Please read this Guide before contacting your communications officer at Canada’s Digital Collections (CDC), who will gladly answer any of your questions.

The most formal type of event would be a launch of your completed and approved CDC project. The website project could be launched by your Member of Parliament on behalf of John Manley, Minister of Industry. If you are interested in pursuing this option, you need to confirm your MP’s availability and to inform your communications officer at Canada’s Digital Collections (Step 2). The launch requires speaking notes (Step 3) for the MP, a scenario (Step 4), a comprehensive media list (Step 5), a media advisory (Step 6) and a news release (Step 7). All of these should be uniform in their message.

The CDC communications officer is:

A generic news release, approved by Industry Canada, is enclosed with this guide (Appendix 4). Please use it and insert information and quotations where indicated. All news releases must acknowledge Industry Canada and the Canada’s Digital Collections program and consequently must have Industry Canada’s approval. Your news release, therefore, should be submitted at least three working weeks before your event. As such, the following procedures must be followed:

• Write your news release using the generic model provided in this package;
• Submit electronically your news release along with your logo to your CDC project and communications officers;
• The communications officer will review your news release, will make any necessary changes and will forward the news release to Industry Canada’s Communications Branch for approval;
• The Communications Branch will send quotations credited to Minister Manley to the Minister’s Office for approval;
• Once approved, the news release is sent by Industry Canada’s Communications Branch for translation to French or English, as required;
• The news release will be issued by Industry Canada and will be sent to you for distribution to media on the date of your event.

When writing your news release, please adhere to the following format;

• Write a catchy heading;
• First paragraph: Describe what is being done and by whom;
• Second paragraph: Give the important details of the event;
• Third paragraph: Include a quotation from Industry Canada;
• Fourth paragraph: Summarize how this program benefits Canadians and how it ties into the government’s Connectedness agenda. (Your communications officer can help you with this aspect of the news release.)

Suggest story angles (the "pitch") when calling an editor and/or reporter that include: the entrepreneurial and high-tech information management skills young Canadians developed through the participation in Canada’s Digital Collections program, the digitization of your collection(s) and its imminent availability on the Information Highway.

Call both an assignment editor and a beat reporter on the same newspaper or newsroom. If the reporter likes the story he/she may convince a reluctant editor to let him/her cover it.

Keep in mind the type of media you are approaching each time. If it is television, for example, the assignment desk is interested in the "visual" story and the content. Briefly pitch him/her on the kinds of visuals and activity there might be on-site as well as any VIPs attending.

If an editor/reporter is interested in doing an advance story, or if you are working with a community paper which publishes only once or twice a week and has an early deadline before your event takes place, then you may decide to arrange interviews and distribute the media information to that paper before the event. This is not always recommended, since another news agency may feel that the event has lost its "timeliness."

Your event may require an "embargo." An embargo ensures that journalists will not leak news of your event in the media prior to the desired date.

Place follow-up calls to media not in attendance at the event. Once again, the news worthiness of the story must be pitched to the media.

Know how, where and when to contact all the key participants in the event for possible follow-up interviews with media post-event. It is important to call the participant ahead of time, if at all possible, to let them know that a member of the media will contact them regarding the project.

If an Industry Canada representative does not attend your event and a reporter asks to speak to someone from Industry Canada either during or after the event, please call your communications officer who will arrange for a spokesperson and time for the call.

• News Release;
• Backgrounder (profile of organization, team involved with project, etc.)
• Printout of website (only the home page and other key pages need be included);
• If possible, a photograph of the project youth at work should also be included, especially in a situation with minimal photo-ops.

For television coverage, keep in mind the visuals of the event. For instance, the backdrop against which the speakers will address the audience should not be stark white or "chroma-key blue" in colour and should perhaps have some point of interest, i.e., your organization's banner. Avoid mirrored walls as photographers, cameramen and camera lights reflect back onto the footage being taped and this ruins the shot. There should be a reserved space convenient for cameras to move around, as well as a media feed box from the P.A. or podium.

Organizers should arrange for photos to be taken of the event with VIPs and students. These can be sent to community newspapers as well as journals with a follow-up note and a second copy of the press release. Please send a copy of any picture(s) to your communications officer at Canada’s Digital Collections along with bilingual headings, if possible, regarding who is in the picture, and what they are doing. In addition, an audio and/or video recording of the event can be digitized for display on our home page.