By Sophie Hulme, Communications INC Director & Co-founder
International conferences are playing a growing role in conservation efforts. Whether the focus is the ocean, biodiversity or climate, they bring together the governments, scientists, businesses and communities responsible for shaping global policy.
But the media capacity to cover them is under pressure. Shrinking newsroom budgets, fewer international correspondents, shifting editorial priorities and the closure of regional bureaux mean fewer journalists can travel to major summits. Those who do often face packed schedules, with little time to look beyond the conference venue. Reporting can consequently concentrate on announcements and official statements, leaving the lived experience behind those decisions untold.
For organisations investing significant time and resources in these events, that presents both a challenge and an opportunity.
The truth is the most compelling stories rarely begin in a conference room. They begin in communities experiencing rising sea levels, among fishers adapting to changing marine ecosystems, or with Indigenous peoples working to protect the biodiversity that underpins their way of life. These are the stories that connect international policy with the real world, helping audiences understand why global agreements matter long after delegates have returned home.
That is why well-designed media tours have become a central part of our approach to media relations. Media tours provide journalists with the opportunity to meet local communities, scientists, businesses and conservation practitioners whose lived experiences bring complex policy discussions to life. Rather than simply reporting what was agreed, journalists can explore why those decisions matter, who they affect and what success, or failure, looks like on the ground.
For civil society organisations, governments and funders, the benefits extend well beyond individual news stories. Bringing journalists together with local voices creates relationships that often continue long after an event has concluded. It builds trust, strengthens understanding of complex issues and encourages more nuanced reporting that reaches audiences far beyond those already engaged in international policy.
With support from funders and NGOs, this approach has been central to Comms INC’s work supporting global conferences.
Most recently, during the 11th Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, we worked with partners including Oceana and Wildlife Conservation Society to design and deliver a media programme that extended well beyond the conference venue. Ten journalists from six outlets joined a two-day media tour built around two storylines: coral reef resilience, tied to the launch of the 50 Reefs+ report, and fisheries transparency, tied to the Mombasa Declaration. Structured access to community leaders and issue experts on both topics led to feature coverage from AFP, CNBC Africa, South China Monitoring Post and Citizen TVA, among others.
These experiences provided context that no panel discussion could fully capture, enabling reporters to produce richer stories rooted in both policy and place.
The same philosophy has guided our work across other major international events, including the 10th Our Ocean Conference in Busan, South Korea. Journalists met Haenyeo women divers, visited a Marine Protected Area, and toured Busan’s Fisheries Monitoring Centre, connecting policy discussions on fishing and shipping to the infrastructure behind them. Coverage followed from IPS News, Mongabay and The Guardian, including pieces on Haenyeo cultural heritage and Indigenous ocean governance.
During the CBD COP16 in Cali, Colombia, carefully planned field visits connected delegates’ discussions on biodiversity with the ecosystems and communities those negotiations sought to protect. In each case, taking journalists beyond the conference centre created opportunities for reporting that reached broader audiences and generated stories that endured long after the final communiqué was agreed.
Effective media tours require careful planning, local partnerships, strong editorial judgement and a clear understanding of what makes a story relevant to diverse audiences. They involve identifying credible local voices, balancing policy with human experience, anticipating journalists’ needs and ensuring that visits are both informative and respectful of the communities involved.
As international conferences continue to grow in number and complexity, the value of this kind of support will only increase. In an increasingly competitive media environment, organisations cannot assume that important issues will automatically receive meaningful coverage. Creating opportunities for journalists to experience the realities behind global policy discussions is becoming an essential part of effective communications.
For funders and partners, supporting media engagement in this way also represents a high-value investment. A single well-reported feature connecting international agreements with local impact and people-centred stories can reach a global audience, and contribute to building public understanding of why international cooperation matters.
At Comms INC, we believe the best communications strategies do more than amplify announcements. They create the conditions for better storytelling. By helping journalists move beyond the negotiating table and into the communities where global decisions are felt most acutely, we aim to help produce reporting that is more human and better grounded in lived experience.
Because when conferences end, it is those stories that endure.