Brian Lee, Author at Public Relations, Advertising & Social Media - Revelation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 18, 2015

Contact:
Molly Walsh
608-616-0840
molly@forwardfest.org

Annual Forward Festival to Highlight Inclusiveness

(MADISON, Wis.)—The sixth annual Forward Festival, taking place Aug. 20-27 in various locations in the city, will feature events for entrepreneurs, foodies, music lovers and now parents, organizers announced today.

“We’re looking forward to showcasing the incredible evolution of innovation around Madison at this year’s festival,” Bryan Chan, festival co-founder and president of SupraNet Communications, said. “We’re excited to include a wide range of entrepreneurs in different ages and industries while also focusing on the challenges families and parents of entrepreneurs face. Therefore, this year we will be providing free childcare all day at the Forward Technology Conference.”

The festival’s main event is the aforementioned Forward Technology Conference (Aug. 25), which is now paired with the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s neXXpo and Pressure Chamber events. Kevin Conroy, President of Exact Sciences, and Josh Levs, a CNN reporter, will be the keynote speakers.

Other highlights of the festival include the Edible Startup Summit (Aug. 24), the annual Madison Ruby Conference (Aug. 21-22) and the inaugural Parentpreneur Night (Aug. 21), an event to connect entrepreneurs who seek work-life balance.

Originally started in 2010, the Forward Festival was created by Chan, Nathan Lustig of Magma Partners and Matt Younkle of Murfie to bring together professionals from a wide range of disciplines. That is evident in events such as the Social Good Summit (Aug. 20), Yum Yum Fest (Aug. 23) and Cool Jazz with the Badger Fund (Aug. 26).

For a detailed listing of events taking place during the Forward Festival, please visit www.forwardfest.org.

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Resulting media coverage:

In Business Magazine (Aug. 11, 2015): “Forward Fest highlights the best of Madison’s entrepreneurial spirit”
The Capital Times (Aug. 17, 2015): “Forward Festival to feature new Social Good Summit, return of Edible Startup Summit”
NBC-15 (Aug. 17, 2015): “Forward Festival Preview”
WKOW – 27 (Aug. 18, 2015): “Forward Festival celebrates innovation and entrepreneurship”
Madison Startups (Aug. 19, 2015): “2015 Forward Festival Preview”
The Isthmus (Aug. 19, 2015): “Double duty”
Wisconsin State Journal (Aug. 20, 2015): “Forward Festival kicks off Thursday”
WISC-TV News 3 (Aug. 20, 2015) ““Festival promotes entrepreneurialism in Madison”
The Capital Times (Aug. 21, 2015): “Social Good Summit kicks off Forward Festival, focuses on inequality in Madison”

PR practitioners should revise the old real estate expression about the three things that matter in property: “location, location, location” to three things that matter in public relations: “timing, timing, timing.”

As seen in a recent article in PR News, St. Baldrick’s Foundation used its relationship with its agency partner, FleishmanHillard, to pitch a targeted story that ended up landing the organization on NBC’s The Today Show.

Knowing St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s message would resonate better on television than print, FH targeted their message accordingly. In FH’s research, it found out “The Today Show” was doing a week-long segment in which people were trying to break Guinness World Records. Subsequently, FH developed a pitch in which St. Baldrick’s would try to attempt to break the record for the most heads shaved in an hour, being broadcast live on TV.

The segment was extremely successful, earning more than 20 million media impressions and raising almost $36,000 for the foundation.

St. Baldrick’s pitch to “The Today Show” was the right idea at the right time. This is just one example of how timing is extremely important in this industry. If you get it right, you can reap many benefits.