Publicity Information

Why publicity?

We all want UBC CS to be the best department in the world. In order to make it there, we need people to perceive UBC CS as the best department in the world. Without the perception, the best undergrads won't come here, the best grads won't come here, the best faculty won't come here, and the best funding opportunities (including provincial allocation and alumni donations!) won't come here.

That perception starts with you publicising the great things you do! You're already used to and comfortable with publishing in academic venues, but you also need to keep the public and various special constituencies (e.g., our alumni or the Chronicle of Higher Education) informed about the great things we do!

We are always looking for your stories.

What is publicity-worthy?

The key element of a story is that it has some hook to make it interesting to the public (or the particular, targeted segment of interest in an article). At the most basic level, that means there's some novel event, idea, development, equipment, or circumstance involved (though novel may not always mean "first time", e.g., "10th consecutive year voted best ping pong player with a PhD").

Beyond that, think about things you do, are involved in, or have heard about that fit any of these criteria:

• quirky in any way
• substantial or important impact on the public
• new to Canada
• industry collaboration
• interesting or unusual academic collaboration
• trend-setting or trend-breaking
• involve unusual or unique student participation
• any award (TELL US BEFORE YOU OFFICIALLY GET IT if possible)
• tie-in to current news (e.g., katrina disaster)
• minority group tie-in
• NECESSARY FOR TV ONLY: cool graphic

Also, remember that news is much better when it's new: let us know before it happens! Let us know now.

We'll also want you to be able to speak or write about your publicity item, but see the caveat below (under "But I don't know how to..").

Who should I send my publicity item to?

The Communications Coordinator Gayle Mavor <gmavor@cs> and the Communications Committee Chair Steve Wolfman <wolf@cs>.

But I don't know how to..

self-aggrandize

You are NOT self-aggrandizing. You're department-aggrandizing, and that's good. Yes, you'll come out looking pretty good, as well, but assauge your modesty by remembering that you're taking it for the team.

speak to people who don't know group theory

Start by speaking to us. Between the two of us, we know a bit of group theory. We'll see if we can't either boil things down to a great story for the public or find someone who can help us do that.

speak in public

You don't have to. That's not the only way to get publicity. But.. aren't you speaking at conferences? Yeesh.. those conference talk audiences are rabid piranhas compared to the cuddly public.

figure out what will make a good story

Read the stuff above. Try some items out on us. Learn and grow. Isn't that fulfilling?

Examples

Coming soon will be some annotated examples: publicity items of various stripes and why they were newsworthy. "Soon" is defined at the longest to be "until Google ranks the phrase search 'UBC CS' above the phrase search 'under construction'". Currently, that's 38,000 to 31,100,000.

-- GayleMavor - 23 Sep 2005 -- SteveWolfman - 22 Sep 2005