Media Breakfast
Thursday, July 22
7:30 – 9 a.m.
Location: Joe’s Place, 5109 NW 39th Avenue, Gainesville

The Gainesville Chapter is hosting a media breakfast from 7:30 – 9 a.m. Thursday, July 22 at Joe’s Place in Gainesville. Enjoy a delicious breakfast with your fellow public relations colleagues and learn what it takes to get your message out through the ever-changing media environment. During this interactive breakfast panel, our local experts will discuss helpful hints and pitching tips, review their news outlets and answer questions from the audience.

If you’re looking for a great opportunity to learn more about getting plugged into your local media and you have ties to the Gainesville community, this is the event for you.

Media Panelists:
Anthony Clark, Business Editor, The Gainesville Sun
Scott Costello, Publisher, Home Magazine
Ryan Frankel, President/CEO, and Linda Michalisin, VP of Public Affairs, Frankel Media Group
Kevin Ireland, Editor and Publisher, North Central Florida Business Report
Chris Malone, Program Director/On-Air Host, 98.5 KTK
Bob Williams, Community Service Manager/News Anchor, WCJB TV20

Cost: $20 – FPRA Members or Non-Profits, $25 – FPRA Non-Members
$10 – FPRA Student Members, $15 – FPRA Student Non-Members

Register at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GCZYYCQ by July 19.

Do you want to kick your brand up a notch? 

Register now for the Gainesville Chapter’s annual professional development seminar, “PR Recipes for Success: How to Kick Your Brand Up a Notch,” on Friday, June 25 at the UF Graham Center.

Whether you represent an agency, corporation, governmental entity, non-profit or small business, learn and share innovative, cost-efficient methods to leverage your company brands. This full-day conference has several exciting speakers lined up to present on some tasty branding topics, including the Dalton Agency and a panel of branding experts facilitated by PRO iNK’s Terry Van Nortwick. APR-certified professionals can earn two credits for attending.

Visit the Gainesville Chapter website for more information.
 
There are several opportunities for exhibitor tables and ad sponsorships. If your company would like to join our chef’s circle, contact Laura Johnson, lfjohnson@rtix.com. See you June 25!

Public relations professionals illustrate their value by seeing The Big Picture.  How do you measure up?

Attend the 72nd FPRA Annual Conference to see The Big Picture: Bringing Public Relations Strategy and Leadership into Focus. We will have speakers and topics to hone your strategic thinking, develop your business acumen and enhance your leadership skills, such as:

• Jim Lukaszewski, The Lukaszewski Group – Developing a Strategic Mindset: How To Become a Trusted, Strategic Advisor
• Lisa Malone, NASA – PR strategy around sunsetting of the Space Shuttle program
• Deirdre Breckenridge, PFS Marketwyse  – Putting The Public Back In Public Relations
• Peter Hollister, Hollister, Trubow and Associates – Building a Strategic Plan
• Thomas Smith, Disney – Case Study: Launch of the Disney parks blog
• Douglas Cherry – How PR Pros Avoid Legal Woes
• Debbie Mason, Strategists Inc.  – What Your Boss REALLY Wants But Hasn’t Told You
• Molly Kellogg – Polishing Your Professional Reputation

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: August 8 – 11, 2010 at the beautiful Naples Grande in Naples, Fla.

RESERVE YOUR HOTEL ROOM NOW: Reservation link is up at www.fpra.org

REGISTER NOW: Registration forms are ready! Not sure if you’ll have the budget for AC next year? Have some $$ left over in your 2009 budget? Take care of it now and relax!

It took the help of FPRA’s state office staff and an army of volunteers to pull off this year’s 71st annual conference, but one person led the entire effort. That individual was Karen Smittle, APR, CPRC of the Gainesville Chapter. Karen spent more than a year planning and promoting, securing speakers and sponsors and working hard to ensure a environmentally-friendly event.

This year’s conference theme was PR on F.I.R.E. and we thought you’d like to meet the ‘spark’ behind it all. Congratulations, Karen, on a terrific conference!

The 71st annual conference of the Florida Public Relations Association has now concluded. Please pass along the link to this blog to your PR friends and colleagues. It’s a great information resource!

Next year’s conference is scheduled for Aug. 8-11, 2010, at Naples Grande Beach Resort in Naples, Fla. We hope you will join us!

Emily Desmery is FPRA’s summer 2009 intern. She is a rising sophomore at William Smith College in upstate New York and in her capacity at FPRA’s state office in Sarasota has been instrumental in planning the conference. From calling speakers to arranging meals to designing conference materials, Emily has helped ensure everything runs smoothly here in Boca Raton. Her experience with FPRA and life under the Florida sun has inspired her to make a strategic move: next spring, Emily will enroll at the University of Tampa to complete her studies in public relations. Thanks for all your hard work Emily, and good luck at UT!

Traditional thinking tells us “You can be anything you want to be if you just try hard enough” whereas the strength-based approach says “You can’t be anything you want to be, but you can be more of who you are!” Are you ready to be more of who you are?

read more »

Tom Hoof passionately talked about how the Tampa Bay Rays took a broken brand – Tampa Bay Devil Rays – and turned it into a winning brand to hit it out of the park! Using tried and true public relations strategies the team was transformed from “bad boy” to “community player” with an integrated marketing communications approach. read more »

As promised, here are the photos from Tuesday night’s Golden Image Awards gala.

Click here to see the entire photoset.

At last night’s Golden Image Awards gala, the FPRA 2008 Annual Conference Blog was honored with an Award of Distinction and a Judges’ Award.

In 2008, Chris Gent led a volunteer blog team — Suzanne Dameron, Kelly Donovan, Melissa Filipkowski, Amanda Forbes, Dr. Allen Moore, APR and Paul Ramey, APR – came together to produce the blog for the 70th FPRA Annual Conference. The blog enjoyed tremendous success, drawing 2,570 unique visitors during the 3-day conference that generated 8,810 page views. The blog also boasted 85 posted articles, 122 visitor comments, 515 photos and two hallway interview podcasts.

Thanks to FPRA Executive Committee and FPRA state office for supporting and encouraging this endeavor!