MEETINGS
Your Message is Crucial -- Get It Right
With 24-hour cable news and ever-increasing local coverage, the chances of falling under the media microscope are greater than ever. Poor media skills can break a company, and a career. Executives and other company representatives must know how to make the most of a TV appearance.
Karen and Jim Barach have been there, said that. Now the husband-and-wife team behind the company Image & Communication Enhancement, they will discuss at the March meeting ways to get across the message you want, whether you are pushing a new product or dousing the flames during a crisis. With more than 20 years experience in TV news, Jim Barach will show how to stay in control during interviews, anticipate questions, speak in sound bites so your message makes the air, and build a media strategy.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, March 1
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets (get ticket validated at Petroleum Club)
Cost: $20 members, $25 nonmembers, $12 students
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Moving the Cowboys West
How do you convince voters that paying half of a $650 million stadium (plus interest) is good for them? Rob Allyn, the architect of the Arlington campaign that resulted in a Dallas Cowboys victory Nov. 2, will discuss the grassroots effort and the obstacles that had to be overcome at the GFW PRSA March meeting at the Texas Public Relations Association's annual conference in Dallas.
The T has offered free passes on the Trinity Railway Express and DART for transportation to and from the March 4 luncheon. The "PR Express" will depart the T&P Station on Lancaster Avenue at 9:15 a.m., or riders can hop on at the Fort Worth ITC on Jones Street (9:20 a.m.), the Richland Hills station (9:37), Hurst/Bell (9:44) or CentrePort DFW (9:55). The train arrives at Dallas Union Station at 10:39; from there, it's DART light rail to the Pearl Street Station, across the street from the Adam's Mark Hotel. The return train leaves Union Station at 1:30 p.m. For more information or to be sure somebody's watching out for you (the TRE waits for no one), contact Marc Flake at mflake@tarrantcounty.com.
Note that, for the second month in a row, the chapter meeting is on a Friday. The regular schedule -- second Wednesday of the month at the Petroleum Club in downtown Fort Worth -- resumes in April.
Time & date: noon-1 p.m. Friday, March 4
Place: Adam's Mark Hotel, 400 N. Olive St., Dallas, (214) 922-8000
Cost: $35
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A Shield for Free Speech
The First Amendment has been taking a beating lately. An appeals court panel last month said that the information a special prosecutor wants from New York Times writer Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper has no First Amendment protection.
What recourse do reporters have to protect sources? Does the country need a federal shield law?
Haynes and Boone libel specialist Tom Williams, an FOI Foundation of Texas director and member of the State Bar of Texas public affairs committee, and Paul Watler, an attorney with Jenkens & Gilchrist and an FOIFT past president, will discuss shield laws and the First Amendment and what the recent federal court ruling means to journalists at the Fort Worth SPJ March meeting.
Time & date: mingling 5:30 p.m., eats at 6, then the program Wednesday, March 23
Place: ballroom cantina at Joe T. Garcia's Mexican food restaurant, 2201 N. Commerce St., Fort Worth
Cost: $13 members, $18 nonmembers, $5 students; cash bar; just to hear the program -- free
Menu: Joe T.'s legendary family-style enchilada dinner
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Print and broadcast skills-building workshops, a panel on weather-proofing yourself in a changing industry, and one-on-one critiques will highlight the Asian American Journalists Asociation's state meeting Saturday, April 16, in Houston. More from Sudeep Reddy, sreddy@dallasnews.com. ... Application postmark deadline is May 20 for a $1,000 AAJA college scholarship. Financial need will be considered but isn't required. More at aaja.org/Chapters/Texas/ or from Julie Tam, julietamtv@juno.com. ...
Next at IABC/Dallas: KERA's Glenn Mitchell, one of the area's best-known interviewers, will tell how he gets it all on the record, Tuesday, March 8. More here. ... Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony Shadid and Al-Jazeera's senior producer, Samir Khader, will keynote the Journalism & the Arab World Conference, Friday-Sunday, April 22-24, at UT Austin, sponsored by the National Arab American Journalists Association and the SPJ UT Austin student chapter. Contact Joslyn Massad, (512) 826-5879, or visit journalismandthearabworld.com. ...
Deadline is March 7 to apply for a Network of Hispanic Communicators scholarship. Awards go to qualifying students regardless of ethnicity and will be presented Saturday, April 23, at the annual scholarship reception, this year at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center in the Arts District. More from Derek Castillo, derek.castillo@nbc.com or (817) 654-6311. ... Friday, March 4, is the postmark deadline for the best features section and best feature writing contests sponsored by the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. More at aasfe.org/contests/index.htm.
PRSA local update: One practitioner's trash is another's treasure. Join the Independent Practitioners SIG for an office supplies swap at 11:15 a.m. Friday, March 4, at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. Bring whatever you're no longer using that someone else might use. No money changes hands. RSVP: Sandra Brodnicki, (817) 572-1556, sandra@brodnickipr.com. ... Six months after launch, Speak Freely's list of experts willing to talk for free on humorous, motivational, wellness and business topics is approaching two dozen. More at speak-freely.info.
PRSA local update II: Organizers led by Southside Preservation Hall Big Band singer Andra Bennett, APR, were full of gratitude for the companies that shared their expertise with 28 PRSSA students from TCU, ACU, UNT and UTA for Pro-Am Day Feb. 18. The Radisson Plaza's Alan Sims and Steve Wilson walked the students through the steps of planning events. XTO Energy's Joy Webster gave a brief tour of the historic Waggoner Building, and Kim Rhoads coordinated. XTO's Gary Simpson and Christi Huntington explained investor relations from the corporate view. The students then took the T (thanks, Richard Maxwell, for the passes) to LaGrave Field for a sports marketing presentation by Mark Presswood and the Fort Worth Cats staff. To cap it off, Barbara Griffith offered the "inside scoop" on the changing face of the media at the PRSA luncheon.
