download editorial addresses


Media conferences

• Between 4 and 6 weeks preparation time is generally needed for press conferences.
  
• The invitations should be sent out at least 3 weeks before the event.
  
• Send personal invitations to individual journalists rather than writing to the general editorial addresses.
  

Press meetings

• A variation on the media conference is the press meeting, which involves a more personal discussion in a relaxed atmosphere and on a smaller scale (4 – 6 journalists).
  
• In contrast to a media conference, a meeting requires much less organisation.
  
• However, invitations should still be sent out around 3 weeks before the event.
  

Press events during ILMAC

• Agree on a date and time well in advance with the ILMAC communications team, to ensure that your event doesn’t clash with other activities.
  
• Your event will be added to the list of media events which will be included in the media folder.
  

Download the ILMAC press event form

Online media folders

• Publish your press releases on our website before the start of ILMAC.
  
• Make sure that your latest press releases are also available on your own company website.
  

Press documents

• Take the following points into consideration when you put together your media folder:
  

- Include a list of the contents.
- Give a brief presentation of your company and its regional, national or global importance.
- Include the latest version of your company report.
- Provide images in electronic format or a link to a site that the images can be downloaded from.
- Do not forget to add captions to the images.
- Give the name of a contact who can answer any queries.

• Follow these guidelines when drawing up your press releases:
  

- The press release must provide genuine information, in other words, descriptions of innovative products or services that will be presented at ILMAC.
- The text should be as short as possible and as long as necessary. Use vivid language. Ideally, your press release should not be more than one A4 page in length.
- The following structure is recommended: Title (headline which arouses the reader’s curiosity), introductory text (lead paragraph which gives an initial overview or a brief summary) and body text (contains the detailed information).
- It must be clearly stated that the text is a press release.
- Use A4 format, printed on one side only with 1.5 line spacing and right and left margins of around 4 cm.
- The press release should include the name and dates of the exhibition, your hall and stand number, the full address of your company and the name, telephone number and e-mail address of your press contact.
- You should also have the press release translated into English and French if your company does business on these markets now or will do so in future.

PR activities during ILMAC

Media contact

• If your company does not have its own press officer, you should select a media contact person before the exhibition.
  
• Specialists and members of the management team should be included in discussions with the media wherever possible.
  
• All the employees on the stand must know who the media contact is.
  

Press documents

• You should provide media folders and press releases on your stand and in the ILMAC media centre.
  
• Special media compartments are available for this purpose. Please fill your compartment with your documents on the first day of the exhibition (20 – 30 copies).
  
• Please refill the compartment throughout the exhibition.
  

Media conferences and meetings
If you don’t want to invite media representatives to your stand, you can reserve a room by contacting the team at Congress Centre Basel (Telephone: +41 (0)58 206 28 28, Fax: +41 (0)58 206 21 86). They will provide you with a quotation and further information about the services available (room rental, catering etc.). Make sure that you book the room well in advance.

PR activities after ILMAC

• Provide your media documents to the most important editorial teams that didn’t send a representative to your stand.
  
• Hire a specialist company to monitor the media (for example, Argus der Presse AG).
  

Contact:
MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd
ILMAC
Dominique Farner
CH-4005 Basel
Telephone: +41 (0)58 206 21 99
Fax: +41 (0)58 206 21 89
E-mail: dominique.farner@ilmac.ch