Timeline for Event Promotion

Here’s a checklist you can use to make sure you’re taking full advantage of all the opportunities for event promotion at Cornell (and beyond). Some of these strategies won’t be appropriate for every event, but this gives you a menu of choices to consider, and timing on when to put them into action.

Two months in advance (or as early as possible)

  • Fill out event request form through scheduling.cornell.edu on 25Live
  • Arrange for catering, guest travel and logistics
  • Contact eCornell if you’d like your event to be featured through them, either via a livestream or recorded event. If eCornell is livestreaming or recording your event, finish ECornell intake form, upload photos and links
  • Contact Sign Language Solutions if you'll need ASL interpreters at your event (strongly suggested for large events). Their email is  interpreter@signlanguage-solutions.com.
  • Make sure you have everything you need at the event site – a/v support, hybrid capabilities, chairs, microphones. Check with CIT or A&S facilities if you have questions.
  • Add event to university calendar
  • Arrange for a photographer
  • Contact WSKG if you would like a radio spot about your event. As of 9-22, you can secure five radio spots for $200. These should start no more than two weeks before the event.
  • If your event would interest alumni and is hybrid, reach out to AA&D (Ashley Budd, ash265@cornell.edu) to ask for it to be included in their alumni newsletter. Ask about their deadline for you to provide content.
  • Check with Linda in A&S to see how the College communications staff can help promote, especially through writing a prewrite. If not, write a prewrite yourself, but don’t post it to your website until 2-3 weeks before the event. Marquee event prewrites can also appear on the College website and the Around Cornell section of the Cornell Chronicle

One month before

  • Finalize visuals for your event – posters, branding
  • Create a Facebook event if you have a Facebook page – if not, ask the College to help you advertise on Facebook.
  • Contact the Daily Sun if you’d like a print or digital ad. You can run a banner digital ad for a week at $333.
  • Contact Cornell Cinema to see if you can take out an ad to run on their screens.
  • Write two blurbs about the event, one very short and one a bit longer. You’ll need them later. Here’s an example:

“The Science of the Very, Very Small,” TED-style talks with Nobel Prize winners and other nanoscale and quantum researchers,” Wednesday, March 9, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Details and register.

Join us for 'Science of the Very, Very Small'

Ever wonder how cell-sized robots will impact medical procedures? Or the ways quantum materials will change our lives? Or what Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann thinks about the interplay between art and science?  

Mark your calendars for the next event in our Arts Unplugged series:

The Science of the Very, Very Small
Wednesday, March 9
4:30-6:30 p.m. EST
Register for the event.

Three weeks before

  • Finalize poster design and send to printer
  • Finalize Daily Sun ad and send to them
  • Send the press release/prewrite story to Cornell Daily Sun and to community groups in Ithaca if there’s community interest in the event. Check with Linda if you think media could potentially be interested in the event.
  • Design a digital screen and send to Scott Haber
  • Ask for your event to be included in a student newsletter by emailing the blurb and an image to Bryan Chambala at bc672@cornell.edu.
  • Include event in your department/program newsletter
  • If your event is humanities-related, send a blurb to Amanda Brockner (alb448@cornell.edu) at the Society for the Humanities to ask for it to be included in their weekly email.
  • Reach out to faculty involved to ask them to share the digital screen in class – even better, ask them to require their students to attend!
  • Post something to the discussion board of your Facebook event, if you have one.

Two weeks before

  • Put posters up around campus. Campus Promotions at Student Agencies can do that, but they charge a pretty decent fee. Students can also take care of this for you.
  • Include a blurb about your event on various listservs – your department/program; student listservs in your department; ask co-sponsors and other departments that might be interested if they will share
  • Post a prewrite story to your site or, if a marquee event, confirm that the College is posting it to the A&S website and Cornell Chronicle’s Around Cornell section
  • Consider whether to send out personal email invites to faculty/student/staff or community lists.
  • Consider printing small quartercards (postcard size or 1/4 of an 8.5x11" sheet of paper) to leave in dining halls/libraries/cafes.
  • Begin social media posts if you have your own platforms – ask College communications staff to help promote on College platforms, if not
  • Reach out to student groups to help promote – You can find student groups and their leaders by searching for keywords on Campus Groups
  • Post something to the discussion board of your Facebook event, if you have one.
  • Determine whether you also want to write or pitch a coverage story for the event – Linda can help you determine whether this makes sense

One week before

  • Post something to the discussion board of your Facebook event, if you have one.
  • Cornell Sun ads should start and run until the day of the event, if you want to pay for them
  • Send standalone invite to faculty, staff, grad students and undergrads in your department

One day before

  • Make sure you’re promoting on social media channels
  • Send one last email to listservs as a reminder
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