Central Illinois PRSA Chapter Meeting

 On December 7^th, the Central Illinois Chapter of PRSA will reconvene just down the road from its last chapter meeting, which took place in Decatur.  The event will be held at the Sangamo Club located in our State’s Capitol.  The Sangamo Club is a historic establishment that has been in existence for over 100 years and has maintained memberships with many of Illinois’ most recognizable leaders and organizational figureheads.

Aside from their selective collection of notable members, the club houses many luxurious rooms that often find themselves the setting for various professional development sessions, not unlike PRSA’s.  The session will begin at 6:00 p.m. with social hour which will allow for attendees to mingle and network before dinner which will be served at 6:45 p.m. 

 Helio Fred Garcia will be the presenter for the evening.  Gracia is the founder, president and executive director at LOGOS INSTITUTE for Crisis Management and Executive Leadership, which provides consultation  services  for various organizations concerning strategies to maximize their relationships with key stakeholders.  In addition to his position at LOGOS; Garcia has authored many acclaimed books specializing in Public Relations and Crisis Management.  The second edition of his most recent work, Reputation Management: The Key to Successful Public Relations and Corporate Management (co-written by John Doorley), was recently published.  As if all these were not enough, he is an interim professor at New York University which PR Week has deemed as having the “best PR education program in the U.S.”

Helio Fred Garcia

The focus of the presentation will be on organization strategy and behavior including how to respond particularly in times of distress with an emphasis on the relationships between the organizations and their key stakeholders.  Leadership skills for individuals in charge of organizations will also on the agenda.  Again, this is relative to maintaining the confidence of the organization’s key stakeholders. 

For more information about the next meeting of the Central Illinois Chapter of PRSA, visit their website.  Reservations can also be made through Ruth Slottag at rslottag@aol.com or (217)793-8200.

A Personal Network?

With a 50 Friends Limit, Path Is the Opposite of Twitter

Found this article on yet another social network... what do you guys think? Unnecessary or useful? I like that it is focused on being personal. I like to keep my facebook as personal as possible... it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. In my opinion, the concept is nice. I'm just not sure if it is realistic, especially considering how social media saturated we are.

Inception Marketing

Check this out. If you have seen the movie Inception, this article discusses the possibility of using the tool, in a less science fiction kind of way, as a communications strategy. I thought it was really interesting!

Inception Marketing

New Banner

My new banner at the top of the page represents my ascent out of the darkness of  uncertainty into the light of understanding.  It represents what I hope to get out of this blog!

Globalization: Is it necessary?

It is safe to say that every post I add to this blog for the next couple of weeks will, in some way, shape or form, be related to my recent experience in Washington D.C. at the PRSSA National Convention.  Considering I have nearly half a notebook filled with questions and information that I took away with me, I think that is quite appropriate!

One of the sessions I attended, which I didn't think I would be particularly compelled by, considering my approaching graduation, was pertaining to chapter development.  The subject, globalization, got me thinking.

West Virginia University's PRSSA chapter presented on the steps they took in transitioning their campaigns from local to national and finally global.  If you are interested in what they did, I encourage you to contact them or try and find more information on their website.

I understood the concept of globalization but I couldn't help wondering why in the world something like a public relations agency would want to initiate it for themselves.  I understand outsourcing for businesses because it is way cheaper, but why would a company in the United States take on a campaign in another country and more importantly, another culture?

I can't remember where I heard this story, but I recall someone telling me about a company using the word "cahones" in a commercial for one of their products without being aware of what the word meant in Spanish.  In English, the word eludes to a certain, highly-objectified, region of the female anatomy and is quasi-acceptable when used humorously, however in Spanish it is  basically equivalent to c#!t... which you can imagine might upset many Spanish speaking people who were exposed to the ad.  The damage control had to have made the campaign not worth it. With nightmares like these looming around the corners, who would want to put themselves in that position?

 Then, I started pondering other reasons why organizations outside of the United States might be turning to our agencies to create their campaigns.  It occurred to me that we are probably the most message inundated country in the world and, as such, our PR firms are well adapted to "breaking through the clutter" and creating campaigns that are memorable and effective.  Wallah!  I am satisfied with the answer.

Why would an agency want to go global?  Because there is a market for it and tons of money to be made...

It is obvious that, as the world gets smaller thanks to technological advances in communication and ease of travel, globalization is inevitable.  Job outsourcing is taking place on a large scale and, as such, it is becoming ever more important to be culturally sensitive and aware.  The difficulty with taking on a job whose audiences are part of a completely different culture is that you can't treat it as you would a job aimed at those who are members of your own culture.

Learning another language or at least educating yourself on the belief systems and views of people in other cultures WILL give you the upper hand in this rapidly-changing and ever-shrinking sphere we call home.  Is globalization necessary?  Yes.  It is inevitable and, as such, you must adapt if you want to stay marketable in the future.

Enjoy this crash course on intercultural communications set to some lovely relaxation music!

Rough Cut TV Spot for Electronic Media class

This is the first video I have produced of this nature. As the title suggests, it is only a rough cut. I'm trying to get as many eyes to see it as possible so I can get feedback on what I should do to make it better. Is the message clear? I know there is some background noise which I will remove for the final cut. I need criticism!

Systemizing PR Strategies

At the PRSSA Conference I saw Alan Kelly, CEO of Playmaker Systems, present on the systematization of the the language which PR professionals use to describe the different strategies/tactics we use to meet our goals.

The idea is that every other profession has some sort of standard language or tool they use to communicate knowledge to one another, i.e. the Periodic Chart for chemists etc.  However, in the communications industries we have never really implemented a tool such as this which has resulted in the creation of tons of different languages for the same ideas.  As you can guess, this could become a problem and huge time waster when two organizations decide to work together.

In response, Alan Kelly and his colleagues at Playmaker Systems have created a chart which, fittingly, resembles the Periodic Chart.

www.plays2run.com

Personally, I am happy someone is taking the initiative and looking into this.  As a student of PR, I have often been confused and wished that there had been something like this for me to refer to.  Check out their website.  There is tons of information and they elaborate extensively!  Let me know what you think about the work they are doing or if you've seen anything similar.

Alan Kelly discussing the Standard Table of Influence Strategies: