Challenge
PTEI challenged Dymun + Company with increasing awareness of the credibility and growing stature of the ETG Conference as the premier meeting of tissue engineering leaders. Both the 2002 and 2003 Conferences were held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in March.

Strategy
The agency first mapped a strategic plan for pre-conference media contacts and secured commitments from key trade and business editors for attendance and/or interviews.

During the ETG Conference, the agency strategically leveraged conference program agenda items with timely and relevant news topics, such as matching a Japanese delegation attending the Conference to advance commercialization of regenerative medicine products with the timely, broader news topic of international competitiveness in biotechnology.

On a broader scale, the agency's consistent contact with the media before, during and after the Conference reinforced ETG's position as the primary source of major news, trends and breakthroughs in global tissue engineering.

Results
PTEI measures the success of ETG visibility by total media impressions, which increased dramatically during both years of media relations management by the agency. Coverage has also broadened consistently in scope to include more trade, business and international media outlets.

In 2002, total media impressions of 12.5 million represented a 48% increase over 2001 coverage of six million impressions. Results for 2003, showed total impressions were 27.9 million, a 45% increase over 2002 results.

Just as important, news and feature coverage has consistently reinforced PTEI's key messages about the Conference to relevant target audiences, resulting in high-quality coverage that effectively positioned the Conference at the premier event in its category.