The answer may seem obvious, but there are circumstances in which it’s also useful to ask what they CAN’T do.
Outside of major sports events, not all TV channels around the world are set up to service the needs of broadcasters in other countries. TV news-gathering operations are great at producing timely coverage of news relevant to their viewers, but some of them don’t have the staff, systems and experience needed to meet the potential requirements of broadcasters in other countries.
Even experienced PR professionals are sometimes surprised to find that having a local ‘host’ broadcaster for an event such as an international conference or exhibition secures coverage on local channels, but won’t necessarily go further. It’s much more challenging to get live feeds, recorded material and satellite-linked interviews to overseas and international broadcasters and agencies. Unfortunately some event organizers only discover this when the coverage they expected has failed to happen.
When we undertake projects such as Dubai’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks, the World Petroleum Conference or UNCTAD XIII, there’s a lot of work involved – research, media relations, satellite bookings, transmission schedules – which means that we can be most effective when we get involved at an early stage. Even at the last minute we may be able to help but, sadly, after the event is just too late.