SIGCOMM History on Press Passes (6/21/2000)


SIGCOMM 99 was the first year that we received a significant interest from
the press, because of the SIGCOMM Award Winners Panel AND because of the
Technical History Tutorial.

In years past, intermittently one person would ask for a free registration
as a "press pass".  I remember a European editor in chief of some journal
(??? Computer Networking ???) doing this, and we said yes.

Because of the bombardment of interest in SIGCOMM99, we actually had a staff
person who dealt with the press and arranged interviews etc.

The eventual policy that Lyman Chapin developed with ACM's Lillian Israel
was:

>Current plan (which will be confirmed after a teleconference that is going
>on now) -
>
>Trish Nicholas at Alexander Ogilvie (Metcalfe's PR firm in Boston) will
>take over the "press/media relations" responsibility for the entire week of
>the Conference. Sally Sinclair (Metcalfe's assistant) and Lillian Israel
>(at ACM) both think this is an excellent way to handle the PR. We will
>provide press passes, which confer on the holder access to the T1 tutorial
>(with restrictions to ensure that registered attendees have priority for
>seating etc.), the Tuesday evening reception and panel (but not the
>dinner), and the Conference proper (including the Wednesday morning
>keynote).
>
>If you have a query from a press/media person about the Conference, please
>forward it to me, and I will drop the lot on A-O when the PR arrangement is
>confirmed. Thanks -
>
>- Lyman

Since we had so many press enquiries we ended up making badges
that said press pass.  Eventually, though, I believe less than 10 people 
attended SIGCOMM by wearing a press pass.

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Two background emails from Lyman as we developed the policy:
1)
......
We will have a large number of press passes this year; ACM HQ/PR is eager
to promote the Tuesday event, and there's already considerable buzz among
the Internet journalists about the tutorial and panel. A teleconference
with the ACM PR people has been set up for June 29th. We've also been asked
to provide press passes for the Tuesday tutorial, but this is the first
request I've heard for a pass to the Wednesday morning keynote.

The press-pass dinner issue is more problematic than simply the cost. On
the one hand, it's natural to assume that journalists who are well fed will
come away from the event with a rosier impression than journalists who are
excluded from the post-panel dinner. On the other hand, the journalists
will naturally want to sit at dinner only among the exalted, which will
make dinner less enjoyable for both the exalted and the plebian SIGCOMMers.
I have a strong desire for these "wonderful events" to be a contribution
principally to the SIGCOMM community, with advertisement and publicity for
ACM and SIGCOMM in second place.
.......

2)
To: SIGCOMM99EX@ACM.ORG
Status: OR

The level of press and other media interest in the "Technical History of
the Internet" tutorial and the Award Anniversary event on Tuesday evening
at SIGCOMM 99 is unsurprisingly high. ACM's PR department, individual
journalists, and A&E's History Channel have inquired about opportunities
for interviews and videotaping. I would appreciate your comments on the
following arrangements and proposals:

1. I have asked Bob not to invite journalists to the Award winners' dinner
at his home on Monday evening. We will have a suite at the Charles Hotel
available during the day on Monday (and the rest of the  week) for
interviews and other meetings, but no one associated with the Conference
will make any appointments or other commitments of your time without your
explicit approval.

2. The History Channel is sponsoring a Tera Media project to produce a
one-hour documentary on the history of the Internet. The Tera Media
producer, Jack Edwards, has asked Bob and me about the possibility of doing
some of the taping for the project during the Conference, when many of the
people he'd like to include will be together.

3. ACM would like to tape some or all of the Conference, including the
Tuesday tutorial and Tuesday evening Award event, and use that material to
promote both ACM and SIGCOMM (perhaps using some of the material in their
new on-line tutorials project). The ACM uses would be non-commercial, but
some of you may have recording-release constraints; please let me know if
so.

4. We will be giving press passes to journalists for the entire Conference,
including the tutorials, except for the dinner following the Award
Anniversary panel on Tuesday evening.

- Lyman