TEC SIG holds fall 2007 meeting in Austin

The TEC SIG met in Austin on Oct. 11-12 to hear a variety of speakers and enjoy networking. The main guest speaker, Jeff Crilley, an Emmy Award winning journalist with more than two decades of TV experience, talked about the best ways to get the media’s attention and get good publicity for school programs.

Crilley started the session with a guessing game identifying famous TV theme songs. “How is it that you can remember that song 20 to 30 years later?” he asked. “That’s branding.”

Crilley said everybody and all organizations need to work on their brand in order to achieve success. He recommended speaking at groups for free, networking, creating buzz, and getting free publicity by convincing news reporters to write articles about pet programs.

“The need for buzz is even greater now because of the increased communications,” he said. “If you do the things I’ve talked about, you’re going to create some positive buzz.” But, he said, sending out press releases just doesn’t work anymore.

He shared his “Secret Sauce” for creating media buzz — use the telephone to call up the press and get them interested in whatever subjects you need publicity for. Once you have reporters on the phone, you can guide them to a web site and find out what they’re interested in. Always start with the reporters’ favorite subject — them, he said.

Crilley also handed out free copies of his book, “Free Publicity,” to the attendees.

TEC SIG members had the opportunity to attend a variety of breakout sessions in the afternoon. Session included hot topics round-table discussion, podcasting, Google Tools, Second Life, Games in Instruction, and Data Driven Decision Making.