First-Ever Publicity Workshop Applauded By Attendees CBA Industry-Wide Workshop Held February 8-10, 2001 Guthrie Communications and McClure Muntsinger Public Relations partnered to host the Publicity Workshop 2001 for in-house publicists of CBA suppliers. Forty-one publicists with varying experience, from two weeks to two decades, gathered in Dallas, Texas, on February 8-10 to network with media personalities, develop media skills, and receive professional coaching. Each of the attendees was a publicity staff person employed by a CBA supplier. This was the first event of its kind produced by Guthrie, McClure and Muntsinger, who were gratified by the early sold-out status of the conference as well as an advance endorsement from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). The interactive workshop featured several prominent figures from the general market and Christian media who provided invaluable insight for more effective author/artist interviews. Media guests for the Christian Radio and Christian Television media panels included experts such as Wayne Shepherd of Moody Radio, Molly Young of "The 700 Club," Trish Ragsdale of "At Home Live" and Sharon Elmore of "Life Today." Luncheon keynote speaker, Cathy Grossman, religion writer for USA Today, discussed her own professional career in religion reporting and offered tips for gaining general market coverage for religious products to her six million readers. Dallas Morning News religion reporter Berta Delgado joined several attendees for dinner to discuss coverage opportunities in the newspaper's award-winning religion section. During the two-day workshop, other sessions on various topics of interest to CBA publicists were led by Guthrie, McClure and Muntsinger. Nancy Guthrie set the stage Thursday evening as she presented the Top Ten Traits of a Great Publicist and later offered insight into Gaining Coverage in Christian Print Media and How to Be Your Own PR Person. Jana Muntsinger presented strategies for Maximizing Trade Coverage, and Pamela McClure divulged secrets to Cracking the General Market Media. And four roundtable sessions allowed attendees to share their own personal expertise in areas such as budgeting, tour planning and managing outside publicity agencies. As this was the first-ever Publicity Workshop sponsored by Guthrie Communications and McClure Muntsinger Public Relations, attendees were asked to complete specific evaluations regarding each session and the workshop as a whole. All 41 publicists said they would "definitely" be interested in attending another Publicity Workshop and would "strongly" recommend attendance to other publicists. Other comments from attendees include: "The workshop far exceeded my expectations, and I appreciate the stellar job you did. Thank you for sharing your hearts and your secrets." "It [the workshop] really reminded me why I originally wanted to get into PR and encouraged me that I'm not alone in the struggles." "I know I will really enjoy going back to work on Monday and putting new enthusiasm into my work." The general purpose of Publicity Workshop 2001 was to train, network and coach publicists at all levels of experience-allowing them to share ideas and discuss challenges in an open forum. From the evaluation form responses, it seems the goal was achieved. One attendee commented, "The workshop was reenergizing. You don't know how badly I needed this!" There are no firm plans for a Publicity Workshop in 2002, but ideas for future workshops and training seminars are being considered. Guthrie Communications and McClure Muntsinger Public Relations are based in Nashville, Tennessee. The principals of these companies, Nancy Guthrie, Pamela McClure and Jana Muntsinger, have 35 years collective experience in their field and are committed to raising the standard of excellence for publicists employed by CBA suppliers. Nancy Guthrie can be contacted at nancyguthrie@home.com; McClure and Muntsinger can be contacted at info@mmpublicrelations.com.