The Vancouver UX Awards Society hosted the 6th annual awards event online for the first time, due to pandemic-related restrictions. In the lead-up to the event they were hoping to garner media attention around the applicants and list of finalists.
The awards have grown to be the premier event for celebrating the growth and excellence of user experience design in B.C.. This year's awards were sponsored by Microsoft, Best Buy, and others.
PR Challenge for Tech Awards Show
There was great concern that the lack of a physical event may turn potential guests off, or lead them to believe that the awards weren’t taking place this year. The Awards Society hired Mind Meld PR to media coverage for their big event.
The Mind Meld PR team had to work fast to get media coverage for an event when many participants were overloaded with Zoom fatigue.
Public Relations Campaign for Tech Awards Show
The tech PR team recognised that they would need to leverage other aspects of the event to give the announcement more weight. They ensured that the release captured as many key players that were involved as possible, quoted the success that previous winners had found, and included relevant details about scholarships that would interest the student community.
As the event was specific to Vancouver, the Mind Meld team created a targeted media list that include local and regional tech and general news outlets, in order to use the geographic relevance of the awards.
Public Relations Campaign for Tech Awards Show
The finalist announcement gained coverage in local tech press Techcouver, as well as BC Business for a wider business audience.
DigiBC, the Interactive & Digital Media Industry Association of British Columbia, included the event in their online calendar, and tweeted details of the event to an audience of over 5,000 followers.
The event had over 240 attendees, with successful discussion sessions after the awards, particularly one on mentorship hosted by Collab Collective, as well as a lively discussion with keynote speaker Jonas Altman.
“We’ve had articles about us in publications like Techcouver or BCBusiness, and it's thanks to Mind Meld PR.” said the Vancouver UX Awards Society.
A media relations campaign can get coverage for your tech conference or event
Whether it's a one-day tech conference or a tech awards ceremony that needs attention, we can handle it. Contact Mind Meld PR.