A publicist reflects…

When I accepted the position of publicist with THIN AIR, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into. I had already accepted another summer job – one that was full-time and quite demanding – and I had no idea how I would manage to juggle both.

But within days of accepting the position with the festival, my doubts were completely eradicated. I fell in love with the job, the staff, the writers and the volunteers, and suddenly I wanted to do nothing else…

A shot of my coworkers and me in the hospitality suite on opening night.

I'm the one on the left...

My favourite aspect of working for a small and local non-profit organization is the freedom that comes with it. I am literally the entire communications department, and I make decisions about what works, what doesn’t, and what I want to do next. If I have an idea to start a blog, I can, or if I want to create a contest on Twitter, I can. The sky is the limit when it comes to the initiatives I can implement as part of a non-profit organization, and my only restriction is budget.

There have been many new initiatives that I’ve introduced this year. Some have worked well, others not as much. As I tried new things – and monitored the results – I gradually figured out who my existing target audiences were. I also realized who wasn’t paying attention to my efforts, and started thinking about how to reach them in new and creative ways.

As of today, @WPGTHINAIR has 485 followers on Twitter. My goal was 500, but this is close enough that I’ll call it a success (especially since we had only 75 followers when I joined the staff in June). A big part of our growing number of followers are the contests that I offered in the weeks leading up to, and during, the festival. I gave away books, tickets and THIN AIR merchandise. People love free stuff, and I used that to my advantage.

I also created a new blog, which is aptly named THIN AIR: the blog. It was initially a forum for me to write about the books I was reading by writers who would participate in the festival in September. Currently, it has 2500 page views. I employed a team of bloggers during festival week, and they were responsible for attending events and writing about their experiences. This was a huge success, and I am very grateful to have a fantastic group of friends who agreed to help me when I needed them.

Our programs as they stood on the cobblestone at Oodena Celebration Circle...

Currently, I am in the process of revamping my communications plan for next year’s festival. I have every intention of returning and reclaiming my job. Having the freedom to make it my own has been an amazing experience, and I couldn’t imagine not being a part of the THIN AIR team.

*Photos copyright Leif Norman