There aren’t many PR consultancies who can claim to work at every end of the food supply chain. Recently, the Leapfrog PR team was working right at the start of the process which enables food to be served at tables every day, by handling PR for the ProTerra Foundation Conference, an annual event for the European agri-foods industry.
Focussing on the supply of sustainable sourcing of commodities and particularly soy, a vital ingredient in both feed and food, this is the third ProTerra Foundation Conference that Leapfrog has worked on. This year’s event was held in Hamburg with more than 120 delegates from Brazil, central Europe and in particular Germany where non GM is a ‘hot topic’, Switzerland, India and the UK. Speakers ranged from experts in agri-foods, to university lecturers, soy producers and certification experts, all looking at improvements to the supply of sustainability produced, non GM soy for the food industry. Leapfrog works in partnership with Pulse Events, a specialist company that devises and implements corporate conferences throughout Europe.
In the run up to the conference, we undertook a drip feed of news information to the specialist feed and agri-press including specialist German agriculture magazines. A number of in-depth interviews were set up in order to drive registrations to the conference but also to promote the work of the ProTerra Foundation and its certification programmes. Years of working in this sector mean that we are able to talk knowledgeably to journalists about a complex subject matter. Leapfrog also used social media – in particular Twitter – in the run up the conference to engage with stakeholders and other interested parties. GM is a controversial issue and a great deal of dialogue was generated!
Several German journalists also attended the event, with Leapfrog providing interview opportunities and follow up with coverage due to appear in early December.
“The ProTerra Conference is hard work but great fun. From registration at 7.30am, requests for translations, managing speakers and their presentations, through to lively debates and discussion on challenging issues and the final taxi back to the airport it is a great event to be part of. We work well with both the Pulse and the ProTerra teams to create an event that is talked about throughout the agri-food industry and that is very satisfying”, explains Leapfrog Director Stephanie Whitmore.