December in Tech PR: How to Survive the Sprint to CES
December in PR is its own special kind of chaos. On paper it looks manageable: year end reporting, contract renewals, budgets, holiday coverage, and then CES sitting right on the other side of New Year’s.
It feels like trying to get a powder run in the northeast. You want the snow to be great, but the conditions make absolutely no sense, everything is melting around you, and somehow, you are still there for it. If you work in tech PR, you know exactly what I mean.
This month is the final sprint to wrap up everything from metrics to messaging. Clients want to close the year strong. Teams want to confirm renewals. Budgets are often in forecasts. Journalists are trying to get the last stories in before the break. Companies are looking to news dump that bad story idea they could never get anyone to take. And somewhere in there I am also supposed to have a life, buy gifts, wrap gifts (!), and show up at holiday events looking like I want to be there.
Then, there is CES. The show opens on January 6, which makes this week the start of CES crunch time. Press materials, storylines, product messaging, embargo plans, media lists, pitch angles. Swoosh.
If you’re heading up marketing at a tech company, you’re in this together with us. So how do you get it all done and not completely lose it, even if you’ve already *ahem* hired us to cover your PR needs?
The Playbook I Lean on Every Year
Here is the strategy I lean on every year:
- I front load December. Anything that can be finished early gets finished early. Reports, content drafts, renewals. I get them moving before December gets too crowded.
- I play to my strengths. I am a night owl, not a morning person. Afternoons can have the meetings and the fires. So the big thinking tasks, strategy work, and writing happen at night. I work with my energy, not against it.
- I (actually we at Caster) create a CES tracker. It is a single location where every workstream lives. Schedules, deadlines, media targets, assets, owners, status. If it is not in the war room, it may as well not exist.
- I reduce friction everywhere I can. I templatize things. I time block. I batch workloads. I automate reminders. I decide once. December has no room for extra decisions.
- I get ruthless about boundaries. December burnout is real. I am upfront with clients and my team about turnaround times. Last minute big swings do not land in December unless it is truly crisis PR, and for that, clients best have their checkbooks ready.
- I accept that it will not be perfect. Progress beats perfection every single time this month. CES glory is not built on flawless prep, it is built on being organized, proactive, and resilient.
Most of all, I try to remember that December does not last forever. On January 6 the show floor opens and everyone finally exhales. In the meantime, I drink my coffee until I can appropriately switch over to wine; I celebrate the wins; I applaud the finished work; and I remind myself that Vegas has a lot of really good restaurants that are on my expense account.
Need help planning for future trade shows? Give yourself plenty of lead time — contact us now.
