MEETINGS
Using Social Media to Build Your Brand
Technology progresses every year (every month!), making it harder and harder to
keep current. Interactive media experts Susan Nix and Dr. Anders Gronstedt will show how to grow your brand and reach an increasingly tech-savvy market at
IABC's half-day seminar Oct. 28 on the Texas Wesleyan University campus.
Participants will learn how to use blogs, wiki and social networking to build
communities as well as redefine and energize virtual meetings with
three-dimensional virtual worlds like Second Life.
Nix is senior vice president for Rassai Interactive and serves on the board of
the Dallas-Fort Worth Interactive Marketing Association. Gronstedt is North
America president of the Sweden- and Colorado-based Gronstedt Group, which
helps global companies like Dell, Jamba Juice, Volvo Cars, Ericsson and ADT
improve market and workplace performance. His articles have appeared in Harvard
Business Review, and he hosts the weekly "Train for Success" meetings in Second
Life.
Time & date: 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28
Place: Louella Baker Martin Pavilion, Texas Wesleyan, Fort Worth
Parking: next to the building and in the lot directly to the north
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There’s Not Only Natural Gas, but PR, in the Barnett Shale
Recently named the “Best Managed Energy Company in the United States” by Forbes, Chesapeake is the largest independent natural gas producer in the
U.S. and the most active driller in Texas. The whole world knows this because
of Julie Wilson, APR, who oversees the company’s public relations department.
Chesapeake Energy’s corporate development VP (and a past president of Greater Fort Worth PRSA) has
become a lightning rod for critics of urban gas drilling. And that’s OK with her. “If we need to be a leader in brand-new media sources, we think that’s great,” she said when the objectivity of Chesapeake’s new venture Shale.TV was questioned. “We’re willing to take the skepticism or criticism because we think time will prove
this out. And we’re patient.”
There’s more, but you’ll have to make the October meeting to hear it.
Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: $25 members, $30 nonmembers, students $20
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Howdy, Dave
Cowtown journalists will roll out the red carpet for national SPJ president Dave Aeikens at a meet-and-greet reception Oct. 17 at Cafe Aspen. Hand-shaking and
back-slapping commence at 6 p.m. around hors d’oeuvres provided by Fort Worth Weekly, with dinner at 7:30.
The reception will be in a room off the bar in the back. The dinner will be in a
room at the front of the restaurant. Specify in the RSVP which (hopefully both)
you will attend.
Aeikens (pronouned Ike-ins) has been a reporter and editor at the St. Cloud
(Minn.) Times for 14 years covering schools and state government. He served as
the paper’s night city editor for four years — almost one-fourth of his years in daily journalism in Minnesota. An expert on
Minnesota open records laws, he has won numerous FOI awards and was a founding
organizer of the Midwest Journalism Conference, one of the most successful — 300 attendees — regional conferences in the country.
Time & date: reception 6 p.m., dinner around 7:30 Friday, Oct. 17
Place: Cafe Aspen, 6103 Camp Bowie Blvd.
Cost: reception free — hors d’oeuvres courtesy of Fort Worth Weekly — and separate checks for dinner
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Dan Case, the man behind AWOC.com, created the first free searchable database of writer’s guidelines and the first internet newsletter dedicated to the business side of
writing. He will discuss the top five things a writer can do to get published and paid at the Writers’ Guild of Texas third-Monday meeting at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Richardson Public
Library, 900 Civic Center Drive. WGT early-bird: Nov. 17, Rachel Caine on giving up your day job and becoming a novelist. More from organizer Carol Woods.
IABC local update: Meet the 2008-09 officers: Betsy Deck, president; Ken Roberts, senior delegate; Tim Tune, VP finance; Liesl Logan, VP membership; Sara Reynolds, VP professional development; Pamela Huff, ABC, VP marketing; Pam Fry, VP administration; Laura Hanna, webmaster; Lori De La Cruz, ABC, ABC liaison; and Betsy Black, awards chair.
IABC local update II: Save the dates, lots of them. Early Thanksgiving dinner
Tuesday, Nov. 18, 6 p.m. at Pappadeaux in Arlington with PRSA and SPJ members
invited. Wednesday, Dec. 3, the JPS book benefit/holiday party at Coors
Distributing Co., again with SPJ and PRSA. The fourth-Tuesday schedule resumes
in January with everything you need to know about direct mail and mailing. Dave Lieber returns in February and Scott Cytron (“Writing to Your Audience”), ABC, in March. April is another professional development half-day seminar,
and John Kent talks about media relations in May. The Bronze Quill awards luncheon closes out
the year in June.
IABC local update III: Stand-out case studies of the Slovenian Red Cross,
Heineken, Saturn, MasterCard, Listerine and Levitra dot “Best Practices in Communication Planning and Implementation 2007,” available to members for $99. Order here.
IABC local update IV: Texas Instruments’ Amy Treece will discuss “One Voice to the Customer: Implementing a Cohesive Global Communication Strategy” at the Dallas IABC luncheon Tuesday, Oct. 14. Register here.
PRSA local update: The Masters SIG will after-hours it at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Oct. 29, at the new downtown restaurant The Vault, 570 Throckmorton (valet or
free parking across the street), with a Belgian journalist who is also a guest
of TCU and a specialist in U.S. politics. Joan Hunter will e- an RSVP notice to Masters SIG members, as space is limited to 20
people. Info at jhunter@the-t.com or 817-215-8973.
PRSA local update II: From Kelly Owen and Stacey Mensik, Healthcare SIG co-chairs: For a side-by-side comparison of the 2008
presidential candidate health care proposals, go here. Health08.org, operated by Kaiser Family Foundation staff, provides analysis,
surveys, news updates, video of campaign speeches and debates, interviews and
subscription-only RSS feeds. Important dates: Oct. 6, last day to register to
vote; Oct. 20-31, early voting in person; Oct. 28, last day to apply for ballot
by mail; Nov. 4, general election, vote at your precinct.
PRSA local update III: GFW PRSA members are invited to an open house and
reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Balcom Agency, 1500
Ballinger at Rio Grande Avenue. ... Organizers of Clean and Fair Campaign 2008
urge anyone interested to join the Facebook group and send invitations to their
Facebook friends. The larger the number, the better the chance of message
penetration. The link: facebook.com/group.php?gid=13815329335.
PRSA local update IV: In PRSA personnel moves, Kelly Owen is now with Atmos Energy, and Cindy Vasquez is with Cancer Care Services. ... Join National PRSA and receive a free
first-year chapter membership. Cost: $290 ($225 national dues plus $65
initiation fee). Go to prsa.org and click on the promotion banner. ... Groups of 10 or more employees at a
company or organization can receive special rates on first-year dues along with
other benefits including transferability of membership. Contact Malia Moore at 212-460-1473.
PRSA local update V: Holly Ellman is now on Facebook, and how many more reasons do you need to join the GFW PRSA
facebook page! Andra Bennett House, APR, and Laura Moore Van Hoosier, APR, after becoming “friends” on Facebook, discovered they both grew up in Mount Vernon, TX. They recently
spent a Sunday reminiscing about the landmarks and playing the “do you know?” game. To join the page, log in to your Facebook account and paste the link
facebook.com/group.php?gid=23875680024.
