TOPIC:

One way of helping to get articles in the print media is to write them ourselves and offer them free. Some media are often looking for fill in articles that do not cost them money to produce.

I thought it was an excellent and inclusive article. My only tiny beef would be with the title "Home Brew". But I was pleasently surprised at how accurate the article was (cheers to the Beoir consultant) and also how sympathetic it was to the concept of Irish craft brewing. I never thought I would see the day that an article of this type could and would be written reflecting the current quiet revelution that is happening. I'm getting all emotional now......

"thebeernut":2tg3vsul wrote: it doesn't need to raise its profile solely for the purpose of raising its profile.[/quote:2tg3vsul]

I was thinking about this a bit: first of all I was excited by the article, and well done sbillings for getting content and accuracy out there etc.

But I was also thinking, no one knows who we are. And I question whether Beoir doesn't need to raise it's profile purely for that sake, i.e. letting potentially interested people (I don't mean brewers, journos etc) know that we are here. The article is great for people who literally don't know that there is such a thing as craft beer in ireland, and are ready to find out all about it, and maybe from their perspective it's not important what Beoir is. But I also think that there are people out there who do know a little about craft beer, who drink craft beer, and maybe even have strong feelings about craft beer, and yet, if they weren't in to brewing, and migrated to Beoir from ICB they might never know we existed.

Perhaps this issue is getting back to something that should be on the Beoir forum, but I thought that part of what we were about was trying to organise a movement of ordinary drinkers that can make a difference by, for a simple example, favouring bars that stock craft beer over those that don't. Of course educating people that craft beer exists is the first step, and the article is great, but surely many people who read the article might already know that, and yet not know about beoir even though they might be predisposed to support the movement, and so it would be good if we could have let them know we exist, there's a website with a directory etc.

Again this is not a criticism of anything to do with the article, I was delighted to see such exposure for craft beer, and everyone, getting a mention. I just wondered in reaction to what TBN said above whether a little bit of self promotion in order to mobilise some people who probably already agree with us would not be a good idea.

"RichieH":25uq3o8n wrote: But I was also thinking, no one knows who we are. [/quote:25uq3o8n]This isn't true. If you mean we don't have the same profile as Amnesty or IBEC, I trust you can see why that is. Which isn't to say that we aren't trying to get there.

"RichieH":25uq3o8n wrote: But I also think that there are people out there who do know a little about craft beer, who drink craft beer, and maybe even have strong feelings about craft beer, and yet, if they weren't in to brewing, and migrated to Beoir from ICB they might never know we existed.[/quote:25uq3o8n]I agree. And we're picking up new ones all the time. It's an area, I think, that the mainstream media is of less use than word-of-mouth (or word-of-t-shirt). At the same time I do think we should have a higher profile in the real world, hence the pub sticker thing as a starting point.

"RichieH":25uq3o8n wrote: I thought that part of what we were about was trying to organise a movement of ordinary drinkers that can make a difference by, for a simple example, favouring bars that stock craft beer over those that don't.[/quote:25uq3o8n]I'd be very disappointed if you think we aren't doing that. If you want to go into this further please do, though it might be better on the members' board, as you say.

"RichieH":25uq3o8n wrote: Of course educating people that craft beer exists is the first step, and the article is great, but surely many people who read the article might already know that, and yet not know about beoir even though they might be predisposed to support the movement, and so it would be good if we could have let them know we exist, there's a website with a directory etc.[/quote:25uq3o8n]That is true, but there's only so much space on a page and I don't think it would be right to start backseat-editing the article to fit Beoir in. Personally, I'd also be a lot happier to promote the directory if there weren't so many places missing from it, but it's getting done. Updating it is the primary reason that other stuff hasn't been happening, in fact.

Fair enough all in all

"TheBeerNut":3opodjpn wrote:

"RichieH":3opodjpn wrote: But I was also thinking, no one knows who we are. [/quote:3opodjpn]This isn't true. If you mean we don't have the same profile as Amnesty or IBEC, I trust you can see why that is. Which isn't to say that we aren't trying to get there.[/quote:3opodjpn]

Well no I didn't mean that, and I suppose I'm not sure how many people know who we are. I'm not sure how we would find that out.

"TheBeerNut":3opodjpn wrote:

"RichieH":3opodjpn wrote: I thought that part of what we were about was trying to organise a movement of ordinary drinkers that can make a difference by, for a simple example, favouring bars that stock craft beer over those that don't.[/quote:3opodjpn]I'd be very disappointed if you think we aren't doing that. If you want to go into this further please do, though it might be better on the members' board, as you say.[/quote:3opodjpn]

no I never said I though we weren't doing that. What I did say was that given that doing that is one of our aims, I didn't see why we would shy away from self promotion for it's own sake, or rather, for the sake of letting such ordinary drinkers know we exist

"TheBeerNut":3opodjpn wrote: I'd also be a lot happier to promote the directory if there weren't so many places missing from it, but it's getting done. Updating it is the primary reason that other stuff hasn't been happening, in fact.[/quote:3opodjpn]

well yes that is also fair enough. Like I said, I didn't mean to criticise anything that has been done, I was just taking issue with the idea that self promotion was not something that Beoir needs to do.

"DrJohn":2qmbbw9y wrote: I never thought I would see the day that an article of this type could and would be written reflecting the current quiet revelution that is happening. I'm getting all emotional now......[/quote:2qmbbw9y]
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has...
[i:2qmbbw9y]Margaret Mead[/i:2qmbbw9y]