Public Relations Strategy & Execution

For the first few years, the MFO team attempted to do our own press releases and media invites, but did not have meaningful success. As the event grew, the team realized that external help was needed.

Richeson Communications

The MFO team uses a local PR firm, Richeson Communications, to handle press releases and event media invites. Laura Richeson has been a huge part of the MFO success story, generating significant media coverage of the event, and helping tell the stories of our amazing makers.

Typical PR Moments for Maker Faire Orlando

• Save the Date press release - this is skipped some years, mostly due to the team not planning ahead and getting Richeson Communications involved in time.

• Tickets on Sale / Call for Makers open - this is typically 4 months in advance of the event date. (Todo: link to example release)

• Television appearances in studio

• Television coverage on-site

• Influencer invites / coverage

• Event coverage summary - Richeson Communication provides a post-event summary of all media coverage

Media Coverage

The MFO website media page maintains a list of media coverage from the past year. This can be built from the Event coverage summary sent by Richeson communication, and can be supplemented for the current year as coverage is noted. Note that this is edited in the mfo-static-website repo in the _data/mediacoverage.yaml file.

Press Kit

The Maker Faire Orlando Press Kit is part of the overall press kit for The Maker Effect Foundation which can be found at makerfaireorlando.com/press-kit.

The Press Kit is hosted with Dropbox, and the URL on the MFO website is a redirect to the Dropbox public share URL.

Root Directory of the TMEF Press Kit

Maker Faire Orlando Directory

The event photos & videos photos should be updated each year before launching tickets & Call for Makers and the accompanying press release.

Maker Faire Orlando Logos & Artwork Directory

This directory is updated each year with the round logo containing the new dates.