Action promotes campaigns across Europe to digitise historic memorabilia for future generations

Action Global Communications is collaborating with Action-Crossline in Slovakia and partner firm AC&C Public Relations in the Czech Republic to promote innovative PR campaigns for Europeana, the digital library of Europe, to encourage people to contribute historical memorabilia for digitisation. 

Each campaign focuses on a historically significant time for that nation, and members of the public are encouraged to share their experiences, stories and memorabilia from these historic times so that these important memories can be added to a digital archive for future generations to learn from.

In the Czech Republic, Action is working with AC&C Public Relations on a project commemorating the events of the Velvet Revolution in 1989.  Together with the project partner, the National Museum, AC&C organised the launch press conference which featured exceptional speakers and guests who were direct participants in the events of November 1989.  Journalists were invited to the press conference via “memory boxes” containing items relating to the revolutionary era of the year 1989, including a bunch of keys, tricolour ribbon, copies of the front pages of the newspapers of the era and an iconic poster of Vaclav Havel, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic. 

The campaign has been widely supported by the Czech media with coverage in all of the leading media such as Czech Television, Czech Radio, Czech Press Agency, Mlada fronta Dnes, Lidove noviny, Hospodarske noviny, Pravo, Denik, TV Metropol and Radio Impuls.

The campaign includes five collection days in Czech towns around the country where members of the public can contribute their own memorabilia and that of their family members.  So far, more than 1000 pieces of memorabilia have been contributed at collection days in Plzen, Hradec Kralove and Prague, with more expected at Olomouc (Saturday 23 November) and Opava on Saturday 30 November.

Meanwhile, Action-Crossline is currently beginning a similar PR campaign in Slovakia encouraging members of the public to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War I by saving important memories from disappearing.  The First World War greatly affected those living in what is now Slovakia with more than 400,000 men, or 15% of the total population, leaving their families as soldiers of the former Austrian-Hungarian Army.  Their families struggled with lack of food as harvests decreased by 50%. Almost 70,000 men never returned home and more than 61,000 returned heavily crippled.

The campaign’s press conference launch was widely supported by the media with 32 reports across TV, radio, print and online media already, as well as local historians and members of the community who attended.  During the preparations for the press conference, the campaign had its first contributor – a visitor to the library where the press conference was hosted- who offered to share his grandfather’s diary from the period of World War I. 

Three collection days are scheduled to take place in Slovakia; in Bratislava from 29-30 November; Košice, 6-7 December; and Martin, 13-14 December.

Action Global Communication has also successfully collaborated previously on PR campaigns in Cyprus and Romania to gather memorabilia regarding World War I, and in the Baltic Countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the Baltic Way.