Bridging the Digital Divide for Dallas’ Inner City Youth

More than 10,000 Dallas youth will have access to technology through the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas in after-school programs designed to link them around the world. For this special ribbon-cutting ceremony and press announcement, Marek & Company worked with senior officers of BGCDallas, the president and CEO of The John C. Ford Program that piloted the initiative, and corporate partners EDS, Cisco, Microsoft, EDT Learning and New York Life.

With less than 3 weeks’ lead time to prepare for the press conference, Marek &Company created a timeline of deliverables, drafted and distributed an initial media alert, updated media contacts, including minority press, prepared the on-site press release and fact sheet, and conducted weekly conference calls to ensure open communications among all parties.

Talking points for U.S. Senator Hutchison and BGCDallas CEO Cynthia Nunn were outlined. Follow-up media calls the morning of the event ensured an outstanding turnout with subsequent news coverage from Channel 8, Channel 39, WBAP and the Dallas Business Journal, despite intense news coverage on the Iraq war.

About the press conference, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison wrote in a follow-up note:

“Dear Annemarie:

Thank you for everything you did to make the BGCDallas Global Education Tele-Community Initiative ribbon cutting a success.

I especially appreciate your efforts in ensuring that the program and press conference ran smoothly. I enjoyed participating in such a worthy project and look forward to working with you again in the future.”