Vegas PR News

New Luncheon Location in 2009

After many, many years of PRSA-LVVC luncheons at Lawry’s The Prime Rib (has it been seven years?), the luncheon committee found a new home for our group in 2009. That new location will be: 

Cili Restaurant at Bali Hai Golf Course
5160 Las Vegas Blvd. S. 

The committee conducted an extensive review of five venues, and based our selections on the results of the membership and monthly luncheon seminar surveys.  

Cili’s worked with us to offer competitive pricing allowing PRSA to maintain the current pricing structure for members and non-members alike throughout 2009. (members: $28 before deadline, $35 after deadline; non-members: $35 before deadline, $40 after deadline) The menu and atmosphere at Cili’s offers our group more variety and flexibility to fit our needs. In addition, the new location is centrally located and near the I-15 and I-215.  

We thank Lawry’s for their years of service to PRSA. The last luncheon at this location will be held on Friday, Dec. 5.

Please mark your calendar for the dates in 2009! Networking begins at 11:30 a.m., lunch and program from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. 

Friday, January 16, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009

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Free PRSA Webinar on Marketing Synergy

In an ongoing effort to provide professional development to the PR community in these challenging economic times, PRSA’s national office is hosting one free webinar each quarter. Members and nonmembers may dial in to the session for free, but please register early.

How 30 Years of Communications Lessons Helped Detroit Create a Positive New Brand Image

Thursday, October 9
12-1 p.m. PDT

 ”The D Brand” — Detroit’s official tourism, meeting & convention, and community development brand — was launched in early 2007 after an extensive, year-long development process involving Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau staff, outside counsel and interested shareholders throughout the community.

Hear the strategy behind Detroit’s bold new brand image and learn how simple lessons acquired during 30 years in travel industry marketing communications helped create a strategic brand position, as well as aggressive marketing tactics, that helped change long-held, negative perceptions about America’s 11th largest metro area, producing dramatic, measurable results in just 18 months.

By attending this webinar, you will learn about:

·         Taking a more strategic approach to repositioning a brand.

·         “Six Steps to Success” culled from 30 years of hands-on marketing communications experience.

·         Creating tactics that support the new strategy, and updating your communications and marketing plan for changing situations

Click here for more information and to register for this free session.

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Ethics Scenario - #3

You work in the communications department of a local hospital. A major car accident, involving 25 people, occurred about 2 a.m. last night. A neighbor calls you and says that her 17-year-old high school son has not come home from visiting a friend in the neighborhood of the accident. You know that the accident involved adults; no teenagers or children have been admitted.

What can you ethically and legally tell your friend?

Guidance: Safeguarding Confidences

Although a person’s age is considered identifying information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), you can release information in general age ranges, i.e., “We received no victims who were minors.”  

HIPAA regulations state that you can provide only a one-word patient condition, if the person calling has a name (usually obtained from police report) and if the patient or the legal guardian/medical Power of Attorney has not requested confidentiality.  Anything beyond that requires written authorization. 

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Ethics Month Continues - Scenario #2

Please chime in on what you would do in this situation or if you have faced this challenge in the past:

You work for a public relations firm. A client requests that your firm dedicates a person to their account. You are assigned for six months to this client and will work in their office fulltime.

How do you introduce yourself to a local reporter doing a business story on the company?

Guidance: Disclosure of Information

You simply identify yourself as being with a public relations firm that has been hired to assist the company’s public relations function.

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Communications Professionals Challenge McCain and Obama on Ethics

 Public Relations Society of America Requests Formal Commitment to Accurate, Truthful and Respectful Discourse, Offers Context and Commentary by Communications Ethics Expert

WHO:              The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals, with nearly 32,000 professional and student members who represent business and industry, counseling firms, independent practitioners, military, government, associations, hospitals, schools, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations.

WHAT:                PRSA announced today that it has challenged the McCain and Obama campaigns to agree to uphold the highest standards of ethical practice in every facet of their campaign communications. The Society formally requested that campaign communications directors Robert Gibbs (Obama for America) and Jill Hazelbaker (John McCain 2008) sign a pledge obligating them to abide by the PRSA Code of Ethics in their campaign communications. Specific guidelines relevant to campaign communications policies under the PRSA Code include: being honest and accurate in all communications, acting promptly to correct erroneous communications, investigating the truthfulness and accuracy of information released on behalf of those represented, and avoiding deceptive practices.

WHY:                  PRSA is responsible for representing, educating, setting standards of excellence and upholding principles of ethics for its members and, more broadly, the $4 billion U.S. public relations profession. The PRSA Code of Ethics, considered the industry standard for ethical conduct by communications professionals, sets forth key principles that are essential to “serving the public interest and contributing to informed decision making in a democratic society.”

 INTERVIEW

OPPORTUNITY: PRSA Chair & CEO Jeffrey Julin, a recognized expert in communications ethics, is able to define communications ethics for your audience; discuss theory and practice surrounding communications ethics in the context of a national election; and point to common ethical shortfalls in political discourse, such as the use of innuendo, incomplete information, surrogate messaging and character attacks. Based in Denver, he is available for live/taped/phone interviews, roundtables and other topical discussions. A biography is appended. For scheduling, contact Joe DeRupo at joseph.derupo@prsa.org.

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September is PRSA Ethics Month…

… and as part of our recognition for the month’s theme, we will be posting different ethical scenarios that we may each encounter as PR practitioners.  I invite you to comment on these situations and tell us what you would do if faced with something similar.  Let’s get a dialogue going that will lead us right into our monthly luncheon with Christi Day, spokesperson for Southwest Airlines.

Ethical Situation #1

You work in a corporate communications division for a manufacturer. Management decides the company needs a new, fresh logo. As a member of the team assigned this task, you are asked to propose three concepts. You do research on the Internet and identify three promising ideas.

 How can you ethically use research as inspiration for a creative idea?

When using research is plagiarism?

Guidance: Disclosure of Information

Most logos, names, design elements are adaptations of thoughts and ideas seen somewhere else.  

Using any visual design element exactly as it exists elsewhere is not ethical or legal. Adapting a style or approach is generally acceptable as long as it is changed enough to be unique. For example, a type treatment, color application or illustrative style from an existing logo might be modified and adapted to stand as a unique identity for a business with a different name and mission. The end result must represent the client with its own unique identity.

Before the Internet existed, designers and “creatives” relied on the legal industry to do trademark checks when developing logos. Today, the Internet provides fast preliminary and comprehensive access to vast amounts of information and increases the success of generating original ideas.

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Board Announces Job Bank Sponsorship Opportunity

After much consideration, the board of directors has voted in favor of making the PRSA-LVVC Job Bank a free service on the chapter website once a sponsor(s) at the Annual Job Bank Backer level has been found.

This decision was based on member and nonmember feedback that at times it can be difficult to log-in to the job bank. The hope is that free access to the job bank will generate more web traffic. Perhaps those visitors will consider attending a chapter event and eventually become chapter members.

Currently, a six month subscription is $20 for nonmembers and access is free to members. Once the change is made, subscriptions will be refunded on a prorated basis. Job postings will continue to be free.

About the Annual Job Bank Backer Sponsorship

Before this change can take place, the chapter needs sponsors to help defray the loss of income from the program. The package is not offered on an exclusive basis.  

The sponsorship package includes:

• Recognition of sponsor at one luncheon per quarter. Sponsor will receive two comped tickets for each of the four luncheons per year.
• Your company logo on the job bank web page and all promotional emails related to the service
• Micro ad on home page (90 pixels by 120 pixels - size approximate)
• Newsletter article announcing sponsorship (1,000+ mailing list)
• One bylined article with an educational or informative theme twice per year in newsletter (subject to approval by PRSA-LVVC Board of Directors)
• Cost: $1,100 for chapter members and $1,500 for non-members

Want to learn more?

Contact Amy Brooks, VP Finance at (702) 895-5587 or finance@prsalasvegas.com.

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Problems Receiving Chapter Emails?

Have chapter emails recently stopped making it to your inbox?

If you use Microsoft Outlook, your junk email filter might be snagging emails sent through our email and event management system - Cvent. This can be easily corrected by adding a few key domains to your safe senders list (also called a white list).

Steps to Manage Junk Email Filter in Outlook

1. On the Tools menu, click Options
2. On the Preferences tab, under e-mail, click Junk e-mail
3. Click Safe Senders tab
4. Add @cvent.com and @cvent-planner.com

If this doesn’t work, contact us at finance@prsalasvegas.com to look at your record. Some members have accidentally hit the OPT OUT button and have been unsubscribed from our distribution lists. We’re happy to add you back.

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Call for PRSA International Conference Silent Auction Items

PRSA’s national office is looking for members to donate items for the silent auction that will take place during the International Conference in Detroit October 25-28, 2008.  Proceeds from the auction support scholarships for professionals and the Public Relations Journal, an online research journal that launched last fall.

They are looking for donated items represent your region, state, county, special interest or place of work.  Donations in smaller packages are welcomed and encouraged since they would like to make it as simple as possible for silent auction winners to travel home with their items.  Some of the most popular auction items were travel packages, signed athletic attire, and dinner packages at award winning restaurants in several major U.S. cities. 

Just download the 2008-silent-auction-form and return it to PRSA’s national office (contact info on the form) by Friday, September 12, 2008.

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She’s a jolly good Fellow!

Congratulations to PRSA-LVVC member Shelli Ryan, APR, Fellow, who was elected to the prestigious PRSA College of Fellows. She will be honored in a special ceremony at PRSA’s International Conference in Detroit this October.

Shelli is new to the Las Vegas region, but an accomplished public relations professional and the owner and president of Ad Hoc Communication Resources. She has been previously named “PR Professional of the Year” by her former PRSA chapter, and winner of three American Marketing Association awards and a League of American Communications Professional national award. For 20 years, she has been sought for marketing strategy, branding, competitive research, and analyst and media relations, by national and international technology and bioscience firms.

To be considered for the College of Fellows, a member of PRSA must have practiced or taught public relations for 20 or more years, demonstrated superior capability as a practitioner or educator, exhibited personal and professional qualities that serve as a role model, and advanced the state of the profession.

Shelli and Roger Buehrer, APR, Fellow, are the Las Vegas Valley Chapter’s members of the PRSA College of Fellows.

Posted in Commentary, Newsletter, PRSA National Info | No Comments »