A few of FPRA's Chapters have received some post-conference media coverage:
Public relations group named best in the state - Sarasota Herald-Tribune (August 24)
Dick Pope/Polk County FPRA Chapter Makes Mark on FPRA State Conference - PolkVoice.com (August 19)
People & Changes - Lakeland Ledger (August 11)
Polk FPRA wins pair of state awards - News Chief (August 9)
This morning marks one week since the 70th FPRA Annual Conference officially kicked off in Kissimmee. This post will be my final look at blog Web stats related to the conference.
Total unique visitors: 2,570
Total page views: 8,810
The average visitor stayed on this blog for 4 minutes, 52 seconds.
Compared to our 2007 conference blog coverage, these stats represent a 16 percent increase in unique visitors and a 24 percent increase in total page views.
This blog has allowed our Association to reach individuals we might not have reached otherwise. It has allowed us to share information about our growing profession with others living outside the state... and the country. Despite being one of 112.8 million blogs worldwide, the FPRA Blog found a niche and reeled in more than 2,500 unique visitors in one week.
Thanks, again, to our dedicated blog team who made it happen: Suzanne Dameron, Kelly Donovan, Melissa Filipkowski, Amanda Forbes, Chris Gent, Dr. Allen Moore, APR, Paul Ramey, APR. Special thanks to Paul Ramey, APR for championing the cause with FPRA's Executive Committee and to the FPRA State Office for assisting with promotion and logistics.
Disc jockey Allen Moore, APR put this video together from Monday night's Foundation Funk-tion. Check it out...
This blog enjoyed a steady stream of visitors throughout FPRA's annual conference on Aug. 3-6.
That trend continued Thursday -- one day after the conference -- when the blog drew an additional 266 unique visitors.
Here are the totaled stats since Monday:
Total unique visitors: 1,967
Total page views: 7,276
The average visitor stayed on this blog for 4 minutes, 50 seconds.
Working behind the scenes at this year's annual conference was a true public relations professional and marketing genius. I'm talking about Keith Salwoski, Director of Public Relations and Chief Storyteller at Gaylord Palms Resort.
Although we never saw Keith on stage or in the spotlight during the conference, he was making things happen to enhance our conference experience.
Things like donating all the food for Monday night's scholarship fundraiser. This allowed all auction and event proceeds to go directly to the Florida Public Relations Education Foundation. Without Keith's donation, the auction would have raised less than half of the $15,500 it made.
Keith also arranged the donation of an amazing Gaylord Palms ICE! package to the live auction. This item helped raise funds for ongoing educational and professional development programs for FPRA members.
Keith was the mastermind behind the ICE! certificates that were distributed to all conference attendees for donation to the local non-profit organization of their choosing. A nice touch and a great way to give back to our local communities.
He also served as a speaker at Tuesday afternoon's student track, sharing his many years of experience with the future leaders of our profession.
These are but a few examples of how Keith reached out to us during the conference. As a member of the Orlando Area Chapter, Keith continually gives back to FPRA and the public relations profession -- and for that we are all extremely grateful.
Thank you, Keith, and thank you to Michelle Smith at Gaylord who worked tirelessly throughout the conference to support Keith.
In closing, I wanted to share with you the totaled Web stats for this blog during our three day conference. The event itself may be over, but the information, podcasts and photos we've posted these past few days will remain for you to refer back to in the future.
Total unique visitors: 1,701
Total page views: 6,314
The average visitor stayed on this blog for 4 minutes, 49 seconds.
Thanks for visiting. We hope to see you next year on Aug. 9-12, 2009 at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton. Here's a glimpse...
FPRA's 70th Annual Conference has drawn to a close. We'll be posting a few recap items over the next day or so. We hope you enjoyed the blog coverage.
Special thanks again to our awesome blog team who worked throughout the conference -- day and night -- to ensure a continuous flow of conference coverage.
2008 CONFERENCE BLOG TEAM
Suzanne Dameron
Kelly Donovan
Melissa Filipkowski
Amanda Forbes
Chris Gent
Dr. Allen Moore, APR
Paul Ramey, APR
FPRA Annual Conference: Closing Session, What Makes the Great Ones Great – Don Yaeger, New York Times best-selling author
Sixteen Characteristics of Greatness
What makes great people tick, and how can we apply those characteristics to our lives? We’re all capable of greatness. It’s all in the mental approach we take to our work and our lives.
How great leaders think:
1. It’s personal.
Don once scored a basket while playing one-on-one against Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player in the world. Furious that he was one-upped by a short white guy, Jordan trash-talked Don every time they met after that, not because he hated Don but because he hated losing. Great leaders expect only success from themselves.
Continue reading "FPRA Annual Conference: What Makes the Great Ones Great - Don Yaeger" »
Dr. Leslie Gaines Ross leads Weber Shandwick’s global reputation consulting services and proprietary thought leadership development. She is the architect of groundbreaking, award-winning research into CEO and corporate reputation, executive team reputation, leadership transitions, and reputation sustainability and recovery. Dr. Gaines-Ross is a member of Weber Shandwick’s global senior management team and is based in the firm’s corporate headquarters in New York.
Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation
Dr. Gaines-Ross started her talk by telling us that the growing significance of reputation became very apparent to her when her manilla folders on the topic began growing. It was around 2000 that reputation as a subject was becoming an important body of knowledge and a discipline.
Gaines-Ross found herself and others asking questions: What is driving reputation? What is the relationship to financial performance? How can you recover reputation?
As promised, here are the photos from Tuesday night's Golden Image Awards banquet. Many thanks to Josh Hallett who shot these photos and the ones from the Reception of the Presidents.
Click here to see the entire photoset.
In this age of lightning speed communication, it doesn't take long for word to get out about happenings at this year's conference. Check out the blogs and news that has been generated so far:
polkVoice - http://blogs.polkvoice.com/default.asp?item=2246773
McBride Woodbridge Marketing LLC - http://blog.mcbridewoodbridge.com/2008/08/05/fpra-funktion-fun-for-all/
evok paterfamilias ramblings - http://evokpaterfamilias.com/2008/08/05/roy-reid-fpra-conference-speaking-on-ethics/
SpaceCoast FPRA - http://blog.spacecoastfpra.com/2008/08/04/space-coast-chapter-wins-awards-at-conference/
Listed below is the schedule for Day 3 - Wednesday, August 6 , 2008 of the FPRA's 70th Annual Conference.
7:30 am - 12:00 pm: Registration Desk Open
8:00 am - 9:15 am: Power Networking Breakfast
8:15 am - 9:15 am: Counselors' Network Business Meeting
9:25 am - 9:30 am: Announcements
9:30 am - 10:35 am: General Session D: Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation
10:45 am - 11:50 am: Closing Session: What Makes the Great Ones Great
11:50 am - 12:00 pm: Conference Finale
We've wrapped up another busy day at the FPRA annual conference. Here are the Web stats for Tuesday, Aug. 5:
Total unique visitors: 470
Total page views: 1,757
The average visitor on Tuesday stayed on this blog for 4 minutes, 26 seconds.
Thanks to those of you who visited us today. We'll have more stuff for you on Wednesday as we wrap up this year's conference.
Stay tuned for tons of images from tonight's Golden Image Awards banquet! Here are a few for now...
All the awards have been given out at the 51st anniversary Golden Image Awards banquet and the evening's activities have drawn to a close.
Pictured above is this year's Dick Pope All Florida Golden Image Award winner: Southwest Florida Addiction Services and Susan Bennett Marketing & Media, L.C. with their entry, The SWFAS Campaign to Build a New Detoxification Center.
And rest of the winners are...
Download the Complete List of Golden Image Awards Winners
Special thanks to the following individuals and organizations: Rachel Smith, APR, CPRC and her committee for putting together a wonderful evening... to the Georgia Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America for judging our entries ... to the Capital, Gainesville and Jacksonville Chapters for their financial support of the banquet... to FPRA President Suzanne Sparling, APR; Doreen Overstreet, APR; Mary Briggs, APR, CPRC; Terrie Ard, APR; Rick Oppenheim, APR, CPRC; Chris Gent; and Roger Pynn, APR who served as this evening's presenters.
The final individual award given out tonight was the John W. Dillin Award.
The John W. Dillin Professional Award for service to the Florida Public Relations Association has been established as the highest, most prestigious award of the Association. The award honors the spirit and dedication of FPRA’s first president and founder, Lt. Col. John W. Dillin, and his lifetime of service to and support of the Association.
The purpose of the annual award is to recognize an FPRA member for his/her outstanding contribution to the Association and the field of public relations.
Drum roll, please... the winner of the 2008 John W. Dillin Award is:
Send Karen a congratulatory email at karen.plunkett@lowndes-law.com
The next individual award given out tonight was the Doris Fleischman Award.
The Doris Fleischman Award honors unrecognized contributions an individual FPRA member has made to the public relations profession and/or to FPRA. In essence, this is an “unsung hero" award intended to reward that individual who consistently provides support and assistance to the Association.
The award was established to honor the achievements and contributions of Doris Fleischman, business partner and wife of Edward L. Bernays, the “father” of public relations. It honors those FPRA members who, like Ms. Fleischman, make contributions to the field of public relations through consistent, tireless efforts. It is meant to honor a member for his/her “behind the scenes” work and FPRA volunteer efforts that go unnoticed by chapter members and are not recognized by other awards programs.
Drum roll, please... the recipient of the 2008 Doris Fleischman Award is:
Send Rod a congratulatory email at Rod.Hemphill@ffbf.org
As part of tonight's Golden Image Awards ceremony, three individual awards were given. The first award was the 2008 Member of the Year Award.
This award is intended to recognize one member who has made a significant contribution to the Association through outstanding leadership, demonstrated enthusiasm, extraordinary involvement and loyal support. The recipient is selected by the FPRA State President.
Drum roll, please... the 2008 FPRA Member of the Year is:
Send Paul a congratulatory email at pramey@ufl.edu
Here are a few shots from the Reception of the Presidents on Tuesday evening.
Click here to see the entire photoset.
Tonight is one of the highlights of FPRA's annual conference - the Golden Image Awards. For those who are unfamiliar with the awards, here is a short tutorial:
The Golden Image Awards competition is conducted annually by the Florida Public Relations Association to recognize outstanding public relations programs in Florida and to encourage and promote the development of public relations professionalism in our state.
Winners demonstrate the very best examples of innovation, planning and design. The awards competition includes four divisions of categories: Public Relations Programs, Printed Tools of Public Relations, Audio/Visual Tools of Public Relations and Student Projects in Public Relations. To qualify for judging, an entry must incorporate sound public relations research and planning. Entries also must meet the highest standard of production, execution and evaluation of results and budget.
There are several different levels of awards:
Award of Distinction - presented to all the entries that meet the standard of excellence set by a panel of judges.
Golden Image Award - Presented to the top-scoring entry in each category.
Judges’ Award - Presented by a panel of judges for an outstanding entry that achieves maximum results while using a minimum amount of money.
Grand Golden Image Award - Presented to the best Golden Image Award-winning entry in Divisions B and C.
Dick Pope All Florida Golden Image Award - This is Florida's top public relations award awards for the year. It is presented to the best Golden Image Award-winning entry in Division A.
Watch for my later post with a complete list of tonight's winners!
We're now at the halfway point of the conference and figured it was a good time to ask what you think about our conference coverage thus far. Tell us the good, the bad and the ugly. We'd prefer if you left your email so we can respond to you, but if you feel the need to be anonymous, go ahead.
What has been your favorite portion of the conference coverage?
Do you like the fact that we've included commentary on the sessions or would you just prefer the facts from presentations?
Do you like the fun stuff and hallway interviews?
Suggestions?
The Counselors’ Network offers high-level professional networking and development for senior level counselors. Requires serving in a counselor role in your employment and you must minimum of ten years experience. More information and application can be found on the FPRA website.
We had a small group at this table but each of us was currently involved in a communications audit.
Jay finds that the term “audit” is generally off-putting to clients as it suggests that the process is looking for what the company is doing wrong.
Jay began with the definition of a Communication Audit (CA)
"A communications audit measures the effectiveness of an organization's communications."
It answers the questions:
What are you doing well that you need to continue doing?
What are you doing that you could tweak?
What are you doing that is ineffective that you could drop?
Start with the macro view:
What does the company say that they want to say?
What are they actually saying?
What are people are hearing?
If an organization has key messages, can you find all of them in the communications?
Leading one of the Tuesday afternoon breakout sessions was Roy Reid, APR, partner with Consensus Communications. Roy is an accredited and award-winning public relations counselor with a successful background in corporate, government and consulting arenas.
The presentation “Do the Right Thing: Understanding and Applying Code of Ethics” explored the Universal Accreditation Board’s Code of Ethics and how it applies to modern business practices and principles. Roy said many provocative things.
If you work for him, you know that the things he enjoys most (in this order) are ethics, trust and crisis management issues.
Toni James is no stranger to non-profit public relations. Toni has 30 years experience as executive director and later president of the United Way of Marion County. Toni formed her firm, Toni James and Associates in 2007.
Building bridges. It is important to note the similarities to for-profit PR; accountability, need to demonstrate value to management and the channels are basically the same.
“Start at the beginning…,” said the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, and that’s exactly what non-profit, and even for-profit practitioners need to do. Take the time to evaluate who your target publics are, and who they should be.
As a side note, I was personally interested in seeing how Bryan handled this topic in such a short time frame. I have had the pleasure of attending some of his training sessions at UF. Parts of this diversity training session were used for a larger sexual harassment training he did for employees at the Florida Museum of Natural History, where I work. The session was excellent --- but it was three hours! But Bryan is an excellent speaker and he did a magnificent job on this session as well. Also, sadly for UF employees, this is one of Bryan’s last duties in his position at UF, as he has accepted and will soon begin a new position as director of employee development at the University of Virginia, where he received his Masters of Fine of Arts degree.
Now, on with the session:
Bryan gave a brief introduction about the importance of diversity and how it is more accepted in today’s society, in part because of laws, but also because of our country becoming more of a melting pot. But he stressed that he wants to talk to us as individuals and helping each of us be more successful in our personal and professional lives. Everyone carries some type of stereotype, and we don’t even know that we hold them. And these can be barriers to us in public relations.
Session Goals
- Define stereotype
- Discuss the effect of stereotypes
- Gain understanding about your role as both perpetuator and victim of stereotypes and prejudgments
Are all the right gizmos stashed inside your job search toolkit?
Stuart W. Doyle, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator)
A few tips for finding the right job:
1. Don’t be passive.
Actively seek out a job. Don’t broadcast your resume to dozens of potential employers you might want to work for or hand your resume over to a recruiter and expect them to get you a job.
Have multiple resumes that are tailored to a specific position. You’ll receive more interested employer responses when you highlight exactly how and why you are qualified for their opening.
Along that line, have multiple versions of a cover letter. Don’t know how to write a stellar cover letter? Check out your college’s career center for literature or counselors who can help you write one. Virginia Tech’s Career Center has an excellent Web site that can help you write a cover letter.
The Difference Between Corporate, Nonprofit, and Agency Public Relations
The following is an abbreviated, paraphrased transcript of a panel of PR professionals who spoke on various topics relating to the different types of PR organizations and jobs available to today’s rising PR professionals. The students in this session enjoyed hearing about the “real world” of public relations and asking some burning questions of their own.
Panel members:
Joe Chabus, APR – leads internal communications at Universal Studios, graduate of UCF
Dan Ward – vice president and partner with public relations agency Curley & Pynn, graduate of UCF
Audrey Perrot – director of communications at A Gift for Teaching, an Orlando-based non-profit, graduate of UF
Moderator – Ryan Sheehy, communications professor at UCF
Continue reading "FPRA Annual Conference: Student Breakout A: Panel Discussion" »
We have lots of students participating in this year's conference, representing Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida Southern College, Florida State University, Southeastern University, University of Central Florida and University of Florida. (photo by Kelly Donovan)
The chocolate break - chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate ice cream bars from Haagen Das and chocolate milk – (yes there were other flavors of ice cream and cookies but they didn’t get my attention) brought people together for a casual review of the days events.
Here are some of the comments during the break…..I’m a strategic person so I liked the keynote this morning. …With these young people, I want to pack them up to do some international PR and get that whole world view. As Americans we are so parochial…it’s not individual faults but our cultural outlook……My primary news source is the economist because I want a broader perspective….
I thought that session on communicating to women was very interesting. Their approach to research was very interesting.
I just had a really great session on diversity…the discussion was great. It’s a challenge as a senior practitioner to find challenging sessions so that was enjoyable. I did one earlier today on marketing to women – and that was very good as well. There are a lot of prejudices that we all have that we aren’t always aware of.
When our keynote speaker said his main regret was that he wished he could be starting out in public relations now…he sounded genuinely wistful. It says a lot about the changes ahead in our profession…. His definition of the economist that he overheard - someone who lacks the charisma to be an accountant – that was great.
How new media is changing the face of public relations
On September 17, 2007, UF student Andrew Meyer was Tasered at a forum featuring Senator John Kerry after aggressively questioning Kerry on his involvement at Yale and in the 2000 election and refusing to step down from the microphone and leave the room. Within hours, The Gainesville Sun and The Independent Florida Alligator, UF’s student newspaper, had posted videos of the incident taken by other forum attendees; by the following morning, not only had the Alligator and the Sun published stories covering the forum and Meyer’s now-famous “Don’t Tase me, bro!” plea, but national media, parents, alumni, and outraged students were flooding the university with calls and emails demanding to know how and why a student could be Tasered at an otherwise nonviolent event.
Last night's Foundation Funk-tion fundraiser grossed $15,500 for the Florida Public Relations Education Foundation. Foundation chair Lynn Schneider, APR, CPRC presented a check this morning to FPRA President Suzanne Sparling, APR.
Congratulations to the Orlando Area Chapter for planning and hosting this year's fundraiser.
On September 17, 2007, at 12:00 p.m. ET, U.S. Senator John Kerry addressed a Constitution Day forum at the University of Florida in Gainesville, which was organized by the university's student government. Toward the end of the question and answer period, University police forcibly removed Andrew Meyer, a 21-year-old fourth-year undergraduate telecommunications student, from the forum, restraining him through direct force and drive stunning him with a Taser.
Several videos of the episode were then posted on the Internet. The video shot with Meyer's camera had 2.6 million views by October 19, 2007 and was considered a viral video. The New Oxford American Dictionary listed "tase/taze" as one of the words of the year for 2007, popularized by the widespread use of "Don't tase me, bro!" The Yale Book of Quotations designated the same quote as the most memorable quote of 2007. Mick Jones, former guitarist for The Clash, wrote and published a song inspired from the event, "Don't Tase Me, Bro." (Wikipedia)
Coming up next is University of Florida Associate Vice President of Marketing & Public Relations Joe Hice, APR who will give insight into the social media incident heard round the world. Blogger Kelly Donovan will have a session summary posted shortly.
One of the things that makes this conference blog a success is posted comments from our readers. Please feel free to post your comments on a session topic or leave a congratulatory note to your Chapter on its awards from Monday.
Remember: Comments are welcome!
Unfortunately, Justin Sayfie couldn’t make it. In his place, we heard from Vivian Myrtetus, APR, vice president of Core Message, Inc. in Tallahassee, Fla. who has a similar background to Justin. Vivian is a veteran communications expert with more than 15 years experience in corporate + government communications. She served as top advisor and communications director for Florida Governor Charlie Crist, among other positions.
Vivian shared a quote with us before getting started…“Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.” – Ronald Reagan
She focused on The Changing World We Live In by touching on the changing media landscape, importance of rapid response and lessons learned from her experience.
Tom Jordan, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Hoffman York, has spent the past three years leading the charge on new research to understand advertising to women.
He stated while his presentation mainly will focus on advertising, but should still be relevant as public relations can jump in to help where advertising fails.
When advertising to women there should be four focuses:
• What women love
• What women like
• What women ignore
• What women hate
Prologue: FPRA at 70
Very impressed with FPRA’s efforts in professional development.
“A Valedictory and a Vision”
Valedictory: I come not to comfort you but to challenge you.
The vision: to take a look at the future.
The future of public relations is a challenging undertaking.
Drivers of public relations growth.
1. Many more kinds of organizations are adopting public relations as integral to their success. Not just big corporations any more. Non-profits, smaller companies, even the media, are now using public relations.
2. Public relations professionals are now delivering a plethora of communications services.
3. Public relations is now becoming a global profession (more and more the reality). Ketchum now has seven offices in China.
At yesterday's Presidents' Luncheon, attendees were treated to a short video which featured past state presidents of FPRA. Titled "FPRA Cavalcade of Presidents," the video was produced by former state president and FPRA Executive Director Bob Gernert, APR, CPRC.
Nearly 100 conference attendees participated in Monday evening's scholarship fundraiser to benefit the Florida Public Relations Education Foundation. The foundation funds ongoing educational and professional development programs for FPRA members.
The silent and live auction featured more than 85 gift baskets of items, including weekend getaways, sports tickets and collectibles, artwork and much more. The fundraising total is currently being tabulated and will hopefully be announced later this morning.
Many thanks to the Orlando Area Chapter for hosting this fun and worthwhile event, and thanks to our sponsors: Gaylord Palms Resort, Art of the Party and disc jockey, Allen Moore, APR of Florida MegaMix Radio.
Click here to view the photoset.
Listed below is the schedule for Day 2 - Tuesday, August 5, 2008 of FPRA's 70th Annual Conference.
7:00 am - 4:00 pm: Registration Desk Open
7:30 am - 8:10 am: Breakfast with Exhibitors
8:15 am - 8:20 am: Announcements
8:20 am - 9:30 am: General Session B: Dillin Keynote Address - The Future of Public Relations - It's a Big, Inviting World Out There
9:45 am - 10:45 am: Breakout 3A - How to Effectively Reach a Female Audience
9:45 am - 10:45 am: Breakout 3B - Politics & Public Relations
9:45 am - 10:45 am: Counselors' Network Breakout 2
11:00 am - 12:05 pm: General Session C - The Shock Heard Round the World - How new media is changing the face of public relations
1:40 pm - 2:45 pm: Breakout Session 4A - Diversity Awareness: Focus on Stereotypes
1:40 pm - 2:45 pm: Breakout Session 4B - Building Bridges: Non-profit public relations
1:40 pm - 2:45 pm: Breakout Session 4C - Do the Right Thing: Understanding and Applying the Code of Ethics
1:40 pm - 2:45 pm: Counselors' Network Breakout 3
2:45 pm - 3:00 pm: Chocolate Break
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm: Roundtable Discussions led by Counselors' Network
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Reception of the Presidents
7:00 pm - 10:00 pm: Golden Image Awards
The first full day of the FPRA Annual Conference has wrapped up. We hope this blog has provided visitors with a window into our informative and fun conference... as we celebrate seven decades of enhancing the profession. We provided summaries of some of today's presentations. We uploaded hundreds of conference photos. And we racked up some impressive site traffic statistics for the first day:
Total unique visitors for Monday: 804
Total page views: 3,019
The average visitor on Monday stayed on this blog for 4 minutes, 26 seconds.
Thanks to those of you who visited us today. We'll have even more stuff for you tomorrow... including a complete list of our 2008 Golden Image Awards winners. Be among the first to hear who will be taking home the state's top PR awards for 2008.
See you tomorrow.
It's no secret that the folks at Gaylord Palms Resort are concerned about every detail which could enhance the resort experience for their guests. Here's an example.
We normally don't feature conference bathrooms on this blog, but you have to check out these sunrise/sunset photos of the innovative bathroom stall lighting. And compact flourescent lights no less! Yep, you guessed it - a "green" latrine.
Earlier this year, Gaylord Palms Resort received the Florida Green Lodging Certification from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Jarhead DJ, aka Allen Moore, APR of the Orlando Area Chapter, will be spinning the tunes at tonight's Foundation Funk-tion and Member Mingle.
In this interview, Jarhead gives us a preview of tonight's activities. Click here to listen.
