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The ban affects enclosed and semi-enclosed areas

From 1st of July 2007 virtually all enclosed public places and workplaces in England will become smoke free. A smoke free England will ensure a healthier environment, so everyone can socialise, relax, travel, shop and work free from second hand smoke.

To complement the new legislation Media Friendly are offering a tailored, one-day, Media Training course designed specifically for Smoke Free healthcare professionals and connected partnership bodies.

It will be run by a former BBC Health Correspondent with lots of experience in already delivering media training specifically to Smoke Free organisations. We have been involved in Smoke Free promotion since the introduction of NRT free for 10 weeks on the NHS – several years ago.

The Smoking in the Workplace ban will attract lots of media attention. You will increasingly be asked to speak to the media, often with very little time to prepare. We want to help you look relaxed when cameras point at you and reporters ask a dozen questions at once. But we also want to help you say exactly the right things – unscripted.

Speaking to the media is a completely different skill to speaking to colleagues in a friendly, supportive atmosphere. It requires practice in a real-life studio setting, with real journalists firing questions at you.

We want to give you this practice, in a safe, but real, environment, with a BBC Health Correspondent putting you through your paces in real-life situations involving tough questions about the opposition you will receive from many smokers and the tobacco industry.

We will help you:

• Develop the skills for effective Press, Radio and TV interviews.
• Speak unscripted on a wide range of smoke free subject especially the ban on smoking in public places.
• Have confidence in fielding media questions, while looking relaxed.
• Take control of media interviews, by understanding the process.
• Anticipate difficult questions in advance and prepare key messages very quickly to handle any situation.
• Look and sound confident, authoritative and relaxed while under enormous pressure from the media.

This Media Training Course will help you achieve successful media interviews. It will also show you how to build relationships with journalists, how to improve relations with the press and how to deal in a proactive way with unfavourable reporting, should that ever occur.

This is how it works.

The programme is divided into two – a short, theory based session followed by a more hands-on, practical session. Using video playback analysis, we ask you to take part in real life Press, Radio and Television interviews.

We devise a series of real-life, legal scenarios, directly relevant to your needs, and conduct a series of interviews, getting progressively more difficult, until you become adept at handling virtually anything the media can throw at you in a variety of formats.

We will come to you and build a mini radio and TV studio in your boardroom, where we will subject each participant to a newspaper, radio and television interview. You learn by doing, not by watching PowerPoint and the results we have achieved over ten years are outstanding.

We will cover a range of tailor made situations which might arise for you:

• Media enquiries following new smoking legislation in July.
• Local, regional and even national requests for media interviews.
• Handling a debate scenario with a member of FOREST.
• Handling a press conference.
• Doing live or pre-recorded interviews for radio and/or TV.
• Speaking to a trade journal about a Smoke Free initiative.
• Speaking to the media at very short notice.

For more information please use the contact form below.