MEETINGS
Beyond Blasting: How Legislation and Common Sense are Revolutionizing E-mail as a Marketing Tool
A year ago e-mail was a fantastic marketing tool because it was cheap and easy. Too cheap, it turned out. Because it cost next to nothing, most organizations didn't take it seriously enough to drive common-sense best practices regarding the core principles of database marketing. Now with the issues surrounding spam, legislation and customer demand, smart marketers realize that they need to move beyond blasting and toward target one-to-one communications.
One of those smart marketers -- Chris Baggot, founder of ExactTarget, a leading second-generation software solution for multichannel e-mail marketing -- will enlighten the April IABC meeting on the state of affairs regarding e-mail as a marketing tool and how some of the most innovative communicators in America are leveraging one-to-one like never before to drive lifetime value and profits.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, April 6
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)
Cost: $17 members, $22 nonmembers, $12 students
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Creating a Dialogue: Education Campaign
on Sexual Assault Produces Dramatic Results
Fueled by an alarming statistic -- reported rapes in Texas were up 4.1 percent, giving it the second highest number of rapes in the country -- the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault in 2002 launched an awareness drive featuring an unprecedented amount of research, paid and donated TV and radio advertising, and PR. At its heart were six extraordinary women, victims of assault, who traveled the state sharing their lives.
The combination of personal stories and specific tactics to reach teen and college-age students brought results. Much of the credit goes to TAASA public affairs director Chris Lippincott. A former aide to U.S. Rep. Max Sandlin, D-Congressional District 1 in East Texas, Lippincott will tell the April PRSA meeting how the campaign developed and the challenges and successes he experienced along the way.
The meeting -- new day, new location this month -- also is Pro Am Day, where members visit one-on-one with students from Abilene Christian University and TCU. The PRSSA members will do the Mystery Tour, seeing various workplaces, then join members and guests for lunch.
Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 21
Place: Joe T. Garcia's in La Portita, the former chapel south of the restaurant, 2201 N. Commerce St.
Cost: $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students
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A Celebration of the First Amendment
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and an outspoken defender of journalists' rights, will keynote Fort Worth SPJ's inaugural First Amendment Dinner, April 30 at Ridglea Country Club. "After the 9-11 terrorist attacks," she says, "the Bush administration passed sweeping, unprecedented measures that have hampered the public's right to know and made newsgathering much more difficult." The title of her report: "Homefront Confidential."
The dinner marks an expansion of FW SPJ's annual scholarship banquet to include, in addition to the college and high school recipients, recognition of winners in the First Amendment Awards. The chapter created the awards this year to honor work by journalists in Texas and Oklahoma that upholds First Amendment freedoms.
UTA President James Spaniolo will introduce Dalglish, who has headed the Reporters Committee since January 2000. Before that, she worked as a media lawyer for almost five years and as a reporter and editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She received the Wells Memorial Key, SPJ's highest honor, in 1995 following her three years as chair of SPJ's national Freedom of Information Committee. She was on the national board from 1988-91.
The nonprofit Reporters Committee, based in Alexandria, Va., has become a major resource for academicians, state and federal agencies, and Congress. Every year it assists 2,000 or so working journalists, none of whom has ever paid for its help in defending First Amendment rights.
Date: Friday, April 30
Time: cash bar opens 6 p.m., dinner 6:30
Place: Ridglea Country Club, 3700 Bernie Anderson Ave.
Cost: $50; early reservations are encouraged as seating is limited
Menu: chicken breast around Black Forest ham with Swiss cheese, leafy greens with fresh strawberries and Mandarin oranges, roasted new potatoes; for dessert a Texas pecan ball (ice cream rolled in pecans); bread, tea, coffee; the chicken cordon bleu can be prepared without ham
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Investigative reporter Suzanne O'Malley, author of "Are You There Alone? The Unspeakable Crimes of Andrea Yates," will keynote the Association for Women Journalists' spring scholarship banquet Friday, April 23, at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas. A silent auction starts at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7:30. O'Malley is the first reporter to have access to Yates, the Houston woman who drowned her five children in the bathtub in 2001 and was sentenced to life in prison. O'Malley corresponded with the imprisoned woman for 15 months and interviewed her husband more than 30 times. Also at the banquet, AWJ will honor winners of the Vivian Castleberry Journalism Competition. Tickets are $50 each or $385 for a table of eight. Reach Angela Brown at akbrown@ap.org. ...
Nancy Farrar, president of Farrar Public Relations, will review how to deal with internal and external crises and share insights from her own career at the PRSA Consultants Group meeting at 11:15 a.m. Friday, April 16, at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. ... Last call for Bronze Quill entries. Early deadline is April 8, final deadline ($20 late fee) April 14. See iabcfortworth.com. ... The joint SPJ Region 8 spring conference/National Writers Workshop is May 22-23 in San Antonio. All relevant facts are at www2.mysanantonio.com/promotions/nww/. ...
Presidential counselor Karen Hughes, one of the highest-ranking women ever to work in the White House, will discuss her book, "Ten Minutes from Normal," at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 15, at Highland Park United Methodist Church, Wesley Hall, on the SMU campus, 5500 Mockingbird Lane. The speech is open to the public. Call (214) 523-2270. ... Dallas Morning News editorial page director Keven Ann Willey will reveal "What the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board Does, How and Why" at the Dallas PRSA meeting Friday, April 23. More at prsadallas.com/april_lunch.html. ...
