The Last Word: Is your event really that important?

This article is designed for people who have talked to journalists and found that the end result wasn't quite what they intended. You know, the results of an interview or a press conference or press release that you thought was going to generate lots of great headlines like 'New Company Has Great Idea' but that actually turned out saying 'New Idea Set To Flop'.

The first reaction of the 'victim' is to get really mad with the journalist that did the dirty deed, and then 'phone them up and tell them how very furious it's all made them. How the article is all a pack of lies and how they will make sure that the journalist lives to regret it.

Sometimes they'll say that they're friends with the publisher/editor/ proprietor and will take it further. Sometimes they'll just settle for bluster and a good dollop of the old 'I'm going to sue you' treatment. Very few people take a second look at the story, sit back and say "Well, I can see how that turned out. Now how do I work out where I went wrong?"

This is a shame, really, as the latter course is the only right one to take in the long term.

Let us consider the job of a journalist. For a start, it's not a nice job. The world wants to get media coverage and, just to complicate matters, the world thinks that it deserves media coverage.

"My company is the most important company they've ever seen and they had better appreciate that!" is, distressingly, not an uncommon (and shrilly communicated) attitude to come across among even the most sophisticated-seeming companies. I used to think that this was unique to the Middle East region, but talking regularly to colleagues in Europe and the US, I find that actually it's a global phenomenon.

The journalist is depended upon to see the obvious greatness of the company in question and to give it a front page picture story as befits that company's rank and stature.

Sadly, the journalist sees nothing but people who believe this to be true of their company, whether they're in the car, kitchen sink, technology or petroleum condensate markets.

It is axiomatic of people at work that they all think that their work matters most, which presents media with something of a problem – journalists rarely, if ever, share that belief, but are constantly exposed to it!

Put yourself in a journalist's shoes for just a second. In one day, a reporter in the Gulf gets an average five event invitations, an average eight phone calls and anything up to ten press releases from companies that want them to attend, write about or otherwise focus on that company's new office, initiative, product, campaign, promotion, sponsorship, tawdry stunt or even new staff member.

Every single person believes, with every personal reason to do so, that his or her story is vitally important to the world in general.

The journalist is tasked, purely and simply, with sorting out the 'wheat' from the 'chaff' and, what's worse, also has the job of working out whether that story is relevant to the readership of the publication in question.

Few of the people who believe they have the story of a lifetime ever stop to consider a few important things.

Are you offering journalists any extra value in return for dragging them across town to attend your event? (and I don't mean a one-hour Powerpoint followed by a badly planned buffet lunch, either).

This is where most people fall down. They fail to appreciate that, in truth, most people in the world don't give a hoot for what you think is the most important single event.

- The writer is group account director at Spot On Public Relations.