• Send out a media alert two to three days before the news conference. Fax or email whichever the media prefers.
• Call the media the morning of the news conference and ask them who they will be sending, not if they will be attending.
• At the conference, have an expert on the topic you are covering. Have a second person who is affected by the topic you are covering. The media likes two interviews.
• Have a news release or fact sheet about the topic you are discussing to distribute to the news media that attend the news conference.
• At the news conference, have a visual of some type. Don't be afraid to use props. For instance if you are announcing a new drug going on the market, have thousands of bottles of the drug stacked on the table. Have one bottle open and a few of the pills on the table in front of your display. Add a colorful tablecloth to bring some excitement to the display.
• Make sure your company logo or brand is in the background or foreground of the news conference. Either hang or post it on a wall or put it on the front of the podium from where your expert is speaking.
• Provide your expert with talking points and practice with him or her in advance of the news conference.
• Role play questions the media might ask with your expert before the news conference.
• When the news media arrives, greet them, show them where to set up, help the camera men balance their cameras, ask if they want to put a microphone at the podium and tell them your expert will be available after the news conference for a one-to-one interview.
• Be sure to distribute your news release or fact sheet before the news conference starts so the reporter's can ask competent questions during the news conference.
• When the news conference starts, you should introduce your self and spell your first and last name and state your title, thank the media for attending and then introduce the topic of the news conference. Next, introduce your speakers in the order they will speak and tell the media what perspective this person is bringing to the topic. Remind the media, interviews are available at the conclusion of the news conference.
• While the news conference is going on and your expert is speaking, monitor the reaction of the news media. If it looks like they are lost, let the expert know while your second speaker is addressing the media. The expert can then re-take the podium and share some explanations or details or can simply ask if there are any questions.
• I always inform the media we are taking questions, "beginning to the left of the speaker and moving to his right." We allow one question and one follow up each as we move from left to right then we return to the left again. Usually one pass and all questions are answered.

• After the news conference, thank the media for attending again! They like being thanked! Ask the reporter's if there is any additional information they might need for their story that you can provide and MOST IMPORTANTLY, give them your business card with your contact information and tell them to call you later in the day if they have questions as they are writing the story.
• The day following the news conference, hand write thank you notes to all the reporters who attend and to their news directors and assignment editors for sending them to the news conference.
• Hold your news conference at 10:30 a.m. and check what's going on in your community the day you want to hold your news conference. Check chamber calendars, check community calendars and the newspaper's calendar of events.
• Finally, call it a news conference or news briefing. The broadcast media in the past have been bothered by the word "press" which infers the written members of the media. You want everyone -TV, radio and newspaper to attend your news conference.

The charitable program - Earth Force - provides curriculum training and supplies to public school teachers to teach the value of social responsibility and activism through conservation awareness.

Here, students from Wando High School isolate small area plots to study the many life-forms within them.

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