I met Pat when she was PRofessional Solutions’ first client, working at Conservation International. In 2009 I was honored to have her introduce me as a Matrix Award winner.
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Making the Most of Events-Part 3 + ASAE Advice
Wrapping Up Your Meeting
While your members are experiencing the afterglow of the event, you are faced with the challenge of tying up the final details and completing projects related to your meeting. Our clients find that this is the perfect time to rely on a PRofessional Solutions associate to help with the following kinds of activities:
- Prepare a report on media coverage to document your success
- Follow up with reporters or members who need additional information
- Write hometown press releases on participants, speakers or newly elected officers
- Compile a report on ways to make the next meeting even more successful
When exploring ideas for your next event, check out ASAE’s website and Acronym blog for additional meeting and event planning advice, such as:
- Target content level to a particular segment of your membership
- Provide varied learning formats
- Use social responsibility to build attendance
- Consider a two-pronged post-event strategy for disseminating digital content
Next week at its Marketing, Membership and Communications Conference (MMCC) in Washington, DC, ASAE will be providing content at its education sessions that is appropriate for senior-level professionals. In an effort to offer new ideas to its seasoned members, there will be a particular emphasis on material for the director level and above. Although all professional levels are welcome, this meeting will have more focus on content knowledge for senior-level executives.
To fully engage its audience, ASAE will implement varied learning formats at MMCC, including learning labs, early riser sessions, half-day workshops, “Ignite” sessions and “Conversations That Matter” to those at the VP level. Providing education opportunities that are interactive and use innovative technology to enhance the experience can help you build a successful meeting.
When trying to increase attendance for your next event, incorporate social responsibility activities and follow this tip provided at an ASAE Spring Expo by Gary Hirshberg, co-founder of Stonyfield organic yogurt:
“Hold a service day as part of any conference or major event. People want to connect and interact,” he said, noting that working side by side on a community project creates a feel-good experience off the bat. “The networking is incredible…and right away the meeting is a success because people think, ‘I gave instead of just received.’”
Lastly, develop a post-event strategy for using digital content from the meeting. Take advantage of the attendees’ excitement by providing a big digital splash immediately following the event, but don’t stop there. Continue their engagement with your organization by sending them content in regular installments over the coming weeks and months. This can also help increase momentum for a future conference.
Best of luck with your next meeting and remember that PRofessional Solutions has experienced communications professionals ready to help you make the most of all your events.
We Turn 18 During National Small Business Week
I just LOVE birthday cake, so don’t be surprised to see me with a little frosting on my chin next week when PRofessional Solutions, LLC marks our 18th year in business.
And our milestone comes during National Small Business Week (May 20-26, 2012), which I’ll be marking by joining the networking breakfast for small businesses hosted by The Washington Post in partnership with the National Small Business Association on the 23rd.
Want to help us celebrate? Just “Like” PRofessional Solutions on Facebook so you can keep up with our tips for communicators about effective practices and employment trends!
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Making the Most of Events-Part 2 +Green Ideas from ASAE
Green Ideas for Your Next Meeting from ASAE
While planning for your upcoming event, keep in mind these environmentally friendly ideas that ASAE: The Center of Association Leadership will be using at its Marketing, Membership and Communications Conference (MM&C) May 23-24, 2012 in Washington, DC:
- Offset the carbon footprint of the event and related travel by purchasing clean energy credits
- Reduce the amount of paper used before, during and after the meeting by offering electronic materials on the event website
ASAE has teamed with independent energy consulting firm APPI Energy in an effort to neutralize the environmental effects of its MM&C conference. As a result, ASAE has purchased CleanSteps® Carbon Offsets from Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES). The carbon footprint of the conference will be offset with clean wind power from WGES’s program.
Support During the Meeting
We often hear colleagues fret about how to get everything done as they prepare for their organization’s next annual meeting, scientific assembly, conference or Capitol Hill Day. That’s when we advise them to think about what can be handled by an intern (if they have one) and what needs a little more experience to guarantee success.
For nearly 20 years, PRofessional Solutions has provided temporary communications professionals to support associations and nonprofits with the following meeting-related activities:
- Handling press credentials and registration
- Staffing the press room
- Arranging press interviews
- Using social media to provide news tips and constant updates about the meeting
- Accompanying members or donors to Congressional meetings
- Attending sessions to write articles for your newsletter or magazine
- Covering the office to keep other communications projects on track
And our temps travel–we’ve staffed press rooms from coast-to-coast!
Posted in Public Relations News and Tips
Tagged APPI Energy, ASAE, carbon offsets, environment, event planning tips
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Best Companies for Working Moms
As we wish the working moms among our PR associates a Happy Mother’s Day, we also want to congratulate some of our client organizations on being named Best 
Companies by Working Mother magazine in recent years: Arnold & Porter; Booz Allen Hamilton; Discovery Communications; Marriott International; Pearson; and Vanguard Communications. The features that earn such recognition make them great places to work for men and women alike, and for temporary PR staff as well!
Making the Most of Events-Part 1 + Tips from ASAE
Annual Meetings, Conferences and Capitol Hill Days: The Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammys of the Association and Nonprofit World
It’s show time! Now is when you and your members want to shine, to put the spotlight on your issues, the camera on your spokespeople, and win the support of leaders and the public.
For nearly 20 years, PRofessional Solutions, LLC has been providing communications professionals to temporarily assist associations and nonprofits with annual meetings, conferences and Capitol Hill days. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the largest segments of our staffing business, so we understand the importance to your organization of a successful outcome.
Our associates can help prepare for, manage and wrap up a meeting that will leave you carrying the winning statuette:
Preliminary Tasks
- Write press releases, key messages and talking points
- Create web content
- Identify highlights among the educational sessions and speakers
- Build media lists and perform online research
- Make pitch calls and send e-pitches to reporters
- Develop bios for speakers
- Contact Congressional offices to arrange meetings for members or donors
- Use social media platforms to engage reporters and members
- Work with sponsors to promote their messages
- Create PowerPoint presentations
- Arrange for the press room resources
While planning for your next event, consider following the advice of Sabrina Kidwai, senior manager of public relations at ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership, “To keep your meeting format fresh, consider small, incremental changes each year. Change just one thing, see if it’s successful and determine if you want to keep that change for the next program.”
An example of that type of change would be ASAE’s IGNITE sessions which they added to their meetings last year. Presenters share their personal and professional thoughts in just five minutes, using 20 slides that change every 15 seconds. I call this the elevator speech of presentations.
Kidwai reports the IGNITE format was so successful that there was standing room only in these sessions. ASAE has included this type of offering at successive programs and it will be 
a part of its upcoming Marketing, Membership and Communications Conference scheduled for May 23-24, 2012 in Washington, DC.
To learn more about the MM&C conference or to register, visit the meeting website. For more details about ASAE’s IGNITE sessions, visit their Acronym blog.
Graduation Gift Idea from Michelle Singletary
College graduation season is upon us and if you’re looking for a gift idea for the graduate in your life, I suggest reading today’s The Color of Money column by Michelle Singletary in The Washington Post. Her Color of Money Book Club selection for May is Zac Bissonnette’s “How to be Richer, Smarter, and Better-Looking Than Your Parents” in which the 23 year-old author dispenses the kind of sound financial advice Singletary’s grandmother, Big Mama, gave her. If your grad isn’t anxious to take advice from anyone over 30, this may be the way to get her started on the path to a sound financial future.
Singletary, pictured here with Kate Perrin of PRofessional Solutions, LLC as they received the Matrix Award for professional achievements from the Association of Women in Communication in 2009, is the author of the award-winning, nationally syndicated column The Color of Money which appears in more than 100 newspapers nationwide. I had the pleasure of hearing her acceptance speech at the 2009 Matrix Award luncheon and I’m a loyal reader of her column, often clipping it from The Washington Post to share her advice with the twenty-somethings in my life. Thanks to Michelle’s suggestion, I’ll be giving a copy of Bissonnette’s book to my daughter as she graduates from college next weekend.
Eleanor Clift, Telling it Like it Was and Like it Is at Next PRSA-IPRA Luncheon
Veteran journalist and political analyst Eleanor Clift will speak at the May 3, 2012 IPRA (Independent Public Relations Alliance) luncheon on the multiple roles reporters play in the ever-changing media environment, and how public relations professionals can be most helpful to them.
She is insightful and a delight as a speaker, generously sharing her insights from years as a writer and reporter for Newsweek, a regular panelist on the wild ride that is The McLaughlin Group, and more recently as a columnist on the MSNBC website and political contributor to Fox News.
Clift was the keynote speaker at the Washington Women in Public Relations PR Woman of the Year Awards 
in 1996 and again in 2005. The Association for Women in Communications awarded her the Matrix Award in 2008, and she is pictured here with 2009 Matrix recipient Kate Perrin of PRofessional Solutions, LLC.
May 3rd, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ~ Location: Embassy Suites, 8517 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA ~ IPRA and PRSA members $28.00; non-members $38.00
Posted in PRofessional Solutions News, PRSA-NCC
Tagged Eleanor Clift, Public relations
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Kate Perrin Moderates PRSA-NCC Panel Discussion
PRofessional Solutions’ CEO Kate Perrin moderated a discussion at the April 10 National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA-NCC) panel regarding business coaching for communicators.
Panelists, pictured at left with Perrin, included Debbi Jarvis, vice president of corporate citizenship and social responsibility for PEPCO, and president of IABC DC Metro; and Alan Cohen, business coach and author of “Tough Talks for PR Pros: How to Say What Needs to be Said to Clients, Colleagues and Employees”.
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PRofessional Solutions, LLC Sponsors IABC Breakfast Series
PRofessional Solutions, LLC is proud to serve as the exclusive sponsor of the Senior Communicators Council (SCC) breakfast series of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) DC Metro chapter.
The meetings, held quarterly, are open to chapter members with 15 or more years of experience and focus on strategic issues of interest to senior-level communicators.
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