Speedmatching Event

28 Feb 2014     Last updated: 13 Nov 2014

The annual speedmatching event run by NICVA, The Law Centre NI and ViewDigital and supported by the National Union of Journalists took place on 27 February with eight community organisations taking part to look for media matches.

Speedmatching involves community and voluntary sector groups each getting five minutes with a local journalist or media producer, and using that five minutes to pitch story ideas and talk about their work.

Elizabeth Hendron, PR coodinator at NICVA explains, "The event has been running for a few years now and is always well attended both by groups from the sector and the media. The groups taking part this year got a chance to pitch ideas to producers and reporters from the BBC, including education correspondent Maggie Taggart, as well as local papers and specialist publications.

"By only giving groups five minutes it really helps communications workers in the sector get to grips with the idea that you need to be able to quickly and clearly sell in your story to the media. We hope that tonight is just a first step, and that the organisations that took part are able to follow up with the contacts they made and use them to get more media coverage and support for the work we do."

Feedback from the night was very positive and hopefully there will be another speedmatching session later in the year.

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