Case Studies

WorldPride Human Rights Conference

Overview

From June 25-27, 2014, in conjunction with WorldPride 2014 Toronto, the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies hosted the WorldPride Human Rights Conference which welcomed hundreds of LGBTI leaders, activists, artists, educators, journalists, policymakers, and students from around the world. Pennant Media Group Ltd. was hired to promote the conference’s purpose of providing a unique opportunity for a global dialogue about LGBTI human rights, ranging from performances to presentations, politics to policies, and activists to academics.

PMGs Approach

With the world stage coming to Toronto during the 2014 WorldPride, PMG used this opportunity to promote the WorldPride Human Rights Conference as an important and essential component that allows not only the city of Toronto to educate themselves on LGBTI issues all across the globe, but as a way to promote the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies as a platform for free speech to openly discuss these important topics. With hundreds of speakers speaking on a variety of LGBTI subject matters in relation to the situations in their own countries, PMG highlighted each one to be featured and interviewed by a slew of different media outlets. We also put the spotlight on the co-chairs of the conference emphasizing their important roles in putting the event together. Leading up to the conference itself, PMG also handled all media accreditations and all on-site media requests.

Results

As a result, PMG attained numerous media hits in the country’s biggest news media outlets including a two page spread in the Globe and Mail, Canada AM, CBC News The National, SiriusXM Canada Radio, the Toronto Star, ProudFM, NOW Magazine, the Huffington Post Canada, CTV News Toronto, DailyXtra, and the Grid Newspaper, just to name a few. We were also able to secure features and interviews from international media who were present in Toronto for WorldPride. Additionally, Ugandan activist, Richard Lusimbo’s interview with CanadaAM talking about the current situation of the LGBTI community in Uganda went viral resulting in over millions of impressions.