Education
The Birnbach Communications' team has extensive education PR experience, including working with the University of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Department of Education, Plymouth State University, Emmanuel College, MyJewishLearning.com (an initative developed in part by Hebrew College); M.I.T.; Mind Extension University (now Jones International University) and University of Colorado at Boulder; the Library of Congress; the Vatican Library; and Israel's two leading scientific institutes, Technion Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Additionally, we have worked with technology companies like Bradford Networks, Software Secure, Vericept, and Q1 Labs, whose customer base includes academic customers.

On behalf of Bradford Networks, which provides Network Access Control to more than 250 schools and universities, we've generated news and coverage in the academic technology media. After Bradford's Campus Manager secured move-in for more than half a million students, faculty, and staff at hundreds of educational institutions worldwide in Sept. 2006, saving IT departments signficant stress and time, we secured a case study in Campus Technology's "101 Best Practices" and coverage in eWeek and CRN.

For Software Secure, which make educational testing software that offers proven, patented solutions for secondary and higher education and distance learning environments, we launched the Securexam Remote Proctor System in 2007. Remote Proctor lets students take tests remotely, without having to travel to a testing center or arrange for an in-person proctor. For the millions of distance learning students, this is a great benefit since they tend to be nontraditional students whose busy lives prevent them from taking on-campus classes. For schools, like Troy University, Remote Proctor assures a level playing field of no cheating, which enhances the school's perception among students and employers. Results from the launch included the Chronicle of Higher Education and an Associated Press article that got picked up more than 100 times worldwide (Australia, England) as well as in USA Today, Washington Post, Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Forbes, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and others.

Our experience on behalf of MyJewishLearning.com involved launching the nonprofit website designed to serve as the most comprehensive interactive resource available for exploring Jewish religion, history and culture. MyJewishLearning.com's goal is to promote understanding by enabling Jews and non-Jews to explore the broad spectrum of the Jewish experience. Results included: stories in USA Today, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor; in The Forward, Jewish Week (New York), Philadelphia Jewish Exponent and a wire story by Jewish Telegraph Association (JTA), an international news service that reaches more than 100 Jewish community newspapers, magazines and Web sites.

We worked with Cohen Hillel Academy, a Jewish day school on Boston's North Shore, to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2006, and generated media coverage to support its gala celebration featuring actor/singer Mandy Patinkin. We developed the first strategic PR plan in the school's history, and are providing counsel to upgrade the school's PR capabilities.

Our experts relaunched distance education pioneer Mind Extension University, and announced its first MBA graduate; the Video News Release (VNR) we produced of the student's first time on the University of Colorado, Boulder campus, which was to collect her diploma, appeared in media nationwide, including ABC "World News Tonight," and won the prestigious Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). In addition to producing a 60-minute special public affairs cable program, "Campaign '92: The Candidates on Education," for Mind Extension University, our experience includes developing, supervising and implementing the PR plan to support the program and raise awareness of the network. We worked with the Library of Congress to announce the multimedia American Memory project; and with the Vatican Library to announce a similar electronic initiative.

Working with renowned economist and former Dean of M.I.T.'s Sloan School, Lester Thurow, we launched the $500,000 Lemelson-M.I.T. Prize for Innovation. Funded by the late independent inventor Jerome Lemelson, who held more than 500 U.S. patents (only a few inventors, notably Thomas Edison and Edward Land, held more), the Lemelson-M.I.T. Prize for Innovation was designed to inspire and reward individual inventors (as opposed to corporate R&D scientists). Resulting coverage of the prize and the reasons behind the award included: Business Week, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe, and Los Angeles Times.

Norman Birnbach participated in several panel discussions, including "How to Choose a PR Agency" and "How to Market to Non-Traditional Students" as part of the 2002 Annual Conference for Chief Public Relations Professionals in Cambridge, MA sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).