Let’s just say that after I got back home to D.C. after #IFA2018, I slept for roughly 10 hours a night for the next three days. But our second year of running the NextGen in Franchising Global Competition was a huge success, so, clearly, it was worth the countless hours we put into it over a period of nine months.
No doubt the highlight was working with the talented team at The Shark Group to coordinate Shark Tank star Daymond John’s appearance as a guest judge for the final round of the Global Competition on Feb. 13. John led a panel of judges for the final round, when the top three finalists pitched their concepts for cash prizes and potential investments from judges and attendees. Every seat was filled — and then some. (Staff had to bring in more chairs to accommodate for everyone that wanted to attend.)
Any PR rep that has tried to pitch event coverage over the last few years understands that in the age of slashed travel budgets and incredibly tight schedules, trying to convince even a local reporter to attend a grand opening is a difficult task. But trying to get a national business reporter to fly across the country to attend a business competition still relatively unknown outside of the IFA is probably the most difficult thing I’ve had to pitch in my career. We had an entire team behind our pitching efforts and — bravo! — landed interest from a contributor to Inc.com.
She traveled from New York City to Phoenix, on her own dime, to witness firsthand the incredible batch of 19 millennial entrepreneurs from around the world that we hosted at #IFA2018, as well as to interview Daymond John. The resulting story not only featured Daymond, but also linked back to NextGenFranchising.org — a rare treat in PR!
Check out the story below. And, just in case she reads this, thank you, Molly! You were an absolute pleasure to work with and we appreciate your interest in this program more than you know. J Drinks on this Fishie next time I’m in NYC!
https://www.inc.com/molly-reynolds/daymond-john-says-you-need-to-work-in-customer-service.html
