I just returned from New York after attending the National Publicity Summit.  The Summit is put on by Steve and Bill Harrison (Bradley Communications Corp.) and this is the 13th year the summit has been held.  A 100 attendees ( and some guests) were there and the types of experts varied widely from finance, to business, to well being, nutrition, autism advocate, internet marketer, relationship experts, authors and more.  Prior to the official Summit we had 2 days we could meet with different media coaches to practice our media pitches and introductions.  I gained a good deal of information from what the coaches told me, but also in listening to their feedback for other attendees.

After the practice days, the Summit officially got under way.  First we had a few hours about how the Summit would work and then it was a day filled with Media appointments, networking and training.  The second day we had more media sessions and guest speakers.   On the final day of the Summit we finished up our media sessions and wrapped up.

Of course before my business partner and I decided to sign up we considered how else we would spend the money and which would be most beneficial for us in regards to where we were in our business.  We decided to go for it because we felt we were now in a position to be considered experts in our field, which we have been working on since launching our business.

Prior to the summit (after signing up)- I spoke with a Publicity Coach, Media Coach and even briefly to an Image Consultant.  Each of the Consultants had great feedback and ideas for me.  What I found was you need to take what they say and make it fit in with what you are most comfortable with (look, story segment ideas, etc…).

The Summit is a great jumping off point for those business owners or experts (or authors, etc…) that are ready to step up their national media exposure.  With the Summit you will get an amazing Media Contact List, but it is of no value if you do not use it.  So I would say- make sure you have the time to commit to contacting media producers after the summit, and further developing your offerings.  Or you are able to pay someone to help you with these things.  And you should ask yourself- why do I want more national media exposure?  Are you ok traveling across the country to get a few minutes on a tv show?  In other words,  make sure you stay true to what you want to accomplish over the next 5 years and if it aligns and will help you, then go for it.

I was a bit skeptical about the Summit prior to signing up because they had lots of marketing webpages but they did not have a home or a company website that told me everything about the company and summit.  Frankly I am used to going to a site, especially for a conference and reading everything there is to read about it.  But we did check and search for all comments about the Summit and found many past attendees telling of their experiences and well known trade publications mentioned the summit.  We did not find anything negative about the Summit and we decided to give it a try.

It was a worthwhile opportunity for us.  I think I gained enough small tidbits of information that will prove very valuable to us over the next year that it was worth it.  Of course meeting the media producers was excellent, but I have plenty of work to do to continue to grow those opportunities.  Even without the media sessions I got a few kernels of wisdom from Steve Harrison, Kurek Ashley, Rick Frishman,  Alex Carroll, and Robin Spizman that will keep me moving in the right direction.