One of my favorite sessions during Counselors Academy this past weekend (as it is every year) was Darryl Salerno’s English As a First Language. I am an English major, and take great pride in my grammar and spelling skills, but this session always does me in. As my friend Roger Friedensen says, “This is a great way to keep your ego in check.”

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I’m just back from Counselors Academy in Asheville, which is part of PRSA. The annual spring conference brings together agency leaders from the U.S. and Canada and, this year, there were about 120 of us.

Between riding the Blue Ridge Parkway, hitting mecca at Mast General (see photo), playing Sorry on a Saturday night with seven other PR pros, Club 461, dueling pianos, a 60s party, and crashing prom, we actually did quite a bit of work. The sessions that were of most interest were on social media, client engagement, business growth in a new economy, and creating a vision for your business.

Following are some nuggets of wisdom I found during my trip:

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We keep hearing about big corporations receiving money for bailouts, bonuses, and obviously as an average working American Joe, who knows where the money is or where it is going. On a brighter light, there is at least one large company, Disney, trying to do well for moviegoers and the environment.

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In today’s Washington Post, current AIG CEO Edward M. Libby has written an opinion column with an eloquent explanation about the very-much-in-the-news bonuses given to those AIG executives.  Be clear, he is not calling them performance bonuses, but rather, retention bonuses.  Continue Reading »

So what happens when a public relations professional misleads a journalist by pitching a false news hook or a story saturated in spin? Well as of late, all over the Internet, journalist are complaining about the amount of unrelated pitches they receive (rightfully so), the level of newsworthy stories, and if their source (a pr professional) is credible to write the story.

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US Airways’ unfortunate incident last week has the marketing world talking, predicting and weighing in with opinions on how to use or not use the event in future communications with the public. 

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As I read through your wish list of resolutions you would like public relations professionals to commit to — while I completely agree with and understand your frustration — I am hopeful you have ever encountered a successful relationship with a public relations practitioner. I agree with every one of your resolutions, especially those regarding knowing who you are talking to and what beat the journalist covers before you pick up the phone. On the public relations side of things, nothing would be more embarrassing than a journalist explaining to me I am not contacting the correct beat reporter.

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Are you a Lovie Smith fan?  I am. 

Maybe not for the reasons one might think, considering he is an NFL coach of a very popular team in one of the largest cities in the good ole’ US of A.  Sure, there is that important fact that he coached the Bears to a Super Bowl, and he won the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year Award and there are some pretty decent stats attached to his tenure thus far with the Bears.  But no, that’s not what impresses me.

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Dear Jet Airways,

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News organizations often prepare stories in anticipation of something occurring so they can be the first to leak breaking news. Well, the Los Angeles Times made a premature mistake by going live and announcing that Barack Obama actually chose Hillary Clinton to be his vice presidential candidate along with Bill Richardson, Kathleen Sebelius, and four other Democrats. While you cannot blame the Los Angeles Times for their preparations, this is not the only time Obama was misperceived through the media. John McCain tried a couple different stunts that backfired on him when he related Obama to Paris Hilton — who would have thought?

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