PRSA Conference (Page 2)

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The PRSA International Conference, the largest PR gathering in the world, takes place in Orlando, Florida, October 15 to 18, 2011. Inside PR is happy to be one of the event sponsors and we had a chance to chat with conference co-chair, Bonnie Upright, APR, and PRSA chair and CEO, Rosanna Fiske, APR, about what to expect.

The event offers a combination of learning, networking, fun and a wonderful opportunity to connect with peers, colleagues, clients, and potential employers.

This year’s theme, ‘Imagine. Create. Inspire.’, speaks to how the profession – and the way we do our jobs – is evolving.

‘We’re no longer simply purveyors of news releases, we’ve become storytellers.’

There are five programming tracks – Strategies, Tools and Techniques, Specialization, ROI, Leadership and Management – that feature sessions on digital/social media, traditional PR, crisis communications and professional development/accreditation.

Keynotes include: CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien speaking about diversity, Disney imaginer Joe Rohde, whose talk is entitled ‘Theme is a Noun’ and Chris Brogan discussing online communities and how to engage them for your business.

Ultimately, the conference is about people, reconnecting, connecting and engaging with a global network of peers who understand your craft, the profession, your challenges and how the world of communications is transforming.

You can follow the Twitter stream at #PRSAIcon.

And if you haven’t registered and are interested in attending, you can get $100 off the registration by completing this form and entering the code SAVE100.

Join us for a Tweetup

Inside PR is hosting a poolside Tweetup on Monday, Oct 17. Here’s the e-vite with details. Hope to see you there.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pron Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

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Gini, Joe and Martin start off by announcing they’ll be attending the PRSA International Conference in Orlando, Florida, October 15 to 18 as ‘roving reporters’ roaming the halls and recording episodes of Inside PR. If you have any suggestions for topics or would like to do an interview, please let us know.

Inside PR is also sponsoring a tweetup at the conference on Monday, October 17 – details to follow. We hope to see you there.

Joe then talks about a post on the Niemen Journalism Lab blog, ‘A Vast Wasteland Revisited’, to mark the 50^th anniversary of FCC Chair Newton Minnow’s speech about television’s potential for greatness… or garbage (i.e. the wasteland).

He feels the ideas resonate more than ever today with social media and especially Facebook, which can be seen as another ‘vast wasteland’.

Martin segues into some of the changes Facebook has made recently including the ability to subscribe to feeds from people you’re not friends with and its new lists function. Gini thinks the change is an interesting play on privacy and if you just want to communicate with friends, you should turn off the subscription option. Gini uses Facebook for business publicly and is more private about her personal profile.

Joe thinks this could be the week Facebook lost it by overcomplicating things and introducing too many features. He believes Twitter is a great news feed; Google+ is the place to have conversations with smart people and blogs are where you go to read and comment on long-form ideas.

Martin mentions the fact that you now have lists on the left side between groups and pages and the defaults aren’t working well for him. For example, the college default is a random group of friends who happened to go to the same university he did at some point and doesn’t have any cohesiveness beyond place.

For our second topic, Gini talks about Netflix CEO Reed Hastings saying how the company ‘messed up’ the way it handled the price increase. She believes he shows some humility because, while Netflix had moved away from listening to its customers and made the decision in a boardroom, a customer uproar caused them to admit they were wrong.

Gini goes on to say it’s clear Netflix wants to shed its DVD service and move to streaming, but from a communication perspective, they should have had better counsel. Joe discloses that one of his clients works in a similar space – but as an outside observer, he’s impressed when any company is honest with its customers. It will be interesting to see if their actions are enough for people to give them another chance.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.