Live Journalism Events Workbook
(insert news organization name)
About this Workbook
This workbook was developed for the American Press Institute’s Live Events Sprint for alumni organizations of the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program.
Participating teams in this sprint used the flaring exercises and assignments in this workbook throughout the five-week bootcamp portion of the sprint program to plan and execute their events.
You can use this workbook and its linked templates and articles to plan your own event series.
Questions? Reach out to the API Table Stakes team at tablestakes@pressinstitute.org.
Workbook Guide
Questions. Every question in your workbook will look like this.
You will also see color-coded boxes that will serve as a guide as you complete your exercise or assignment.
Assignments, marked with an orange label, are more in-depth and may take up to an hour or more to complete. Tasks may be distributed across your team.
Flaring exercises, marked with a yellow label, are meant to be completed as a team quickly, in about 15 minutes per exercise.
(type your answer here)
Tip
These boxes contain useful information that can help you complete the questions in your workbook.
Key Information
These boxes include information from the sprint program that can inform your response to questions.
ASSIGNMENT
FLARING
Table of Contents
Week 1: Event Proposal and SMARTIE Goals
Week 2: Event Design
Week 3: Space & Logistics
Week 4: Sponsorships
Week 5: Marketing
Post-event: Feedback & Reflection
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the following people and organizations for sharing their expertise in the planning of the American Press Institute’s live event sprint for Table Stakes alumni and this workbook:
and API Journalism Programs team members Tricia Cantor, Kevin Loker, Sam Ragland, Emily Ristow and Jan Ross Sakian.
Event Proposal
Assignment. Work as a team to draft an event proposal.
Sketching out your ideas in the event proposal template is a crucial first step before beginning the exercises and assignments that follow, which will help you build out skills, details and processes to make your event a reality.
ASSIGNMENT
(paste the link to your event proposal so it’s easy to find later)
ASSIGNMENT
Polishing your SMARTIE goal
Step 1. Paste the SMARTIE goal from your event proposal document below.
Step 2. Take a closer look at your goal. Does it check all of the boxes of a good SMARTIE goal? Go through the following questions as a team and record your responses.
(type your answer here)
(type your answer here)
Key Information
New to SMARTIE goals? Check out this guide, inspired by the work of The Management Center in D.C.
ASSIGNMENT
Polishing your SMARTIE goal
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ASSIGNMENT
Polishing your SMARTIE goal
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ASSIGNMENT
Polishing your SMARTIE goal
Step 3. Write your updated SMARTIE goal based on any adjustments you made in Step 2.
(type your answer here)
ASSIGNMENT
Week 2: �Event Design
Event Design: People
Exercise #1. Who are the specific people who will be involved in your event? Who is in the front of the room? Who is supporting the event from behind the scenes?
Tip
If events are new to your organization, buy-in might be a challenge. That’s why we’re asking you to consider the benefit from each person’s perspective. What would motivate them to participate?
Role | Name | Key responsibilities | Motivation for person |
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Key Information
Roles to consider:
FLARING
Event Design: People
Exercise #1 continued. Who are the specific people who will be involved in your event?
Role | Name | Key responsibilities | Motivation for person |
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FLARING
Event Design: Belonging
Exercise #2. How will you foster a sense of belonging through your event design?
(type your answer here)
Tip
Answer this questions from the perspective of your target audience.
Key Information
Some examples:
FLARING
Event Design: Run of show
Assignment. Complete a draft run of show for your first event. Your exercises from this week and your event proposal draft will help inform this assignment.
Use this template to get started on your run of show.
These are just your initial ideas and this document is likely to change over time. The important thing now is to get those ideas down in writing.
You can use the linked template above for your team’s draft. If your organization follows a different run of show format, feel free to use that preferred format.
Tips
Key Information
Read more about the importance of a run of show document on BetterNews.org.
(paste the link to your run of show document so it’s easy to find later)
ASSIGNMENT
Space & Logistics: �Identifying venues
Exercise #1. What venues in your community could be possibilities for your event?
Tips
Key Information
Keep the seven core areas in mind:
(type your ideas here)
FLARING
Space & Logistics: How your venue can help your goals
Exercise #2. How do we want people to feel at this event? What do we want them to experience?
Exercise #2 continued. What are important venue features to achieve those goals?
Tip
Refer to your run of show draft and SMARTIE goals to make sure you’re aligning your venue with your plans and goals.
Key Information
Think through your event from start to finish and unify your vision statement with what the venue offers. Your venue becomes the physical manifestation of your brand.
(type your ideas here)
(type your ideas here)
FLARING
Space & Logistics: Venue database
Assignment 1. Get started on your venue database. Pull the list of venues from Exercises 1 and 2 into a spreadsheet so you can begin collecting information on venues that will work for your event series.
Tips
(if you already have a venue database, type your top venue options for your event series here)
Key Information
Read more about picking the right venue for your journalism event on BetterNews.org.
(paste the link to your event database here so it’s easy to find later)
If your team already has an event database, no need to start a new one. Instead, just list below the venues your team plans to reach out to about the event series.
ASSIGNMENT
Space & Logistics: Timeline
Assignment 2. Plot tentative dates for the key milestones along the way. (continued on next slide)
Key Information
week of event → post-event (1 week out, 1 week after)
Pre-Announce (12-9 weeks out) | Target date | Done? |
Confirm event (concept, content frame, date, project team, host, prospective guests, venue/platforms, title) | | |
Develop internal vision doc & creative brief (basis for branded visual/marketing assets, produced spots, paid social, engagement assets) | | |
Develop marketing/promo/social plan (with Marketing and Social teams) | | |
Draft audience-facing messaging (event pages, visual assets, etc) | | |
Finalize audience-facing messaging (copy for event pages, visual assets, etc) | | |
Finalize marketing/promo/social plan (with Marketing and Social teams) | | |
Submit requests for assets (Product, Marketing and Social teams) | | |
Submit requests for on-site/on-air promos (Programming/Traffic/Production teams) | | |
Confirm MC/key guests | | |
Tip
It’s OK if you aren’t ready to fill in every target date just yet.
Future weeks will go into more detail on sponsorships and partnerships, and marketing.
ASSIGNMENT
Space & Logistics: Timeline
Assignment 2. Plot tentative dates for the key milestones along the way. (continued from previous slide)
Audience Cultivation & Pre-Production (8-1 weeks out) | Target date | Done? |
Announce: launch event pages, ticketing pages, and begin promo and engagement (social, digital, newsletter, on-air, etc) | | |
Promote event (social, digital, newsletter, on-air, engagement activities, partnership, etc) | | |
Program development (editorial, tech/AV, experiential partnership) | | |
Production (deadline for A/V, playback assets, tech checks, # of show talent/guests, and all other show elements) | | |
Audience Cultivation & Pre-Production (1 week before, 1 week after) | Target date | Done? |
Event | | |
Post-event (distribution, follow-ups, thank you notes, post-event survey, debrief, payments, budget reconciliation, etc) | | |
Key Information
week of event → post-event (1 week out, 1 week after)
Tip
It’s OK if you aren’t ready to fill in every target date just yet.
Future weeks will go into more detail on sponsorships and partnerships, and marketing.
ASSIGNMENT
Partnerships
Exercise #1. What are some areas you could benefit from partnering on? Who could be potential partners? How would they benefit from the partnership?
Key Information
Partnerships: An arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.
The key words are cooperate, advance and mutual.
Examples:
Bottom line: Services
Gap(s) in our organization | Potential partners | Benefit to partners |
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FLARING
Sponsorships
Exercise #2. Brainstorm some potential sponsors. What companies or organizations in the community — both current advertisers and not — are aligned with the vision of this event?
(type your ideas here)
Key Information
Sponsorship: The position or function of a person or group who vouches for and financially supports another person or an organization or project.
The key words are vouches and financially supports.
Read more about sponsorships for live journalism on BetterNews.org.
FLARING
Plan to reach out to a partner
Assignment 1. Revisit your list of potential partners and make a plan to reach out to one.
What organization will you reach out to? Do you have a specific contact in mind?
Which organizational gap(s) do you anticipate this partner will help you address?
Who will do the the initial outreach from your team?
When will they do it?
Tip
Just like you want to set clear roles and expectations within your team, you will want to do the same with your partners.
ASSIGNMENT
Plan to reach out to a partner
Assignment #1 continued.
How does this partnership benefit the partner? What about the event and partnership opportunity do you want to be sure to highlight in that first communication?
ASSIGNMENT
Understand what’s needed to attract sponsors
Assignment 2. Meet with your marketing or development team to learn what they need from your team to help with securing sponsorships.
(type your key takeaways from that conversation here)
Key Information
New to pitching potential sponsors? Use this pitch deck template and its accompanying guide to get started.
Read more about sponsorships for live journalism on BetterNews.org.
ASSIGNMENT
Week 5: �Marketing
Your target audience
Exercise #1. Think about the target audiences you’re trying to reach: Where do they spend their time? What social platforms do they use? How would they hear about this event?
(type your ideas here)
Key Information
Consider platforms that are used most by your target audience, including:
Tips
If your target audience is new to you, you’re likely making some assumptions about which platforms they use. Be sure to follow up this brainstorming with some research on the platforms preferred by your target audience.
FLARING
Promo language
Exercise #2. Pick two platforms identified in the first exercise that serve different target audiences or demographics, and brainstorm some sample messaging.
Platform:
Messaging for promoting your event:
Platform:
Messaging for promoting your event:
(type your messaging here)
(type the platform here)
(type your messaging here)
(type the platform here)
Key Information
Consider platforms that are used most by your target audience, including:
Tips
FLARING
Start your marketing plan
Assignment 1. Get started on your marketing plan. Prioritizing platforms used by your target audience, start drafting your marketing plan, including promotional language and brainstorming potential assets (images, videos, social cards, polls, etc.).
Use this marketing template to get started.
If your organization already has a marketing planning document you use, no need to use this specific template.
(paste the link to your marketing plan so it’s easy to find later)
Key Information
Check out this marketing and outreach checklist, created by API’s senior communications manager, Kamila Jambulatova. It takes you through key steps and important considerations as you build out your plan.
ASSIGNMENT
Post-event: �Feedback & Reflection
Draft a survey to collect feedback from event participants
Assignment 1. Work as a team to draft a post-event survey you’d have participants fill out.
Surveys are a great way to gather feedback on your event, collect data to track your goals and build trust with your attendees.
Key Information
Check out this list of sample survey questions and tips to help you get started.
Tips
(type your survey questions here)
ASSIGNMENT
Reflect on your event lessons �and strengths
Assignment 2. Reflect as a team after your event. Over these next several slides, you will be asked to consider your progress toward your goals and build out your playbook for future events.
Review your SMARTIE goals and community impact goals. How did you do?
(type your goals update here)
Key Information
Check out this piece on how to run better retrospectives on BetterNews.org.
ASSIGNMENT
Reflect on your event lessons �and strengths
List three to five non-negotiables for the following key categories. What must be true for your future events?
Event Design |
Space & Logistics |
Partnerships & Sponsorships |
Marketing & Event Promotion |
ASSIGNMENT
Reflect on your event lessons �and strengths
What can you do now that you couldn’t do before? What capabilities did you gain through working on this event? (continued on next slide)
Capability | Team member(s) who can do this |
Project manage an event | |
Draft a run of show | |
Assign roles and responsibilities for an event | |
Pick an event venue | |
Draft a timeline of key event milestones | |
Create a budget for an event | |
ASSIGNMENT
Reflect on your event lessons �and strengths
What can you do now that you couldn’t do before? (continued from previous slide)
Capability | Team member(s) who can do this |
Identify potential sponsors | |
Pitch an event to a sponsor | |
Identify potential partners | |
Secure partnerships | |
Draft a promotion plan | |
Create a post-event survey | |
(Add more to the list by adding rows to this table) | |
ASSIGNMENT