Widespread news coverage for Desert Knowledge Symposium
14 November 2008

The Desert Knowledge Symposium in Alice Springs has achieved widespread coverage thanks to the efforts of Creative Territory’s Laurelle Halford.

Laurelle managed the media for the symposium on behalf of its partners Desert Knowledge Australia, the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre and the Desert Peoples Centre.

The three day symposium held in Alice Springs from 3 to 6 November was all about developing a body of desert knowledge that will help sustain desert communities around the world.

Some of the best business innovators, researchers and educators from the world’s desert regions gathered in Alice Springs for the event.

 “Considering that 70% of Australia is desert and one-sixth of humanity lives in desert regions around the world, this global discussion is crucial”, says Desert Knowledge Australia CEO John Huigen.

More than 300 people attended the Symposium with delegates and speakers from South Africa, India, USA, Denmark, Indonesia, New Zealand and most Australian states and territories.

But the event was able to be taken wider through the symposium’s partnership with Creative Territory.

Creative Territory was contracted to undertake media relations under the management of Alice Springs consultant Laurelle Halford.

“We were able to achieve an enormous range of national coverage by making sure we promoted the most important and interesting stories to the journalists that we knew would be interested in them,” Laurelle said.

“Media relations is about careful planning and targeting, and the success that we were able to achieve for the symposium is testament to having a good strategy.”