Seminar Series: Press and PR Work for Do-It-Yourselfers

A seminar series with 6 mandatory dates and additional optional writing labs. It is only possible to register to attend if you can attend every date. In German spoken language.
 

Independent artists and culture makers are, even if this is often involuntary, all-rounders and, alongside the artistic work, generally often have to take on a whole bunch of production-related tasks. The press and PR work is also often left to the artists themselves and can pose large challenges to many of them: how do you communicate a work properly, and to whom? How can you establish sustainable contacts to the press? How do you put good material together that will be visible publicly and can reach potential audience members? How can social media tools be used strategically and effectively to market artistic work?

This seminar series provides the opportunity to look more closely at the goals and tasks of press and PR work and to learn techniques that can be used to put together good material and communicate it to the right target groups. On the basis of theme-based inputs, practical exercises as well as mutual research and discussions, we will work our way through the broad field of communication, learn the most important adjustable parameters and discover the (im)possibilities and challenges of the working field.

Over the course of six modules, each of which builds upon the last, the experts will share their practical knowledge and explain to the participants how they can take charge of their press and PR work themselves in the future or how they can established a secondary source of income in this field. In between the modules, writing workshops provide the opportunity to research together, work on text-related tasks and to discuss.

The participants are asked to please bring a planned, pending or recently completed project with them that they can develop a specific press and PR and social media strategy for over the course of the series.
 

Module 1: What Are We Actually Talking About?
March 13 from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
In the first session, we will take a thorough look at different terms such as PR, press work and others in order to get to know the field better. After that, we will directly begin the work on the participants' projects and develop a strategy for our projects step by step by analyzing what constitutes our work before we clarify where we want to go with it.

Module 2: Is PR (Still) the Supreme Discipline?
March 27 from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
What is it that we are actually talking about when we talk about press work? What are the dos and don'ts? In this module, we will conduct research into a variety of media and formats, talk about forms of establishing and maintaining contacts, how to create a mailing list and think about how we can effectively use visual material.

Module 3: The Right PR Text
April 10 from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
In this session, we will take a look at what a good PR text looks like: what do journalists want, and why? What are the steps to be taken after a press release has been sent, how do things continue? We are looking forward to having a guest from the field of journalism that we can ask directly about how an optimal contact to projects works for them.

Module 4: PR Work – A Vast Field
April 24 from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
In this module, we will clarify which standards make up good PR work and take a look at a variety of distribution strategies from post(er)s to postcards all the way to media partnerships and cooperations with advertising platforms. We will take a look at the effectiveness of a variety of advertising means (from the website all the way to the networking, from the poster to the good old reliable postcard) and are looking forward to welcoming a guest who will provide us with some insight into ticketing.

Module 5: The Fusion of Classic PR and Social Media
May 8, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
In this first module with a focus on social media, we would like to dedicate ourselves to translating the elements we have previously explored: how do I transfer my PR strategy and the goals resulting from it to social media? Exactly as it is in classic PR work, it is just as necessary when considering how to use an Instagram account to ask how you want to be perceived as an artist. Correspondingly, we will take a long, hard look at everything from the choice of the user name to the use of captions, the selection of images and video material, the networking on social media and the fusion of all media being used.

Module 6: Using Instagram Efficiently
May 22, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm
We can also use our press material wonderfully for our social media purposes – this is something we know (now). But are all posts created equal? Spoiler: nope! This is why we will be taking a look at scheduling in this final module: when should I post what material for what purpose and at what time? When can I reach the largest number of my followers? How relevant is the curation of my Instagram account? The efficient use of social media also includes being aware of its algorithms and trends. Correspondingly, the second focus of this final module will be placed on the creation of one (or more) reels.