How do I get national media coverage for a school event?

I’m a teacher at a magnet school in Las Vegas and we are doing a major science exhibition in March. This will involve the entire student body and staff. We have NASA officials coming, atomic scientists, rocket equipment, alternative fuel vehicles, NASA star lab, water authority, etc. We have invited the mayor as well. The entire school will have displays all over and even the parking lot will be filled with exhibits. This will be HUGE and we wanted to get the national spotlight. Any ideas on how to get it?

My guess is, start with the local outlets. Make sure the news organization at the TV stations in town, and the newspapers, are contacted. Send a note to the AP office too. Follow up with phone calls.

You’ll probably get some coverage that way. From there, you’ll have to see if it gets picked up nationally. Someone from the local channel would have to call NBC (or whatever) and suggest they run their story on it.

My guess is that this would be a good local story, but I don’t see an obvious hook to get national attention. But, it’s hard to tell on a one-paragraph description.

Good luck, sounds like fun.