2013 National Ice Cream Party
My internship with IDFA involved the planning of both the Washington Conference and the 31st annual National Ice Cream Party. The Washington Conference is a conference with the dairy processing industry's well-known legislative fly-in. The conference provides information about valuable dairy policy briefings and the opportunity to meet and discuss industry priorities with policymakers in the District of Columbia. Executives from IDFA member companies attend face-to-face meetings with congressional leaders to discuss the Farm Bill and other dairy policy issues. After a day filled with meetings, members of Congress and IDFA members head to the 31st annual Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party where everyone enjoys more than 2,000 gallons of ice cream, frozen yogurt and sherbet provided by IDFA members. Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), author of the Dairy Freedom Act, addressed attendees during the Washington Conference Roundtable Breakfast on June 20 and attended the ice cream party later in the day.
My project was to aid the communications team with the preparations for the Washington Conference. I prepared portfolios about representatives in order to give background information about each person before a member walked into his/her office on the day of the conference. I researched more than 50 representatives and built short summaries that IDFA members said came in handy. To see a summary page that I created, click here.
Throughout the day of the Washington Conference, I used social media platforms to create conversations online as well as inform IDFA members about the conference. Throughout the lunch, I took videos on Vine and photographs for Twitter and Instagram to keep viewers and members informed. I highlighted when Cheryl Bryne began speaking at the conference through posting on Instagram and Twitter. Below is the tweet.
My project was to aid the communications team with the preparations for the Washington Conference. I prepared portfolios about representatives in order to give background information about each person before a member walked into his/her office on the day of the conference. I researched more than 50 representatives and built short summaries that IDFA members said came in handy. To see a summary page that I created, click here.
Throughout the day of the Washington Conference, I used social media platforms to create conversations online as well as inform IDFA members about the conference. Throughout the lunch, I took videos on Vine and photographs for Twitter and Instagram to keep viewers and members informed. I highlighted when Cheryl Bryne began speaking at the conference through posting on Instagram and Twitter. Below is the tweet.
Cheryl Byrne kicking off Washington Conference with some social media insight! #dairy #farmbill http://t.co/YShOnkE6pm
— IDFA (@dairyidfa) June 19, 2013
After the first portion, the luncheon, of the Washington Conference, the social media team and I began to follow IDFA members into their meetings with representatives. Because it was difficult to actually sit in on the meetings, I took photographs and videos of members just before they walked into their meetings or right after they finished their meetings. IDFA members were informing representatives about the Farm Bill and hoping to persuade them in IDFA's favor of passing the bill. I highlighted some of the representatives that were "for" the bill, but avoided those who were not favoring the bill. It was interesting to walk around the offices of U.S. representatives and senators. I found myself in a place I had never been before and on a mission to help IDFA in capturing members' actions.
Below are tweets from Twitter, videos from Vine and photographs from Instagram that I created in relation to the Washington Conference and the 31st Annual National Ice Cream Party.
Below are tweets from Twitter, videos from Vine and photographs from Instagram that I created in relation to the Washington Conference and the 31st Annual National Ice Cream Party.
|
|
|
One of the final events was the Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party. After a long day of meetings with government officials, IDFA held an ice cream party to kick-off celebrating National Ice Cream Month in July. In preparations for the party, I created a media kit, which can be downloaded here. I found that I was able to apply my previous public relations skills from my classes when I began constructing the media kit. My skills from making a media kit in COMM351 helped me create one for the ice cream party.
In an effort to further market next year's event, I filmed parts of the ice cream party in order to make a promotional video for next year's ice cream party. I used iMovie to create the video below highlighting this year's ice cream party and marketing next year's ice cream party.
In an effort to further market next year's event, I filmed parts of the ice cream party in order to make a promotional video for next year's ice cream party. I used iMovie to create the video below highlighting this year's ice cream party and marketing next year's ice cream party.
At the event, I also took pictures of people enjoying ice cream. Below is a slideshow of some of the photographs I took from the 31st Annual National Ice Cream Party. The social media team and I thought that documenting the event would be good for record keeping and future marketing for next year's event. I snapped photographs of IDFA staff and volunteers who scooped ice cream throughout the event as well as several attendees who enjoyed trying all the of different flavors we offered.
I reached my goal successfully, which can be seen in the Facebook page's analysis. Two spreadsheets are depicted below. The first spreadsheet depicts IDFA's Facebook page's analysis and the spreadsheet below that is the Facebook page's analysis for June. I compared my impact through Facebook by comparing the results from May, the month before my internship began, and the month of June, when my internship started.