Want an influential conference or event presence?
Start with a strong vision, plan, and design.
Opportunities to engage with captive key audiences are few and far between. That’s why events and conferences are critical tactics in a communications strategy. While event attendees, either in-person or virtual, are engaged and looking for information, that doesn’t mean the work is easy. There are logistics. There’s competition for the audiences’ attention. And a need to build relations that outlast the event. That’s where Hager Sharp comes in.
Hosting? Our experts provide complete event management services. We manage venues, virtual platforms, and presenters; develop the run-of-show; execute exhibitor and participant marketing; livestream and live-tweet during events; capture photos and video of sessions; and complete post-event attendee follow-up, website updates, and content development.
Participating? We coordinate sessions that align with audience interests and client objectives, create presentations and materials, and present alongside or on behalf of our clients. We develop large and small booth exhibits, graphics, signage, and marketing materials, and we handle shipping and set-up. We also staff exhibit booths and engage directly with attendees. For virtual events, we’ve worked with clients from the start, helping to develop agendas, identify and recruit speakers, provide trainings and rehearsals, develop visuals and graphic elements, promote registrations, and fully produce live and pre-recorded programs.
From hosting events to participating in conferences, we help our clients create seamless and engaging experiences that meet organizational and audience goals alike.
CORE EVENT & CONFERENCE MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES
CREATIVE & DIGITAL SUPPORT
The event experience isn’t limited to the meeting space, dates, or agenda. We create appealing and comprehensive materials for participants, develop social media content for online engagement, design and dress in-person and virtual event spaces, and record sessions for continued sharing.
BOOTH DESIGN & MANAGEMENT
We design fresh and modular booths, helping clients stand out in crowded exhibit halls and showcase timely information. When we staff our clients’ booths, we are informed and friendly and ensure visitors walk away with key resources and a good feeling.
PRESENTATION DEVELOPMENT
We identify relevant topics and submit presentation proposals that meet the needs of our clients and their audiences. We build presentations that are comprehensive and clear. Our staff are often experts in the presentation topic at hand and frequently present on behalf of clients.
LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT
No event is alike. Some are in-person, some virtual. Some are planned months in advance, some last minute. We manage every aspect of event logistics and efficiently anticipate event needs.
EVENT
A VARIETY OF EVENT AND CONFERENCE SUPPORT, INCLUDING:
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
For the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, we executed a two-day virtual reading summit attended by more than 1,100 people. We programmed the entire agenda, identified and secured 70 speakers, recorded dozens of pre-taped sessions, developed remarks and presentations, and promoted and ran the event.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE
For the National Association for Behavioral Healthcare, we created marketing materials and policy briefings for the association’s annual meeting, developed promotional social media content, created the event’s opening video, and recorded and live-tweeted presentations.
LUMINA FOUNDATION
For Lumina we quickly pivoted its engaging, highquality events to a virtual platform when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented in-person programming. We planned and produced a three-hour livestream event, as well as produced a high-impact virtual symposium garnering larger-than-ever audiences.
CDC'S HPV VACCINE IS CANCER PREVENTION CAMPAIGN
For the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we designed and developed an extensive exhibit space for in-person presentations with medical professionals about the HPV vaccine for adolescents.
ABOUT HAGER SHARP
At Hager Sharp, we’ve dedicated more than 50 years to creating communications strategies, campaigns, and materials that make meaningful change in the world. We work solely with organizations that are committed to transforming communities by taking on important issues like improving public health, safety, and education, and addressing gaps in equity, well-being, and socioeconomic status. Our focus is and always will be working with mission-driven institutions, businesses, and nonprofits to create and implement ideas that make a difference.
More about our event and conference expertise
Want the world to understand your story?
Start with media coverage.
Media remains one of the only forms of communication that presents an opportunity for a third party (the outlet) to validate your viewpoint. Because the media filters and shapes what we see, media coverage conveys to the audience that the story itself is something worth thinking about. Generating a steady cadence of media coverage on a topic over time — the essence of strategic media outreach — makes it more likely for the public to consider the issue important.
We provide comprehensive media relations support to clients, including drafting press releases, media advisories, and background documents; creating media lists of reporters at mainstream/consumer and trade outlets; creating pitch materials; conducting media outreach; conducting media trainings; coordinating interviews; tracking and analyzing media coverage; and speechwriting.
Our media relations experience includes extensive outreach to mainstream/consumer and trade media outlets, and we regularly help clients turn individual stories into headline news. We are relationshipbuilders who have long-standing rapport and established connections with reporters, editors, and producers at national and local outlets across platforms and topic areas.
Hager Sharp’s seasoned media specialists, some of whom are former reporters, are also active members of the country’s leading media associations and can tap journalist members of these organizations for insights and advice as needed.
NEWS
MEDIA STRATEGY CORE MEDIA RELATIONS CAPABILITIES
We think one step ahead. With our help, you can anticipate what reporters — and their audiences — want to know and how to frame it so that it resonates positively. Our experience building dialogue with reporters and the focus to help generate an ongoing cadence of coverage for your issue can mean the difference between simply being heard and being understood
MEDIA OUTREACH
Meet the press. We can handle every aspect of proactive media relations, from generating specific pitch ideas — including the story we want to tell and how we want to tell it — to preparing the spokespersons and identifying the outlets and reporters we recommend targeting.
MEDIA MONITORING, ANALYSIS, AND EVALUATION
Through real-time or retrospective monitoring of media coverage using a proprietary mix of databases and software, Hager Sharp can monitor how media outreach influenced coverage and how it is changing over time.
OUR RELATIONSHIP-FOCUSED APPROACH HAS HELPED THE FOLLOWING CLIENTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
ABOUT HAGER SHARP
At Hager Sharp, we’ve dedicated more than 50 years to creating communications strategies, campaigns, and materials that make meaningful change in the world. We work solely with organizations that are committed to transforming communities by taking on important issues like improving public health, safety, and education, and addressing gaps in equity, well-being, and socioeconomic status. Our focus is and always will be working with mission-driven institutions, businesses, and nonprofits to create and implement ideas that make a difference.
More about our media relations work
O ce on Women’s Health
Want to engage with diverse audiences in a meaningful way?
Start with a diverse multicultural marketing and communications team.
When it comes to reaching diverse audiences, Hager Sharp has a longstanding history of developing impactful, culturally relevant campaigns tailored to the audience’s needs. Our approach sets us apart. At Hager Sharp, multicultural marketing relies on cultural fluency — using culture to connect audiences to our clients’ organizations, messages, and brands efficiently and effectively.
Our multicultural marketing and communications team is made up of more than 20 strategists, each of whom provides research-driven counsel and guidance to our clients. These experts also host broader meetings and conversations across Hager Sharp project teams to ensure the needs of multicultural audiences are considered at the outset of and throughout — every project and to ensure adequate resources for planning and implementation.
CORE CAPABILITIES
FORMATIVE RESEARCH
Multicultural marketing requires skillfully tailoring programs, messages, and materials. To do this, we often begin with formative research, which allows us to better understand an audience’s attitudes, beliefs, and cultural perceptions. From this we build audiencecentric strategies, messages, and materials that truly speak to audiences’ informational needs.
CULTURE-BASED ADAPTATIONS
Creating campaigns that resonate requires more than language translation and great design. While these are essential pieces — and we do them well — we also work directly with people who represent the group of interest to ensure we craft approaches that are culturally relevant. Our team excels at taking general audience content and adapting it into culturally competent and engaging products that resonate with the intended audience.
MESSAGE & MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
Developing culturally and linguistically competent, relevant, and inclusive messages and materials is vital to the success of multicultural marketing efforts. Our team of audience experts, copywriters, designers, producers, and creative directors is skilled at developing research-driven communications that inform, motivate, and inspire positive change.
COMMUNITY & STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Driving behavior change, inspiring action, and educating communities of color often requires forming audience-centric partnerships and engaging with trusted intermediaries and stakeholders. We help make meaningful connections that open doors to deeper audience engagement.
DIGITAL & TRADITIONAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
We develop impactful earned, paid, and digital media strategies that help to amplify conversations and increase interest in critical issues within health and education.
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OUR EXPERTISE IN MULTICULTURAL MARKETING AND OUTREACH HAS HELPED THESE CLIENTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
For USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Hager Sharp conducted an audit of the MyPlate.gov website to assess how well its content followed principles of inclusive communication for reaching and engaging multicultural audiences. The audit reviewed the website for accessibility; readability and plain language; and audience representation based on images and language. This effort supported USDA’s aim to promote healthy food choices and active lifestyles in a manner that advances diversity and health equity.
ADDITIONAL CLIENTS HAVE INCLUDED:
NATIONAL DIABETES EDUCATION PROGRAM (NDEP)
On behalf of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Hager Sharp developed and led a social marketing and integrated communications campaign designed to raise awareness and improve treatment and prevention of diabetes. Our work entailed developing a multifaceted strategic plan and creating a wide range of resources — website, consumer-facing materials, and health education toolkits — to help NDEP support health care professionals, caregivers, and families. With these resources, which featured tailored messages and materials in 16 languages, as well as adaptations for seven vulnerable population groups, NDEP reached an extremely diverse set of audiences to facilitate healthy behavior change.
O ce on Women’s Health
ABOUT HAGER SHARP
At Hager Sharp, we’ve dedicated more than 50 years to creating communications strategies, campaigns, and materials that make meaningful change in the world. We work solely with organizations that are committed to transforming communities by taking on important issues like improving public health, safety, and education, and addressing gaps in equity, well-being, and socioeconomic status. Our focus is and always will be working with mission-driven institutions, businesses, and nonprofits to create and implement ideas that make a difference.
More about our multicultural marketing expertise
Want to advance your vision & achieve real change?
Start with an audience-centric strategic communications plan.
Strategic planning helps set the stage for a project, campaign, or initiative. It defines the goals and outlines the team’s approach to reaching them. But to be successful, it must be audience-centric and supported by formative research. In fact, following a methodical process grounded in research is how we ‘find the difference’ the unique strategies that help us connect with key audiences and amplify our clients’ voices. It’s this difference that drives the strategic plan,
which helps ensure activities are results-oriented and effective.
Our team is not only skilled at developing this plan, but also excels at scaling the process to meet our clients’ needs. It can be expanded for large, multifaceted campaigns as well as scaled back for smaller communications initiatives.
CORE STRATEGIC PLANNING CAPABILITIES
STRATEGY SESSION
Hager Sharp’s approach to strategic communications begins with a strategy session. Here, we:
• Review research findings;
• Set goals and objectives;
• Define and segment the audience;
• Discuss audience-centric strategies;
• Discuss key message topics;
• Brainstorm tactics; and
• Identify metrics to evaluate success.
STRATEGIC ROADMAP
After the strategy session, we develop The Roadmap, Hager Sharp’s proprietary planning tool. The Roadmap facilitates a systematic approach to communications planning and provides clients with an at-a-glance view of goals and objectives, audiences, strategies, tactics, and evaluation measures.
STRATEGIC PLAN
This is where it all comes together. After reviewing The Roadmap with the client and getting their feedback, the Hager Sharp team develops the final product, the strategic plan. This plan takes a deep dive into specific tactics and channels for reaching audiences and motivating action.
WE HAVE USED THIS STRATEGIC PLANNING APPROACH TO ACHIEVE ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS ON BEHALF OF MANY CLIENTS, INCLUDING:
WOLF TRAP INSTITUTE
Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts needed to increase awareness of its work and expand its communication efforts. After conducting a thorough environmental scan and in-depth interviews, we developed a comprehensive communications plan that included message development, creative materials development, and digital engagement. As the first step, we developed a multifaceted message map to articulate the Wolf Trap Institute’s approach, impact, and leadership and collaboratively developed materials based on those messages to anchor the program’s outreach efforts.
CDC'S HPV VACCINE IS CANCER PREVENTION CAMPAIGN
To better understand lagging HPV vaccination rates, we conducted formative research, revealing a critical insight: Parents and healthcare providers were reluctant to discuss the HPV vaccine because it required talking about a sexually transmitted disease, which made both parties uncomfortable. During the strategic planning process, we saw an opportunity to overcome this barrier. We reframed the dialogue about the HPV vaccine from its association with a sexually transmitted disease to its essential benefit of cancer prevention. In response to this framing, we developed the awardwinning campaign, HPV Vaccine Is Cancer Prevention, and ultimately saw increases in HPV vaccine uptake among adolescent boys and girls.
OUR AUDIENCE-CENTRIC APPROACH HAS ALSO HELPED THE FOLLOWING CLIENTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
O ce on Women’s Health
ABOUT HAGER SHARP
At Hager Sharp, we’ve dedicated more than 50 years to creating communications strategies, campaigns, and materials that make meaningful change in the world. We work solely with organizations that are committed to transforming communities by taking on important issues like improving public health, safety, and education, and addressing gaps in equity, well-being, and socioeconomic status. Our focus is and always will be working with mission-driven institutions, businesses, and nonprofits to create and implement ideas that make a difference.
More about our strategic planning expertise
