PIOs: How to pitch a story (without being annoying)

PIOs: How to pitch a story (without being annoying)

Time:
Saturday, October 10th, 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm
Location:
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom D
Speaker(s):
Lila Guterman
  Deputy managing editor, departments, Science News
Morgan Kelly
  Science writer, Princeton University
Ivan Oransky
  Vice president, Global editorial director, MedPage Today; co-founder, Retraction Watch
Moderator(s):
Matt Shipman
  PIO, North Carolina State University
Organizer(s):
Matt Shipman
  PIO, North Carolina State University

Done well, pitching makes reporters aware of research findings they’ll be interested in, which can lead to good news stories. Done poorly, a pitch is spam that wastes reporters’ time and makes it likely they won’t want to deal with you in the future. This session will offer advice to PIOs on how to pitch stories in a way that benefits PIOs and reporters. Social media hashtag: #scipitch

Meeting schedule

Jump to:
Friday, Oct. 9
Saturday, Oct. 10
Sunday, Oct. 11
Monday, Oct. 12
Tueday, Oct. 13

Key to icons

Friday, Oct. 9

11:00 am to 5:00 pm

NASW Board meeting
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Aquarium room (closed meeting)

12:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Check-in
Main lobby, Hyatt Regency Cambridge

1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

$ How to make awesome science video: A hands-on workshop
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Thomas Paine room
$ Nonfiction book proposals: A hands-on workshop
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Charles View Ballroom

6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Check-in
MIT Walker Memorial, 142 Memorial Drive (Buses depart from Hyatt)
F Knight Science Journalism welcome reception
MIT Walker Memorial, 142 Memorial Drive (Buses depart from Hyatt)

9:00 pm to 10:30 pm

W Diversity Mixer
Hyatt Cambridge Regency, Paul Revere Room
Saturday, Oct. 10

7:30 am to 8:00 am

W Meet and greet for newcomers/students
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Crispus Attucks room

7:30 am to 8:45 am

W Continental Breakfast
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom

7:30 am to 5:30 pm

Check-in
Main lobby, Hyatt Regency Cambridge

8:00 am to 8:45 am

NASW membership meeting
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom

9:00 am to 10:15 am

W Ethics in today's science writing landscape: A community conversation
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom

9:00 am to 5:00 pm

$ Personal headshot photography
By appointment

10:15 am to 10:45 am

W Break
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom Prefunction

10:45 am to 12:00 pm

W Covering public controversies about science topics: From GMOs, to vaccines, to climate change
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Paul Revere room
W DIY publishing — Does it yield?
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Charles View Ballroom (top floor of hotel)
W Use with no abuse: How to acquire, borrow, quote and reproduce without copyright infringement
Cambridge Hyatt Regency, Thomas Paine room
W What every editor needs to know
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, William Dawes room

12:00 pm to 1:30 pm

W Lunch
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

W Embracing the B word: Branding and social media
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Charles View Ballroom (top floor of hotel)
W Funds for all: How to win an NASW Idea Grant
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, William Dawes room
W Other stories: Exploring alternative narratives
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Paul Revere room
W Using art to communicate science
Hyatt Cambridge Regency, Thomas Paine room

2:45 pm to 3:15 pm

W Break
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom Prefunction

3:15 pm to 4:30 pm

W Data journalism for every scale and skill level
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom AB
W Four writers sat in a bar:  Humor and voice in science writing
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Paul Revere room
W PIOs: How to pitch a story (without being annoying)
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom D
W Power Pitch 2015
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom C

4:30 pm to 4:45 pm

W Break
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom Prefunction

4:45 pm to 6:00 pm

W Fact-checking: How to get everything perfectly right always
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom D
W Sex, death, and privacy: Reporting in the first person
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, William Dawes room
W Sexism, science-writing and solutions: Charting the future
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Paul Revere room
W The fair contract project
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Thomas Paine room

6:30 pm to 9:00 pm

F Awards reception
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, President's Ballroom
Sunday, Oct. 11

7:00 am to 8:15 am

F Continental breakfast
MIT Kresge Lobby (Buses depart from Hyatt)

7:30 am to 11:00 am

Check-in
MIT Kresge Lobby

8:15 am to 9:30 am

F Lighting up biology: The quest to see every molecule in every cell
MIT Kresge Auditorium

9:00 am to 5:00 pm

$ Personal headshot photography
By appointment

9:30 am to 10:30 am

F Pluto's close-up: The latest from the New Horizons mission
MIT Kresge Auditorium
F The tiny cell with a big gene "app store"
La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center

10:30 am to 11:00 am

F Break
MIT Kresge Lobby

11:00 am to 12:00 pm

F Next in space: Spray-on microthrusters for miniature satellites
La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center
F The genome's mysterious UCE surveillance system
MIT Kresge Auditorium

12:00 pm to 2:00 pm

F Lunch With a Luminary I
Assigned Rooms at MIT Student Center and the Broad Institute; volunteer guides will direct. Pick up lunch first at Kresge Lobby
F MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center tour
MIT Building NW17, Room 218, 175 Albany St., Cambridge, MA (walking tour, 5 minute walk, departs from Kresge Lobby, pick up lunch first at Kresge)

2:00 pm to 3:00 pm

F 2015 Patrusky Lecture: The Earth’s microbiomes
MIT Kresge Auditorium

3:00 pm to 3:30 pm

F Break
MIT Kresge Lobby

3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

F Can computer science help physicists resolve the firewall paradox?
La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center
F Lessons from the lives of older homeless adults
MIT Kresge Auditorium

4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

F Controversy in the "Goldilocks zone" as the search for habitable exoplanets intensifies
La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center
F Vaccines and vaccine hesitancy: Lessons for science writers
MIT Kresge Auditorium

7:00 pm to 10:00 pm

F ScienceWriters party
The Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Boston (Buses depart from Hyatt at 6:40, 6:50, 7:00, 7:20, and 7:40 pm; one bus departs from Fairfield Inn at 6:40 pm)
Monday, Oct. 12

7:15 am to 8:30 am

F Continental breakfast
MIT Kresge Lobby (Buses depart from Hyatt)

8:30 am to 9:30 am

F Applying science to poverty
La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center
F Money and medicine: Challenges and opportunities for science writers
MIT Kresge Auditorium

9:30 am to 10:30 am

F Gathering big data on tiny devices: A path to better medical diagnosis?
Kresge Auditorium
F Mercury, fisheries and human health: Local threats and global challenges
La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center

9:30 am to 12:00 pm

F Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences tour
29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA; board bus at Kresge Lobby at 9:30 am for the 10-minute ride to the Harvard engineering campus.

10:30 am to 11:00 am

F Break
MIT Kresge Lobby

10:30 am to 2:00 pm

F Boston University Photonics Center tour
8 St. Mary's St., Boston, MA (board bus at Kresge Lobby at 10:30 am; 10-minute ride to Boston University)

11:00 am to 12:00 pm

F Air pollution and hurricanes: A connection?
La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center
F How technology designers will dictate our civic future
MIT Kresge Auditorium

12:00 pm to 2:00 pm

F Lunch With a Luminary II
Assigned Rooms at MIT Student Center, Kresge, and MIT Building 4; volunteer guides will direct. Pick up lunch first at Kresge Lobby
F The ingredients for innovation in Kendall Square
La Sala de Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center. Organized by KSJ; participants register as part of Lunch With a Luminary; pick up lunch at Kresge Lobby.

2:00 pm to 3:00 pm

F New observations and new ideas about cosmic inflation
MIT Kresge Auditorium

2:00 pm to 4:30 pm

F Boston University National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories tour
Board bus at Kresge Lobby at 2:00 pm for the 15-minute ride to BU's medical campus.

3:00 pm to 3:30 pm

F Break
MIT Kresge Lobby

3:00 pm to 5:00 pm

F LabCentral tour
700 Main St., Cambridge (walking tour, 10-minute walk, departs from Kresge Lobby)

3:30 pm to 5:30 pm

F Merchants of Doubt film screening and discussion
MIT Kresge Auditorium

5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

F Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT tour
320 Charles Street, Cambridge (bus departs from Kresge Lobby)

5:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Dine around Cambridge and Boston
Varies

8:00 pm to 10:00 pm

$ Story Collider
Oberon Theater, 2 Arrow Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Attendees are responsible for their own travel to Harvard Square. Admission at the door by will-call based on purchase at registration.
Tuesday, Oct. 13

7:15 am to 5:00 pm

$ Marine Biological Laboratory/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution tour
Buses depart from Hyatt Regency Cambridge

9:00 am to 11:30 am

F Biogen tour
225 Binney St., Cambridge (Bus departs from Hyatt Regency Cambridge)
F Dana-Farber Cancer Institute tour
450 Brookline Ave., Boston (Bus departs from Hyatt Regency Cambridge)
F Harvard Museums of Science & Culture tour
26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA (Bus departs from Hyatt Regency Cambridge)
F Johnson & Johnson Innovation tour
255 Main St., Cambridge, MA (Bus departs from Hyatt Regency Cambridge)
F Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research tour [CANCELED]

9:30 am to 12:30 pm

F Draper Laboratory tour
555 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA (Bus departs from Hyatt Regency Cambridge)
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