International Media Analysis as a Cornerstone of Strategic Event Marketing


Organizing international conferences is more than just executing an event—it is an opportunity to shape trends in the sector and highlight local and global success stories. Choosing the right themes, speakers and PR strategy can turn an event into a key industry gathering that attracts the attention of both experts and the broader public.
Last October, the Estonian Space Office organized the International Software Defined Space Conference (SDSC), focusing on software development and cybersecurity in the space industry. As a PR partner of the conference, Meta Advisory helped raise the conference’s international and domestic visibility and strengthened Estonia’s position in the space sector.
Our activities, therefore, had three main focuses:
- attracting international journalists to attend the conference,
- highlighting stories related to Estonian companies in both local and international media,
- activate the space community on social media.
The Role of Media Monitoring in Building Strategy
A key role in the communication activities was played by the in-depth media analysis carried out for the Estonian Space Agency before the conference. We used the international media monitoring tool Meltwater to analyze space infrastructure and cybersecurity topics covered in European and North American media from 2020 to 2024.
International Media
Just as gaining media coverage for niche topics in Estonia is challenging, it is even more difficult to secure a spot in tier 1 publications internationally. How can we effortlessly find journalists and publications interested in space-related topics? Once again, we turned to Meltwater for support.
The monitoring tool helped us map out potential journalists to invite to the conference. We sent them personalized invitations, emphasizing the conference’s uniqueness, introducing panels aligned with their interests, and highlighting Estonian and international experts participating in the event. We showcased success stories from Estonian companies in the space sector to further spark interest.
For journalists attending the conference, we offered the opportunity to visit Estonian space technology companies. As a result of one interview, an article was published on space.com, which was cited in more than ten international publications.
Estonian Media
The space sector is a complex and in-depth field with a specific audience. Unlike the international media, no publications or journalists specialize in space in Estonia. Therefore, it was essential to find engaging and trendy topics that connected the space industry with broader societal impacts, presented from an interesting angle, and appealed to the general reader.
Additionally, we aimed to explain why the space sector is vital for a small country like Estonia and to provide an overview of its current state. To achieve this, we encouraged representatives of Estonian companies to participate in radio shows and offered them interview opportunities to increase interest and awareness of the sector’s developments.
Elon Musk is a name that sells in the media. Therefore, we linked Estonian companies’ space experience to Musk’s Starlink activities and discussed what expanding a single company’s influence in the space industry means from a cybersecurity perspective.
Activating the space community on social media
Conference participants recognize SDSC as a great meeting place for industry colleagues—a venue to see what others are working on, share experiences, and exchange ideas about the future of the space sector. We aimed to activate these messages on social media before the conference. To achieve this, we invited both Estonian and internationally recognized thought leaders to share their past experiences with the conference on LinkedIn.
International media analysis and targeted communication helped bring Estonia’s space sector success stories into both domestic and international media, thereby increasing interest in the conference as well as Estonia more broadly. As a result, Estonian companies were highlighted, and the development of the space industry was supported.