President – Jennifer Moss, APR, CPRC (Central West Coast Chapter)
President-Elect – Melanie Mowry Etters, APR, CPRC (Capital Chapter)
Immediate Past President – Sheridan Becht, APR, CPRC* (Orlando Area Chapter)
VP Annual Conference – Terri Behling, APR, CPRC (Central West Coast Chapter)
VP Golden Image – Ginny Cooper (Southwest Florida Chapter)
VP Communications/PR – Jennifer Fennell, APR (Capital Chapter)
VP Chapter Services – Cindy Rodriguez (Dick Pope/Polk County Chapter)
VP Accreditation & Certification – Rachel Smith, APR, CPRC (Capital Chapter)
VP Finance – Wendy Crites Wacker, APR (Gainesville Chapter)
VP Member Services – Ryan Gerds, APR (Ocala Chapter)
VP Planning & Research – Linda Herridge (Space Coast Chapter)
VP Professional Development – Jan Luongo, APR, CPRC (Tampa Bay Chapter)
VP Technology – Chris Gent, APR (Orlando Area Chapter)
FPRE Foundation – Adrienne Moore, APR, CPRC (Treasure Coast Chapter)
Counselors Network Chair – Joe Curley, APR, CPRC* (Central West Coast Chapter; selected by Counselors’ Network)

*Previously set

It’s not too early to begin planning for next year’s FPRA Annual Conference. The 73rd annual conference will be held at the same hotel as this year’s conference — the Naples Grande Beach Resort — on August 7-10, 2011. Now is the time to add the conference to your company’s budget!

Thanks to the donations of dozens of organizations combined with the generosity of those who attended last week’s FPRA Annual Conference, we are proud to report that this year’s fundraiser raised $7,928 to benefit the Florida Public Relations Education Foundation.

The Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization which awards scholarships to deserving college students, who through academic achievement, extracurricular activities and involvement in FPRA, demonstrate their commitment to professional development.

Likewise, the Foundation offers its professional members Annual Conference scholarships and other professional development opportunities including helping to underwrite a portion of the costs for those members seeking their Accreditation in Public Relations.

A special thanks to Kathleen Giery, APR, CPRC who coordinated this year’s fundraiser.

We took a lot of photos at this year’s FPRA Annual Conference — several thousand to be exact!

All the photos have been uploaded to FPRA’s Flickr photo account. To access a variety of sizes of each photo taken, simply click on the thumbnail photo to bring up a larger image of the same photo. Click “Actions” in the top left corner of the photo and then select “View All Sizes”. You can download whichever size you desire. The photo size labeled “Original” is the full size image and is suitable for printing.

You can access photos at the following links:

Golf Clinic & Outing

Tweet-up with Deirdre Breakenridge

President’s Welcome Reception

Sunset Social

Monday Photos

Presidents’ Luncheon

Tuesday Photos

Reception of the Presidents

Golden Image Awards

Wednesday Photos

FPRA’s 72nd 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.

Are you creative?

Get in the creative mindset: detox time. Conference attendees are doing the octopus, crab and flying fish dance to loosen up and get into a creative frame of mind. We need to strategically invest the time to dance like an octopus.

Google innovation, creativity and you’ll see thousands of results.

“The only way to predict the future is to create it.”

“Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future.” -Peter Drucker
For great creative folks, take a look at kindergarteners. They are the role models for creativity. Look at sixth graders. They aren’t willing to take risks; they stick together. What happened between kindergarten and sixth grade?

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” -Picasso

Creativity is…

Intelligence having fun!

Brains need to come out and play everyday!

In this way our thoughts take wing.

“The loftier they are, the higher our thinking will soar.” – Joey Reiman

 Creativity is…

• Bringing into being something that was not there before.
• This “new thing” must have some value.
• The creative output should not be obvious or easy…it must be rare, unique.

What’s the Big Idea?

It takes thousands of ideas (creativity) to find one that you can take to market and make stick (innovation).

Think about thousands of ideas and the process.  Get people to be surprised and surprise yourself. Talk about changing your business, changing your service, etc. We are the only ones to generate ideas.

Keep the customer in mind when you’re “jamming” ideas.

Jam with joy when you’re creating ideas.

Creativity tools…

• Mindset: I am creative
• Environment: Pick an inspirational, stimulating environment. Get above it all and see the big picture.
• Detox
• Diversity: Bring everyone to the table, not just the creative team. New folks, those with titles and without. It might be uncomfortable. Don’t question an idea: that won’t work, we don’t do that here, etc.
• Six sense everything: touch, feel, hear, see, smell, nonsense! Loosen up and bring nonsense in.
• Surprise your team
• Surprise yourself
• Task Tension – Risk
• Fail-Fast-Forward: Don’t be afraid to fail. Embrace failure, learn from failure and try not to repeat.
• Never stop learning an learn about everything!

Jumpstart your brain!

Lateral vs. vertical thinking

Creativity relies on lateral thinking.

Challenge One: Get in a group

Think of the different ways you can use a plain old cardboard box individually and then bring the ideas together in a group setting. Jot your ideas down. Build on each others ideas. Pick one to “go to market.” Discuss the benefits of the idea.

One of the results of this exercise is to get people talking and collaborating. Another result is the generation of ideas, lots of ideas!

Six Thinking Hats:

• Blue hat: Facilitator
• Red hat: Emotion; need to be handled separately, like other hats.
• Green hat: Creativity (ideas). Brainstorm session.
• White hat: Information (bring information to the table that is needed).
• Yellow hat: Upside of ideas
• Black hat: Concerns for the idea (use at the right time, not throughout the process).

Five Questions…

1. Mood? What do you feel when you go into your organization? What’s it like in terms of creating ideas? Does it feel like a creative place, space?
2. Mindset? We’re all creative!
3. Mechanisms? We can all do better – create more ideas. What are the skill sets involved.
4. Measurements? How do we measure up? What are we measuring now? How can we change them to double/triple innovation in our organization? What can we measure that is different to drive more innovation?
5. Momentum?

Be committed to creativity, including leadership. Have fun!

Contact:
Tom Laughon
Catch Your Limit Consulting
tom@catchyourlimit.com
@tomlaughon

Joe Hice, APR, CPRC recently completed his first 100 days in a new job as Chief Communications Officer at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. During that time, Joe learned a little about the complexities and challenges of making the switch. Prior to joining the “Wolfpack,” he was the architect of The Gator Nation campaign at the University of Florida (UF).

The focus of his presentation was his transition to a new university and the “golden rules” he followed during his first 100 days in a senior public relations job.
To start, Hice explained that the first 100 Days are critical because most managers fail in the first 18 months on a new job. To help ensure success, managers must remember that the first 100 days on the job is: 

• A transition period
• Shorter than you think
• A period where you are temporarily incompetent in your job
• A window of opportunity for change
• A period where your management expects change
• A period where the organization you have taken charge of expects change

As a result, Hice says, you must take advantage of this and be committed to the following tasks during this time period to succeed:

• You MUST communicate
• You need a good plan
• You must select your management team
• You must communicate strategic themes
• You must produce results

Hice says strong communication shows leadership and if you don’t do this, you will not lead successfully. During the first 100 days you must create a platform of mutual trust between you and the organization you have taken over. Hice set up a blog called “Hice School” to do this and he uses the channel to tell people what he’s doing and why.  It has helped him achieve his communications objectives.

To start building a plan for university communications, Hice admitted to using best practices from his time at UF and other resources. First, he recruited volunteers in the communications departments at NC State to help him. To identify people to fill leadership roles he reached out beyond his own staff and looked to other departments at the university. This allowed him to know all of the communicators on campus. He then merged all of the university communications’ into one central unit and built a strategies team to work on the plan.

Hice says the best team consists of:

• A mix of new and existing people
• A mix of external and internal
• A mix of different leadership styles
• A mix of young and older mindsets
• A “leadership-multiplicator”

Hice also shared what not to do in the first 100 days you are on the job. He relayed how he was caught with a Gator umbrella at a meeting with NC State leadership. He said he thought he was going to be a statistic when the university chancellor called him to a private meeting right afterwards. Instead, he was given an NC State umbrella.

So, here is Hice’s list of things “Not to Do” during the first 100 days:

• Don’t talk about your previous job (too much)
• Don’t hire your team from your previous job
• Don’t wait too long before you make changes to your management team
• Don’t fall for the “Big Bang” temptation
• Don’t open too many fronts at the same time (The Obama Syndrome)
• Don’t only talk about what you want to change, but also about what you want to preserve
• Don’t surprise your management
• Don’t forget you are there to LEAD  

Contact:
Joe Hice, APR, CPRC
Chief Communications Officer
North Carolina State University
joe_hice@ncsu.edu
@HiceSchool

7:00 am – Noon: 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 – 10:35am: General Session D, 100 Days in the ‘The Wolfpack Nation’

10:35 am – 11:35 am: Closing Session, Big Ideas, Creativity and Innovation

11:30 am – 11:45 am: Conference Finale

All the awards have been given out at the 53rd 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: Salter>Mitchell and the Florida Commerce Credit Union for their WeLiveFIT! Challenge Campaign. And rest of the winners are…

Special thanks to the following individuals and organizations: Rebecca Mueller, APR 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 Gainesville, Ocala and Tampa Bay chapters for their financial support of the reception and banquet… to FPRA President Sheridan Becht, APR, CPRC; Immediate Past President Lanette Hart, APR, CPRC; Ginya Carnahan, APR, CPRC; Erin Comerford, Michelle Foley; Jennifer Gammage; Jan Luongo, APR, CPRC; Angeline Strait; and Ryan Wiggins who served as this evening’s presenters.

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 2010 John W. Dillin Award is:

Leah Lauderdale, APR, CPRC
Polk County Public Schools
Dick Pope/Polk County Chapter

Send Leah a congratulatory email at leah.lauderdale@polk-fl.net