Does Not Compute

This might be useful for event-holders who want publicity in local Press/media: just cut and paste what follows into an email and send to local Press. Find your local press contact details here. (For more advice on publicising your event, go here.)

SILVER SURFERS’ DAY 2009 (SSD09) IS ON MAY 15^th, 2009

PRESS RELEASE FROM <YOUR ORGANISATION>

DATE:

TITLE:  Silver Surfers’ Day Event at <rough location> on <date>

NEWS: 8 out of 10 older people in the UK still can’t access online services – they aren’t media literate. SSD09 gives us all the chance to change that.

Media literacy, in today’s digital age, is more important than ever. It can facilitate a more convenient, cheaper, community-rich lifestyle. Older people, who have so much to gain from the online world, are still largely missing out. SSDO9 will reach many thousands of older people in hundreds of locations around the UK and do something very tangible about redressing that imbalance.

 Digital Unite (DU) is managing the seventh annual Silver Surfers’ Day Campaign.  Devised in 2002 by DU, SSD is the biggest annual media literacy campaign aimed at older people. (http://digitalunite.com ) 

[SAMPLE TEXT: CHANGE TO SUIT]

 <Name of organisation> is holding a <free/low cost> Silver Surfers’ Day Event on <date/day/time>.

 WHO CAN ATTEND:

Anyone over 50 is welcome to attend. They can come whatever their ‘stage’ of media literacy, to;

 - ask questions/observe

 - or have 45-60-minute ‘taster’ sessions on the basics of Internet/email or even blogging, Facebook or BBC i-player

WHERE: <Address> <Information re parking/public transport/disabled access> 

WHEN: <Date, day, times>

COST: <Free or nearly free, in which case how much?>

DO VISITORS NEED TO BOOK? <yes/no/advisable, contact name, phone number, best times to ring>

WHAT IF VISITORS AREN’T CLOSE ENOUGH TO THIS EVENT? Ask them to call the Learn Direct call centre number to find an alternative local event:   0800 100 900

 OR  Check (on their behalf) on http://silversurfers.digitalunite.com for this and other Events in the locality. 

CONTACTS <A named person + as many different ways of contacting them as you can find: email, mobile, landline, fax>

EDITORS’ NOTES:

About Digital Unite (DU)

DU, media literacy experts for older people, have managed and run Silver Surfers’ Day for the past five years and offer free resources for Event Holders, large or small, on http://silversurfers.digitalunite.com .

Once someone has had a first good experience, they generally become hooked: ‘It’s a moving walkway; once you’ve tasted online life, you’re “away”. But if there’s no one there to help you embark, you’re left further and further behind.’ Emma Solomon, MD, Digital Unite

DU has had extraordinary Event Holders over the years: a Wake-Boarding Club, a Thames sailing barge, an allotment in Hackney. With your help, your publicity, we will have more volume, more variety than ever this year.

 As one Event Holder says: ‘Silver Surfers, they’re my baby. I had never touched a computer, and I knew what it was like to feel unskilled.’

For further information about DU and Silver Surfers’ Day, contact:

E: du@digitalunite.net T: Freephone 0800 822 3951 W: http://digitalunite.com

April 2nd, 2009 gilladams | 1 Comment »

Tags: events, press, release, sample

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