To communicate the significance of bringing the Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator to the greater Knoxville community and East Tennessee.

Techstars is an operational investor that supports communities to develop entrepreneurial economies around innovative technology ventures. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee System worked collaboratively to bring Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator to East Tennessee.

Piper Communications developed the media relations strategy to announce the Techstars accelerator and coordinated with communications leads from TVA, ORNL, Techstars and UT to execute the strategy.

The approach involved messaging support, distributing a press release, creating a guest column, pitching features to local media outlets and coordinating media interviews. Cortney Piper, in her role as the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council’s Executive Director,  moderated a panel at the TVC Summit with the CEOs of TVA, ORNL and UT to formally announce and discuss the accelerator.

Media relations efforts resulted in 28 articles with an estimated 1.21 million coverage views.