Steaks and content….a yummy combination

Pretty proud of the folks at THP and grateful for creative clients like AnnMarie Grohs of Richmond’s Morton’s The Steakhouse(@amgrohs on Twitter).

In this blog I have spoken frequently about the need to generate content and the first “Evening at Morton’s” event is a perfect example of the direction in which social networking is taking us.

The event is an offshoot of the Morton’s Leadership dinner idea we started last year designed to expose more people to the restaurant as a place to conduct business, have meaningful conversations and have a great meal.

Last night,  We assembled local sports media and experts to talk about the future of sports in Richmond (a popular, if not controversial topics) and asked them to talk about it over steak.  At Morton’s, yum.

In the old PR world, we would have invited media, tried to jam the room with people and prayed that everyone showed up. 

In the new PR world, we invited Richmond blogger and faciliator extraordinare John Sarvay to live blog the event on a blog linked to our website.  We publicized the event through the local blogger and Twitter community (thanks to RVATweets and RichmondGoodLife.com) as well as some online media and we tried to live tweet (note to self, you need more than one person to live blog and live tweet simultaneously).

In addition we have now posted the live blog replay on the site and will be archiving the audio for folks to listen to.

The event accomplished Morton’s communications goals through the creation of content that we produced and communicated directly to the audience.  We were able to do this cost-effectively and the content will live to be seen and heard long after last night without having to wonder the usual event questions of “who will attend” and “will be media show up.”

We plan at least two more “Evenings at Morton’s” focusing on the arts and non-profit organizations.  Please let us know if you are any additional suggestions about those events or other possible topics.

One final question:  Are these “events” the wave of the present or the future in communications and PR?  Would love to know your thoughts.

Jon Newman

In 2002 Jon cofounded The Hodges Partnership and has helped to grow it into one of the country’s largest public relations firms (based on O’Dwyer’s annual rankings). Jon has taught communications as an adjunct professor at VCU, speaks regularly at conferences and meetings and blogs and tweets about public relations and marketing issues.

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