In 2010 I ... promoted an outdoor concert

I really enjoy working in public/media relations. It's sort of competitive to see just how much coverage you can secure for a client, and it's really fun when you have something that sells itself as well as the annual Basilica Block Party. So for the 6th consecutive year, I spent months promoting the heck out of this fundraiser of a concert, which wrapped this weekend.

The two-day affair takes an incredible amount of dedication from countless people, a vast majority of whom, like me, volunteer their time. For me, it's a great way to stay connected to local media contacts, keep my pitching skills sharp and gain event experience. But it truly is a ton of work, so I roped in the PR-savvy Brooke to assist. After the way she unflinchingly handled the tattoo supporting role, I knew she'd have no problems with the block party.

So pitch we did, landing more than 35 segments in two days. Observe:

Co-chair Drew with Holly Wagner of WCCO-4

Co-chair Maggie with M.A. Rosko of FOX-9

Battle of the Bands winner hunter(HERO) with FOX-9 and KSTP-5

Fr. Bauer with KARE-11

A dreamy PR dream - all local TV stations reporting live on-site

Of course this doesn't factor in the weeks of pre-event coverage, or print and radio mentions, but TV coverage the days of the event seem to really impact event promotion, which equates to ticket sales. The ultimate gift for all of this work was Saturday night's sell-out crowd of 15,000.

Beyond all that, the media team managed to have quite a bit of fun, too:

Maggie, Brooke and Sally ... working hard or hardly working?

Drew, Maggie, Sally and Brooke recovering from a very early wake-up call

Crusin' in cart #6! Carts totally trump walkie-talkies.

Don't mess with the media/all-access passes. Thanks for the photo booth, Vita.mn!

Why we do it.

Thanks is in order to the entire media team, including B, Maggie, Drew, Sally, Angie, Jess, Hayley and of course Meghan and Emily.

25,000 people showed up to see Weezer, Spoon, Barenaked Ladies, The Avett Brothers (the best show of the weekend), V.V. Brown (amazing!), Ingrid Michaelson, Guster .... the list goes on. And I was lucky enough to be a part of it.