{"id":6968,"date":"2010-08-31T09:23:20","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T09:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=6968"},"modified":"2010-08-31T09:23:20","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T09:23:20","slug":"if-you-must-stage-a-groundbreaking-event-try-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/publicity\/if-you-must-stage-a-groundbreaking-event-try-this\/","title":{"rendered":"If you MUST stage a groundbreaking event, try this"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2010\/08\/groundbreakingphoto2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6969\" style=\"float: left;margin-left: 10px;margin-right: 10px;margin-top: 8px;margin-bottom: 8px\" title=\"groundbreakingphoto2\" src=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2010\/08\/groundbreakingphoto2.jpg\" alt=\"community groundbreaking in fairfax, virginia\" width=\"250\" height=\"167\" \/><\/a>You can lump groundbreaking ceremonies,\u00a0check-passings and ribbon-cuttings into one category.<\/p>\n<p> They&#8217;re tired, lifeless events staged for the media and to stroke the organizers&#8217; egos. Smart Publicity Hounds avoid them at all costs.<\/p>\n<p>But if you absolutely MUST have a groundbreaking event because your boss demands it, here&#8217;s a different twist on a tired theme. It&#8217;s courtesy of Lois Kirkpatrick of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services in Fairfax, Va. Lois submitted a &#8220;Help This Hound&#8221; question for my blog and ezine a few weeks ago, and got some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicityhound.com\/blog\/wanted-alternatives-to-dreaded-ground-breaking-events\" target=\"_blank\">great ideas from my readers<\/a> about alternatives to cliche groundbreaking ceremonies.<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2010\/08\/groundbreakingphoto11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6973\" style=\"float: left;margin-left: 10px;margin-right: 10px;margin-top: 6px;margin-bottom: 6px\" title=\"groundbreakingphoto1\" src=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2010\/08\/groundbreakingphoto11.jpg\" alt=\"man with daughter at community groundbreaking event\" width=\"175\" height=\"197\" \/><\/a>When Lois emailed her question to me, she mentioned a clever idea for a groundbreaking her department hosted several years ago that actually resulted in fabulous publicity in her local\u00a0weekly newspaper.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 60px\">&#8220;We asked the community to bring their own shovels, trowels, pick axes&#8212;any kind of digging implement they had&#8212;to help us break ground. So we ended up with a bunch of kids digging in the dirt, surrounded by VIPs. The attached aren&#8217;t the photos that took up the entire front page of a local paper, but they give you an idea of the event.<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px\">&#8220;It was very successful!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> How about other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicityhound.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">fun alternatives to\u00a0traditional groundbreakings, ribbon-cuttings and check-passings<\/a>? What have you done in your own community to generate publicity for these otherwise staid events?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can lump groundbreaking ceremonies,\u00a0check-passings and ribbon-cuttings into one category. They&#8217;re tired, lifeless events staged for the media and to stroke the organizers&#8217; egos. Smart Publicity Hounds avoid them at all costs. But if you absolutely MUST have a groundbreaking event because your boss demands it, here&#8217;s a different twist on a tired theme. It&#8217;s\u2026&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/publicity\/if-you-must-stage-a-groundbreaking-event-try-this\/\" class=\"rmlink\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":9,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[691],"tags":[46],"class_list":{"0":"post-6968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-publicity","7":"tag-event-promotion","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}