15 Oct 2014

MGI Central America Circle meeting gets TV coverage

MGI firms from Central America have gained widespread media coverage of a recent meeting.

Member focus on MGI Chile Monroy y Asociados and how to create media buzz around your events.

A meeting of firms from across MGI Latin America in Guatemala has gained widespread media coverage, with news of the event broadcast on TV and radio. 

Television station Canal Antigua covered the first Central America Circle meeting to take place outside Mexico. It also made the news on radio stations Emisoras Unidas and Radio Punto, while newspapers El Periodico, Siglo 21 and Prensa Libre splashed the event across their pages.

The meeting was staged in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and saw eight delegates from six countries attend, representing all MGI member firms from within the Central America sub-region.

Oscar Chile Monroy, meeting host from member firm MGI Chile Monroy y Asociados, set up a press conference that resulted in this impressive media coverage for the MGI brand. 

Here he sets out a few ideas for achieving the same for your meetings.

Topical

The first step to getting noticed is building the meeting around a subject that will appeal beyond accountants, says Ricardo of MGI P&P Asociados Contadores Públicos in Venezuela. In this case it was about fiscal incentives for attracting new investors to Central America. “The media coverage was possible because there was a main topic which was interesting and attractive for the external audience,” he explains.

Thought leadership

MGI members should also build thought leaders on certain topics and promote themselves as such. Grant Field from MGI South Queensland in Australia is a useful example of this as he writes around lots of topical issues in local publications. 

In Central America, Oscar Chile is a recognised expert and his presence was vital. “He usually is requested by the media over taxation issues because he is an expert and has this kind of exposure,” says Ricardo, who notes that he also writes articles for the press.

MGI firms should therefore identify who has this kind of exposure and use this as an advantage to gain coverage of meetings.

Ambition

MGI members should also not be afraid to be a bit more ambitious about the scope of their meetings. Rather than focusing on subjects like IFRS that appeal to a narrow audience, take a broader look at what matters to your clients, such as business taxes and investment opportunities.

Ricardo says: “For example, we are thinking to invite to our Lima meeting the next year, Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian Nobel Prize winner. Ambitious? Yes but if we can do that, the media will cover our event.”

View the MGI Latin America TV Coverage here, television station Canal Antigua.