Just When You Thought Seeds of Compassion Was Done...

For those of you who were part of Seeds of Compassion and His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visit to Seattle in April, you can relive it here.

For those who weren't part of it, read on:

Last month Porter Novelli Seattle was fortunate to have the opportunity to manage the communications efforts for the recent visit by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Seattle. Over the course of five days in April, Porter Novelli led the public relations strategy for Seeds of Compassion, a secular and non-political event with the goal of nurturing kindness and compassion in the world starting with children and all those who touch their lives. Through the event the important message of compassion reached more than 150,000 attendees in person and an additional 80 million through television, print, radio and online communities.

We were honored to be a part of this unprecedented effort and to lead one of the largest media management undertakings that our region has seen. Porter Novelli was responsible for coordinating more than 400 members of the media over the course of five days and assuring they passed U.S. Department of State and Diplomatic Security Service scrutiny. From international press outlets, to the Today Show and New York Times, and all local news groups, the Porter Novelli team led an incredibly complex and delicate credentialing effort that resulted in worldwide attention on both the Seeds of Compassion and His Holiness' messages to the world.

As a Nobel Peace Prize winner, a renowned author, and the most highly sought after speaker on the planet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was in high demand during his Seattle visit. Again, Porter Novelli was humbled to be chosen to manage His Holiness' personal media schedule. Given the political sensitivities of the time, the conflict between Tibet and China, and the world awaiting the Dalai Lama's response on the Beijing Olympics it was clear that Seattle would be the center of history making announcements as the Dalai Lama spoke of the concern for his country.

In a highly anticipated interview, we worked with Ann Curry of the Today Show granting her the first US interview with His Holiness in this politically charged time. Her piece, which aired in a lengthy four-minute segment on the Nightly News with Brian Williams unleashed a flood of media activities resulting in more than 1000 broadcast stories and 100 print stories during the event. Through all the coverage--reaching an estimated 80 million people worldwide--Porter Novelli's media relations team balanced messaging to assure the higher profile Tibet story did not overshadow the real reason for the visit, the emotional and social development of youth. In all, key media pick-up represented that effort with the majority of coverage containing all major message points and highly positive headlines like the AP's: "The Dalai Lama Talks Compassion, Not Tibet". Additionally, we secured His Holiness' only radio interview, an almost eight minute conversation with Renee Montagne, host of NPR's Morning Edition.

As a special seal of approval from the Seeds of Compassion organizing committee, the Seattle New Media Team became the only new media team allowed to cover the event, resulting in podcasting, vodcasting and vlogging. Our challenge was to develop content that would extend the dialog from the initial five-day event to an ongoing online conversation. In addition to helping build a social networking site, www.committedconversations.com, our New Media Team conducted on-the-ground and behind-the-scene interviews. The video and podcast interviews were produced wholly in-house in Porter Novelli Seattle's podcast studio.